# Inclusify by Stefanie K. Johnson - Blinkist

What’s in it for me? Learn how to make your workers happy and productive through inclusivity.

When you were at school, did people segregate themselves at lunchtime?

Did the Latinx kids, Black kids, Asian kids, and white kids all sit in different areas?

Sadly, that sort of behavior is all too common – even among adults.

But if you’re a manager, the last thing you want to see is a sharply divided workforce.

That’s just as bad as having a workforce where everyone’s exactly the same!

There are plenty of good reasons to desire a diverse workforce, made up of happy workers who feel that their uniqueness is appreciated.

After all, happy workers are productive workers.

So your job as a manager should be that of what the author calls the Inclusifyer: a leader who celebrates diverse perspectives and makes sure everyone feels a sense of belonging.

These blinks will show you just how that can be done.

In these blinks, you’ll learn  how inclusive workplaces create more successful businesses; why meritocracy can create horrible workplaces; and how White Knights can end up undermining their employees.

Inclusivity is powerful, but to benefit we need to acknowledge and overcome our biases.

Have you ever worked for a place that made you feel invisible?

A place where you had to hide certain aspects of your personality to fit in?

Maybe you don’t like to drink alcohol and find sports boring, but you felt you had to pretend to enjoy these things in order to be a team player.

No one wants to feel like they don’t belong.

Which is why inclusivity is so important – especially in the workplace.

People do their best work when they feel like they’re a valued part of the organization.

When they feel like they belong, they’re happier and more engaged.

What’s more, according to a 2013 Gallup study, the most engaged workers are as much as 21 percent more productive, and 22 percent more profitable.

But cultivating an inclusive workforce isn’t easy.

The key message here is: Inclusivity is powerful, but to benefit we need to acknowledge and overcome our biases.

Why is it hard to create a truly inclusive workplace?

Well, one of the main reasons is that we all have biases that can get in the way.

Maintaining a sense of belonging among all your workers is full of pitfalls.

Even dedicated CEOs with the best intentions have fallen short – often because of their own unconscious biases.

Think about it: when you conjure up the image of a powerful CEO in your mind, who do you see?

If you’re like most people, you probably see a middle-aged white guy.

When you think of a successful lawyer, who do you see?

And when you think of a dangerous criminal, who comes to mind?

These are all biases that so many people have.

And it’s completely normal.

Through upbringing, experiences, and the stories all around us we all develop certain biases.

This is a big reason why, as of early 2019, only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

It’s also why, in a study of American lawyers, 50 percent of women and 57 percent of women of color reported being mistaken for custodial or administrative staff.

So how can you avoid these biases and make lasting change that will make your workforce feel more engaged and more productive?

You’ll find out in the blinks ahead.

All six managerial types have to work on becoming Inclusifyers – starting with the Meritocracy Manager.

Our biases can be hugely disruptive in the hiring process, and studies prove it.

In one study, over 400 HR professionals were given résumés that were exactly the same, except for the name: one had a man’s name, the other a woman’s.

When the HR professionals were asked to evaluate the candidates based on meritocracy, guess what – the male résumé did better.

Sadly, we can’t simply banish bias once and for all.

But we can fight to dismantle it.

And one of the best ways to begin this process is learning to recognize bias in our leaders.

As we’ll discover, there are six kinds of managers, and they’re all liable to make mistakes when it comes to Inclusifying.

The first is the Meritocracy Manager – a type that’s especially prone to dropping the ball when it comes to diversity.

The key message here is: All six managerial types have to work on becoming Inclusifyers – starting with the Meritocracy Manager.

One popular theory is that every business should run as a meritocracy.

Results can be tallied and those who perform best get rewarded.

But as the experiment with the identical résumés shows, if those results have names attached to them, it can skew our ideas of who’s more successful.

There are three lessons every manager should learn.

First, the playing field is not level.

Second, systems create inequality.

And third, we live in a post-#MeToo world.

The countless stories that have emerged through the #MeToo movement have shown just how much inequality and predatory behavior exists within our organizational systems.

As a result, managers who’ve based their practices on meritocracy should know that they’ve been dealing with a flawed system – a system that’s built on biases and inequality.

A good example of the pitfalls of the Meritocracy Manager is the legacy of GitHub, a company that provides software development tools.

GitHub’s former CEO Chris Wanstrath was a prototypical Meritocracy Manager.

He had the phrase “The United Meritocracy of GitHub” written on a mat in the company’s Oval Office–style waiting room.

Under Wanstrath’s leadership, the very few female employees found the working environment awful.

But then GitHub was acquired by Microsoft, and the new CEO, Nat Friedman, was committed to inclusivity.

His tenure has been a success: the number of companies using GitHub has risen from 1.

5 to 2.

1 million.

Culture Crusaders often end up with a homogeneous workforce, but they too can be Inclusifyers.

In its early days, PayPal had a guiding principle: all new hires should be people you’d “want to have a beer with.

” This might sound harmless enough, but what it meant in practice was that all new hires should be like the company’s cofounder, Max Levchin.

Levchin was a Culture Crusader.

He knew precisely what he wanted PayPal’s culture to look like.

As Levchin explained to Forbes magazine in 2007, when hiring he’d focus on cultural fit, which meant that the candidate had to tick a few boxes.

He described it as: “He looks like me, he’s just as geeky, and he doesn’t get laid very often.

Great hire!

” But focusing on culture to the exclusion of all else is often a recipe for disaster.

The key message here is: Culture Crusaders often end up with a homogeneous workforce, but they too can be Inclusifyers.

As you might suspect, PayPal didn’t offer a great environment for women back in 2007 – and it certainly wasn’t very diverse.

This lack of inclusivity comes at a real price.

According to a study by Deloitte, inclusive organizations are six times as likely to be innovative, six times as likely to anticipate change and respond effectively, and twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets.

This is why being an Inclusifyer should be top of the agenda for every manager – Culture Crusaders included.

The Culture Crusader dreams of a workforce that is bonded by shared ideals, but pursuing this vision is often detrimental to diversity and inclusivity.

What often results is a bunch of people who look, act, and think just like their leader.

Fortunately, in 2014, PayPal hired a new CEO, Dan Schulman, and the company’s reputation began to change.

Schulman was an Inclusifyer and he wanted to create a culture that emphasized both the uniqueness of individuals and a sense of belonging.

He quickly realized that there was a pay gap between the men and women who worked there, and set about adjusting everyone’s pay.

He backed up his words with actions.

Correcting the pay gap likely cost the company millions of dollars, but it proved worthwhile in the long run.

In 2018, PayPal was one of the highest valued US companies.

Then, in 2019, it crossed the 300 million mark in the number of active accounts and went on to hit the milestone of processing over a billion transactions per month during a single quarter.

Team Players work hard to be in charge, but they can fall short in helping others.

For every type of manager, there’s a different way to transform into an Inclusifyer.

But each solution involves a combination of individual actions to promote individuality, and group actions to promote belonging.

In the author’s parlance, these strategies involve two acronyms: SELF and TEAM.

SELF stands for support, empathy, learning, and fairness, while TEAM stands for transparency, empowerment, alignment, and motivation.

As we’ll see in the blinks ahead, these are things that all managers need to consider – including our third type of manager, the Team Player.

The key message here is: Team Players work hard to be in charge, but they can fall short in helping others.

The Team Player is a woman, person of color, or LGBTQ+ person who has worked hard to rise to a position of power.

Team Players rarely receive help on their way to the top, so they don’t feel compelled to help anyone else.

Instead, they see their success as a chance to align themselves with the majority.

Sometimes, Team Players can stifle diversity by not hiring people like themselves, because those new hires will be seen as a threat to their own status.

Other times, they don’t want to be seen as the person who is playing favorites or hiring someone “just because” they’re a woman or minority.

Helpful strategies for Team Players include empathy, learning, and aligning.

In this case, empathy involves trying to remember what it was like when they were just starting out, and what it felt like when they were excluded.

Learning can be a valuable tool in understanding different opinions.

Many successful businesses “design for dissension.

” This means actively cultivating diversity, in order to have a variety of competing ideas.

This is how inclusivity leads to innovation, and it’s how a workplace can embrace and promote individuality.

Finally, Team Players can align themselves and become allies through Bystander Training.

Sometimes leaders don’t know that people are unhappy because workers are afraid to speak up.

This could be due to the bystander effect, which happens when transgressive behavior like sexual harassment happens so casually, and in front of so many people, that no individual feels compelled to say anything.

Through Bystander Training, the workforce can be reassured that any behavior that makes people feel excluded or uncomfortable can be brought to the leader’s attention immediately.

This helps cultivate a safe working environment and a feeling of belonging.

White Knights often mean well, but their actions can undermine diversity efforts.

Imagine the situation: you’re the only woman on a small team at work.

There’s a deadline looming, and everyone is preparing themselves for a long night to finish off a proposal.

But then, at five o’clock, your manager – a White Knight – comes into the room and says that you don’t have to stay late like everyone else.

You have a kid at home, and he wants you to call it a day so you can spend some time with your family.

And he says all this stuff right in front of the rest of the team to let everyone know what a good guy he is!

This isn’t really being helpful at all.

The key message here is: White Knights often mean well, but their actions can undermine diversity efforts.

You’ve probably heard the term white knight.

This is someone who wants to swoop in and come to the rescue of a person in need.

But despite their best intentions, managers who are White Knights can sometimes do more harm than good.

In the example above, maybe your partner is home taking care of your child, and you want to finish your hard work and not let your team down in the final stretch.

Plus, when you’re the only woman on the team, the last thing you want is to reinforce the hurtful stereotype that women or working moms aren’t capable of working just as hard as anyone else.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior isn’t unusual in today’s workplace.

But it can be corrected through strategies that include fairness and empowerment.

Fairness can be achieved by cleaning up office housework.

This means getting rid of low-value assignments like getting coffee, cleaning up after meetings, party planning, double-checking someone else’s work, and so on.

These kinds of tasks tend to fall to women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ workers at a far higher rate than to their white male coworkers.

If it must be done, make it fair by going one-by-one throughout the office so that everyone has to take their turn.

One way White Knights can empower, rather than undermine, is by asking a lot of their workers.

If you have high expectations, and you let them be known, you’ll be giving your employees a chance to flourish and impress.

Shepherds can seem to be playing favorites, but with the right strategy they can become great Inclusifyers.

When a White Knight is a woman, a person of color, or LGBTQ+, they’re our fifth type of manager: the Shepherd.

This is another case where good intentions can backfire and make people feel excluded rather than included.

And resolving the situation can require making some subtle distinctions.

Oftentimes, in the workplace, it’s the impression that really matters.

It may be the case that a Shepherd isn’t playing favorites in her attempts to be an Inclusifyer, but if that’s the impression that she’s giving to the rest of the workplace, then it still needs to be addressed.

The key message here is: Shepherds can seem to be playing favorites, but with the right strategy they can become great Inclusifyers.

When Shepherds aren’t careful, there can be a strong backlash against them.

You might send out a statement that declares your support for African-American colleagues, but that in turn may cause your Latinx colleagues to feel forgotten about.

And yes, the same can go for your white male colleagues as well.

One famous backlash happened at Google.

According to documents that came to light during a lawsuit, the Google HR department sent out a memo that outlined how managers should treat women and people of color differently than they treat the “US white/male dominant culture.

” There was even a table that suggested 17 different ways in which white males, women, and people of color value things differently.

Even though the aim may have been to raise sensitivity and be more inclusive, this didn’t go over well with many Google employees.

Rather than creating an inclusive environment for everyone, it put people at odds with one another.

The better strategies for Shepherds to be true Inclusifyers involve empathy and transparency.

In this case, empathy involves making sure that everyone has an equal voice.

Listen to people when they’re trying to get your attention so that no one feels left out or invisible.

No one wants to feel anonymously lumped into a group.

As for transparency, this is about being aware of how your actions may be viewed by others, and being open about your reasoning.

It’s not uncommon for women to have their work challenged and doubted in a way that men don’t.

So it’s wise to have your facts and data ready so that you can dispel any notion that you might be playing favorites.

Optimists want diversity, but their actions tend to fall short.

If you’ve got this far, there’s a good chance you’re genuinely interested in promoting equality and inclusivity at work.

But there’s a big difference between being a supporter and backing up your good intentions with positive action.

This brings us to the last manager: the Optimist.

The Optimist will speak highly of inclusivity, but tends to think that these issues will work themselves out.

It’s just a matter of time before all workplaces are inclusive, right?

So the Optimist doesn’t feel the need to get personally involved.

The key message here is: Optimists want diversity, but their actions tend to fall short.

The fact of the matter is, many workplaces tend to maintain the status quo unless they’re forced to change.

Unbelievably, it was only in 2018 that the company Under Armour sent out a memo stating that employees couldn’t charge for expenses at strip clubs.

Optimists are already allies at heart, so it stands to reason that many Inclusifyers start out at this stage.

They just need the right leadership strategies, which include support and motivation.

For support, the author recommends the strategy of “flying in front of the radar.

” Be open about your commitment by setting public goals and making the changes needed to get there.

Take inspiration from Bob Wendelgass, CEO of Clean Water Action.

He made a public commitment to making sure that 30 percent of the board and 40 percent of his staff were people of color.

And he quickly turned his company’s performance reviews into a tool for keeping track of this progress.

As for motivation, this is about putting your positivity into practice and celebrating diversity.

Research shows that Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2015, not only support companies that are open about promoting diversity, but they expect diversity and equality in the workplace.

So creating a happy workplace means embracing its diversity.

There are a lot of ways to celebrate your company’s inclusivity.

Squarespace, which has twice been voted New York City’s best place to work, has a CEO who devotes a portion of each day to ensuring that anyone in the office can come and speak their mind.

Squarespace also holds a monthly event where new recruits are introduced with slideshows and fun facts.

Remember, being an Inclusifyer involves a two-fold strategy: celebrating uniqueness while fostering a sense of belonging.

If you can do this throughout your workforce, you’ll be well on your way.

Final summary

The key message in these blinks: Becoming an Inclusifyer is about you being a manager who celebrates the unique and diverse nature of your workforce.

It’s also about making sure that everyone feels like they have a voice that is heard.

Creating an inclusive work environment means employees will be happier, more productive, and less likely to quit.

Through strategies that promote uniqueness and belonging, you can get on the right track.

Actionable advice: Make your assessments for hiring and promotion both anonymous and transparent.

Remove bias by going anonymous.

Fortunately, this isn’t so hard to do.

Many organizations, like the National Symphony Orchestra, have moved toward making their evaluation and selection process completely anonymous to promote equality.

Start by having names removed from job applications before you begin the evaluation process.

Plus, when making hires or promotions, be completely transparent with the rest of the organization about how your choices were made.

Got feedback?

We’d love to hear what you think about our content!

Just drop an email to remember@blinkist.

com with Inclusify as the subject line and share your thoughts!

What to read next: Building an Inclusive Organization, by Stephen Frost, Raafi-Karim Alidina If you’d like some more tips on how to build an inclusive workforce and leverage the power of that diversity, then you might like the blinks to Building an Inclusive Organization.

These blinks not only provide more real-world examples of organizations that have used their diversity to solve major problems and thrive in competitive environments.

They also lay out recruiting techniques and ways to bypass our troublesome biases in order to build the best possible teams.

Sound interesting?

Then head over to our blinks to Building an Inclusive Organization.