by Expert Panel, Forbes Coaches Council
Today’s workforce is increasingly diverse, comprised of professionals of various ethnicities, educational backgrounds, experiences and interests. While many modern employers aim to hire for diversity, not all encourage those diverse workers to express their individual voices.
If you find that your team is suffering from “groupthink,” you might want to approach diversity with a different mindset. Failing to truly embrace the diversity within your company will only hinder your potential. Below, members of Forbes Coaches Council discuss how to build a more diverse, inclusive workplace. Here’s what they advise:
1. Encourage Productive Debates
Create the conditions for productive debate. When we engage other perspectives and explore them with curiosity and compassion, we discover creative solutions that embody the best thinking of everyone involved. The payoff? Commitment! When we feel heard and included, we take ownership of the outcome and become champions during execution. – Cyndee Lake, Blank Page
2. Listen To Your Team Members
Organizations gain power when they listen. Too often, unique or non-mainstream voices are the ones not heard. Yet, hearing these unconventional voices can not only bring creative insights but also invite higher levels of participation and engagement than most organizations experience. Indeed, encouraging diversity is the right thing to do; but at the core, diversity is about listening and inviting. – Reed Deshler, AlignOrg Solutions
3. Implement Initiatives That Champion Diversity
The best way to embrace diversity is to invest in supporting it. Encourage leaders to create initiatives to do that. It can be running a women leadership summit, celebrating a cultural milestone such as Black History Month, or highlighting employees and exemplifying how they’ve fostered an environment of inclusiveness. – Whitney Mullings, Whitney Mullings
To read the entire article at Forbes.com, click here.