Top 10 Tips to developing a more inclusive business

Over the last three years much of my time has been focused on helping organisations develop more inclusive cultures, both through Token Man and Utopia. To celebrate National Inclusion Week, the Utopia team decided to compile 10 tips to inspire, shape and build people’s inclusion journey. The tips range from how to support mental health in your organisation through to a reading list that, to be blunt, everyone should check.

Inclusion Tip #1 – Get to grips with Mental Health

Mental health issues are rife in the workplace and can have devastating consequences. At the time of writing suicide if the biggest killer of men under 45 and yet tackling Mental Health is obscured by ignorance and fear. It’s time to end the silence and look after our own and others’ wellbeing.

A good first step would be to ensure that you have Mental Health First Aiders in your team. Run by Mental Health First Aid England, Mental Health First Aid training is affordable and teaches you the basics of how to care for yourself, friends and family.

Another good resource is Surviving Sundays which provides stories of self love and survival to provide you with a better understanding of what it feels like to suffer and recover from Mental Health Challenges.

Lastly invite Sanctus into your workplace – Sanctus hold mental health drop-in clinics at work ensuring that just like going to the gym, the mind also get’s an important wellbeing work-out.

Inclusion Tip #2 – Learn, unlearn and relearn

Alvin Toffler famously said “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”.

So to help you stay on an Inclusion and Diversity learning journey we’ve complied a handy reading list that includes Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World and Goodnight stories for Rebel Girls. Check out the full list on Pinterest.

Inclusion Tip #3 – Become a LGBT ally

According to Stonewall, one in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months. Which means being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community is crucial to building an inclusive world. So find out how you can become a LGBTQ+ ally by attending the brilliant Stonewall one-day Allies training programme. A single days learning to make the world a better place.

Inclusion Tip #4 – Open up the conversation around Masculinity

This was my favourite quote from the Inclusion events I attended – to go forward in inclusion men need to be part of the change journey.

I would highly recommend that you read or listen to Grayson Perry’s Descent of Man – his thoughts on Toxic Masculinity are eye opening.

Inclusion Tip #5 – Know your Biases

Too often we shy away from recognising our own unconscious biases, but only by understanding our biases can we change them. To find out your biases and begin the process to drive change take the Harvard IAT test here.

Inclusion Tip #6 – Walk in other people’s shoes

Spend some time walking in someone else’s (highly fashionable) shoes and read Charlie Craggs book, To My Tran Sisters of her experience of being a trans woman. Only through understanding other people’s struggle will we truly build inclusion.

Inclusion Top #7 – Embrace Neurodiversity

What’s Neurodiversity? A phrase we hear too often. Inclusion means recognising valuing neurological differences as one of many brilliant human variations. To start your journey of enlightenment, watch this and/or read NeuroTribes.

Inclusion Tip #8 – Be Colour brave

We recently got to know @bashvue who founded the diversity works project and combines his I&D knowledge with his photography training, to create portraits that cause people to stop, pause and ponder.

His latest project Colourbrave explores the much-needed move away from a fear to talk about difference driven by a desire to create a homogenous society, to a celebration of difference which will allow for a truly inclusive society.

And if you wan to watch the definitive talk on the issue, watch Melody Hobson’s Colour Blind or Colour Brave TEDx talk here.

Inclusion Tip #9 – Access an incredible pool of untapped Talent

Spend time absorbing an excellent scope ‘Enabling Worl’ report and learn how you can include the talented, disabled workforce in your place of work. A disabled person is twice as likely to be unemployed as a non-disabled person. Yet a 10% rise in the employment rate of disabled adults would contribute £12 billion to the government. So let’s combat the ignorance around disability and drive change together.

Inclusion Tip#10 – Hack your business

We believe that the best way to create change is to convert everyone in the business to hackers. So we were over the moon when one team on a Hacking Inclusion session we held came up with this – ‘Put schools holidays in everyone’s calendar’. This simple hack will ensure important meetings and moments don’t exclude parents and carers who often have to, and want to, take time off for the holidays.

Other hacks included mixing up interviews to include people from other teams (even if more junior), changing how interviews are conducted (e.g. walking interviews) and setting outcome focused objectives, entrusting your teams to use their own time flexibly and wisely. You can read more tips we have collected over the years here.

If you want to find out more about hacking then feel free to get in touch about our Hacking Inclusion workshop or read more in our Creative Superpowers book available here.

We hope you found our 10 tips to a more Inclusive business useful. A final thought – if everyone who reads this just implemented 50% of the tips real change would happen. So what are you waiting for?

Daniele Fiandaca,

Co-founder, Utopia & Token Man