Resilience - Inclusivity

In this series, I am introducing you to the twenty superpowers that leaders need to possess to create an environment for resilience. This is an environment in which individuals and teams are resilient in the face of constant change.

Individual resilience is critical when the world around us is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Resilience means we can adapt to difficult situations and not just survive but thrive. Unless we do, the stress will overwhelm us, and we will suffer physicallySup and mentally.

Each week we will explore one of those twenty superpowers.

Superpower: The Includer

The Includer builds a resilient team by fostering and modeling trust and inclusivity.

The Includer embraces the idea that an inclusive workplace is one in which injury, mental illness or disability do not present obstacles to a fulfilling life in work.

The Includer builds inclusivity through the creation of diverse teams.

Diversity is not just diversity of age, cultural background, physical ability, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation—it also means diversity of thinking.

Including a diversity of people and thinking brings a broader knowledge base, a variety of perspectives, different cognitive mindsets and creativity.

Diversity brings variety that reduces errors and increases problem solving capability. If everyone in a team thinks the same way, errors may not be foreseen and problems will be unresolved. This is the result of groupthink.

Imagine that within your team you had a millennial who recently completed a Business of Digital Media university degree and someone who had been with the organisation for over 30 years. This would mean your team had a broad knowledge base to enhance resilience.

The more perspectives a team has, the more discussion takes place around how problems can be overcome or opportunities seized. This results in more critical and differentiated assessments of situations.

Teams that include a range of voices and perspectives are better able to innovate, take risks, solve problems creatively, bounce back from failures and turn challenges into opportunities.

Actions

Create teams that are inclusive of diversity.

Hire for diversity of thinking.

Invite input from the youngest or newest employees.

Invite input from employees with the longest tenure.

Seek input from those closest to the action.

Build a team culture of open and honest communication, trust and mutual respect, constructive conflict and psychological safety.