Three Questions to Assess a Person’s Inclusiveness

Inclusiveness will be the mantra of the future.

We live in such a hyperconnected, globalized world and market, it has amply been demonstrated, that being inclusive and embracing the diversity of thoughts makes total business sense, for many, many reasons, such as innovation, collective intelligence, effective communication and seamless collaboration. What are the good questions to assess a person’s inclusiveness?

Are you often comfortable with homogeneous setting or enjoy heterogeneous teamwork? There are all kinds of differences that exist between individuals. Many individuals live in a traditional organizational or societal culture in which perhaps they still get stuck in the “comfort zone,” only get along with the people similar to themselves, even many companies have such a diversity program going on somehow, it is superficial. The real inclusiveness needs to focus on cognitive differences, skills, abilities and the wealth of ideas since the value lies in the contributions of the individual to the organization. Effective communication is also important, since different perspectives, and talent, lead to well-rounded ideas and solutions. It is about skill and ability to work together. To produce a high-performing team, the forward-thinking digital organization needs cognitive differences, levels of capabilities, complementary experiences, the spectrum of skills, unique competencies, cultural perspectives and personalities. That's what cultivates the culture of innovation and improves performance ultimately.

Are you a silo thinker or an open-minded innovator? Identities and differences are the sources of creativity although insulating them within silos contains this potential. Silos are the opposite spectrum of integrative diversity and limit the organization's potential, since different perspectives, and talent, lead to well-rounded ideas and solutions.A collection of people who think innovatively can adapt instantly, who give the company a competitive advantage. It is about skill and ability to work together to bridge the gaps and build business competency. From talent management perspective, organizations need to build an innovative and inclusive culture, this only happens when the ‘inclusiveness mindset’ is available with top management, and the focal point of management is to harness innovation and encourage creativity. Often, diversity is most common at very low levels of the organization, the higher the hierarchy the more homogenous the workforce is. It could be the very reason that many talent/leadership development and innovation initiatives fail to achieve the expected result. It also means managing people well and as technology develops, creating the right mix of automation and human creativity is crucial for the business's long-term success. The business leaders must work with the right mindset to create an inclusive organization with every dip in the business lifecycle, from individual thinking to collective mind (culture); from strategy to execution; from process management to performance measurement, to make it both the principle and practice.

Are you inquisitive to learn from others and empathetic to understand the other point of view?  We can learn a lot from different mindsets (thought processes), cultures and positions, so organizations as a whole can be competitive enough to keep surging further. Focusing on inclusiveness will force you to confront new ideas, new materials and possibly embrace a new concept that you may have never imagined. Inclusiveness and the emphasis on it will be pay off. One should pride themselves on being a unique individual, with a cultural perspective, and life lessons. There are a time and place for all things. There are boundaries to what is appropriate and when. Having an inclusive culture always help us learn from diverse people. Orienting people and making them aware of the diversity in their organization or team, helps them understand the value of harnessing the differences, and then giving them the tools and experience of how to effectively communicate and build trust across these diverse cultures is usually essential and the key to reaping the benefits of diverse organizations. It is usually essential and the key to reaping the benefits of an inclusive organization. In some cases, organizational culture is so powerful and even then will be able to influence the surrounding societies of the organization as well, and ultimately advance the human society.

Inclusiveness will be the mantra of the future. We must face diversity and inspire inclusiveness, bringing in new ideas and new perspectives to make new creations and build better future together. And diversity will be transcendent to the next level of human advancement when having a common purpose. So you have to continue to stress those new ideas if they are not woven into the organization, or if they are not part of a unified purpose. The inclusiveness is a digital theme, and diversity of thought is on demand, for boosting collective creativity and harness collective wisdom.

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