By Sally McCutchion originally published in medium.com
A few months ago, a client of mine shared this podcast episode with me. It came up during a relational space session that I was facilitating with them. Relational spaces are a tool that I often use to help teams connect, listen and understand each other at a deeper level.
The podcast is about the edge effect; the principle that occurs at the edge of two ecosystems where diversity is at its peak. In this space, ecosystems thrive, more so than where there is less diversity. Creativity, innovation and results are improved when different ideas, thought processes and backgrounds collaborate together.
Listen to The Edge Effect podcast
But if you make diversity your goal, you won’t necessarily feel the positive impact of the edge effect.
Unless you work on inclusion.
Including Those Who Aren’t In Your Business
Most companies focus on including their own people, but you only unlock the true benefits of inclusion when you focus on including the people who aren’t in your org.
Here’s why:
Most human beings are hard-wired to seek out and align to what is familiar to them.
Company cultures naturally form around a small selection of shared traits and characteristics.
The greatest opportunity your business has is to include the perspective and needs of those who have not yet found a space within your culture.
How do you do that?
By getting curious about the experiences of others…
~ Understanding the needs of a menopausal woman, even if you have nobody of menopause age.
~ Making space for someone with a hidden disability, even if they haven’t disclosed their experience.
~ Engaging in the story of someone with a different skin tone to you, even if everyone in your team looks similar to you.
~ Encouraging gender neutral pronoun use, even if everyone in your business identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth.
~ Creating spaces where self care and self-awareness can be nurtured, even if you are scoring well on your wellbeing metrics.
This kind of inclusion is the cornerstone of nurturing talent, staying relevant and running a beautiful business.
Liberating Structures
Liberating Structures provide a menu of tools that support the inclusion of different ideas and perspectives.
In this conversation between Lisa Gill and I, we talk about our favourite liberating structures, how we use them and what impact they have on inclusivity.
Watch the episode here
Getting Into The Mind Of…
Something & Nothing is a creative brand that regularly gets into the minds of artists, thinkers and makers.
It’s this kind of curiosity that fuels inclusion.
Asking questions of ourselves and each other that get underneath the surface of our day to day interactions and helping us to connect to a world beyond our own minds. In this interview, Something & Nothing get into the mind of Hrishikesh Hirway, a thinker who listens and inspires through creativity.
Check Out Something & Nothing’s Interview With Hrishikesh
And Finally…
Hrishikesh Hirway selected this track for his Something & Nothing playlist and I can’t get enough of it.
Here’s Uwade with ‘Do You See The Light Around Me?’
Listen to Uwade here
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Republished with permission. Featured Image by Ralph from Pixabay
