Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

When I tell people that my work is about helping organizations and communities build inclusive cultures, they generally think that I advocate a kinder, gentler way of doing things.  I do not.  I do not have anything against kinder or gentler, but inclusive is not kinder, gentler.  Inclusive is not giving everyone a trophy.  It is not safer, simpler or easier…if it was any of those things it would not be so incredibly rare.

Having an inclusive organizational culture is about boldy and relentlessly creating the greatest opportunity for the best outcome.

All social groups have filters that determine what gets in and what does not get in.  Most organizations have some very specific and very intentional filters for what kind of people can join their workforce.  When I enlisted in the Marine Corps there were a variety of mental and physical tests that I had to pass.  Some companies require applicants to pass background checks, credit checks or drug tests.  Some require applicants to have a certain level of education or a specific kind of experience.  Some will not accept applicants with visible tattoos or piercings.  These are all examples of deliberate and intentional filters.  I think that far too often these intentional filters are better at simplifying the hiring process than they are about building the best workforce, but that is a topic for another time.

Of greater interest to me are the unintentional filters that organizations have…filters that keep people or information out, that the organization claims not to want to keep out.  A common organizational blind spot, these unintentional filters can make it increasingly difficult for an organization to compete and basically reduce the organizations capacity to actually use the resources that it has access to.

For example…

I think that pretty much all organizations today are serious about not making hiring decisions based on race and/or ethnicity.  At the same time, I would say that pretty much all organizations have unintentional filters in place that make it harder for People of Color to join the organization.  What might these filters look like?

Well, they might look like this…

Well educated, well intentioned recruiters and hiring managers that are not aware of the unconscious impact of racial stereotypes and do not do anything to reduce this impact.  This can easily lead to evaluations of candidates that are skewed by race or ethnicity…and there is a tremendous amount of research showing that we do this (often unconsciously) all the time.  Unintentional filter.

There could also be a perception that the organization is not a good place to work for People of Color…this perception could be based on the fact that there are few or no People of Color working there, especially in leadership roles.  Some organizations are proactive in changing that perception, but most are not and this can decrease the racial diversity of your applicant pool.  Unintentional filter.

Talent filters like this increase the friction for someone to join the organization…based on something other than talent/ability/competency.  It does not make it impossible for them to join, it just makes it less likely and these unintentional filters reduce the talent pool that you have access to, making it more difficult over time for you to be competitive.

Another example…

I think that most organizations today say they want employees to be honest, to speak up, to ask questions and challenge decisions that they do not agree with.  At the same time, I would say that most organizations have unintentional filters in place that allow for very little honesty, very few questions and almost no dissent (diversity of opinion/perspective).

Seen this dynamic before?  I thought so.

In your workforce you have a unique combination of experiences, perspectives, and thinking styles that no other organization can duplicate…and rather than harvesting that unique value we tend to filter most of it out.  When people do stand up, when they do speak their truth, ask big quesitons or challenge decisions we generally send some pretty clear messages that they are making everyones life more complicated.

Inclusion is not about a kinder, gentler way of doing things but rather about a more advantageous use of available resources and a more evidence based way of making decisions.  It actually takes a great deal more courage and competency than the alternative.  I would go so far as to say that to really have inclusive organizational cultures we are going to have to create an entirely new kind of leadership.

Be good to each other.