An inclusive workplace brings together people with different backgrounds, experience and perspectives, then makes sure every one of them feels heard. Leaders create one by hiring for talent and shared core values, looking for people who think differently, keeping everyone in the flow of communication, and asking their team directly whether they feel included.
- Diversity is who is on the team. Inclusion is how you bring their ideas together once they are there.
- Hire for talent and shared core values, then look for people who think differently than you.
- Inclusion lives in communication. Notice who gets left out of the conversation.
- Ask your people if they feel included. If they don't, make it your first priority.
What is an inclusive workplace?
An inclusive workplace is one where people from different backgrounds work together and everyone's ideas count. My co-host Arturo Gomez has led teams for 25 years, and he breaks it into two pieces.
- Diversity Who is on the team. It covers race, experience level, background and much more.
- Inclusion What happens once the team comes together. It is how you combine everyone's ideas, passions and thinking so the whole group benefits.
Why is an inclusive workplace important?
Arturo approaches it as a strategy play. He has always hunted for talent first, and over the years a diverse workforce opened up real opportunities for his companies.
- Better ideas. Diverse teams think differently, which fuels ideation, creativity and a competitive edge.
- Better idea sharing. When people feel included, they believe their opinions and their time matter, so they speak up.
- Better customer understanding. A diverse team relates to a broader client base, which helps most in businesses that depend on a local community or region.
- Better recruiting. Younger talent wants to see a real commitment to diversity and inclusion. Executive candidates want to know what the workforce looks and feels like.
Same core values, different perspectives.
Why do diverse teams think differently?
Arturo studied anthropology and biology in college, and he compares a team to a gene pool. Species grow stronger when the gene pool stays diverse and run into problems when it narrows. Put a group of like-minded people around a table and you restrict what they can produce. In marketing and creative work, a room full of the same mindset gives you the same output.
I saw this in the AI company I ran, where three of us had very different skill sets. One came from technology, one had a military leadership background, and I came from coaching, creating and marketing. Each of us owned a lane, and it was refreshing to stop wearing every hat.
Can you hire for culture fit and diversity at the same time?
Yes. Look for two things in every hire. First, does this person fit your core values and the way you do things? Second, do they think differently than you? It is natural for a founder to hire people who look and think like them. The real benefit comes from people who share your values and bring a different perspective.
| Area | Like-minded team | Diverse, inclusive team |
|---|---|---|
| Ideas | The same output every time. | More ideation and creativity. |
| Skills | Everyone wears every hat. | Each person owns a lane. |
| Customers | A narrow view of the market. | Stronger connections with a broader client base. |
| Recruiting | Harder to attract young talent. | Candidates can see the commitment. |
| Core values | Shared. | Shared. |
How do you create an inclusive workplace?
- Hire for talent and core values. Arturo looks at talent above everything else, and I make sure every hire fits our values.
- Look for people who think differently. Build a team of specialists with different strengths and perspectives.
- Get involved in hiring yourself. Arturo prefers to meet every hire thoroughly, even with a capable team in place. He sees it as building the most dynamic team possible.
- Structure the flow of communication. Decide who needs to be in each conversation so people stay in the loop.
- Ask people how included they feel. Their answer tells you where to focus next.
- Inspect what you expect. If you expect a team that thinks differently, ask to see how they are doing it.
How does communication make a workplace inclusive?
Success and leadership rise or fall to the level of communication. Most of us have been on the outside of a conversation we should have been part of, and it stings. As a leader, you get to see what inclusion looks like in your organization and how communication flows through it. Open lines also make it easier to give and ask for feedback, and they are a big part of building trust with your team.
Some of these conversations feel uncomfortable at first. When that happens, I go learn how to get better at them. I recommend the book Fierce Conversations.
If talent is brown, yellow, purple, whatever it is, it's talent.
Arturo Gomez, Episode 56
How do you keep everyone included as AI changes the work?
AI rollouts often start with one or two people, and the rest of the team hears about it secondhand. Treat it like any other communication flow. Tell your team where AI is being used and why, invite every lane to try it, and keep the judgment human. Go first as the leader so people see what good use looks like. AI for leaders is the place to start.
Do this today
- Ask the question. Ask your people whether their input and their place on the team feel included. If the answer is no, focus there immediately.
- Audit how you think differently. Look at the systems and processes your team uses to bring in different perspectives, and make them intentional.
Listen to the episode
Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace
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Questions people ask
What is the difference between diversity and inclusion?
Diversity is the mix of people on a team, including race, experience and background. Inclusion is how a leader brings those people's ideas together once the team is formed.
What are the benefits of an inclusive workplace?
More creativity, better idea sharing, a stronger connection with a broader client base, and an easier time recruiting talent that wants to see a real commitment.
How do you know if your workplace is inclusive?
Ask your people. Arturo Gomez recommends checking whether team members feel their input matters and whether they feel included in the organization.
Does hiring for culture fit hurt diversity?
It helps when culture fit means shared core values. Rob Cressy hires for values first, then looks for people who think differently and bring their own expertise.
Full transcript
Episode 56: Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace
Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic the importance of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. In Arturo diversity and inclusion are about leveraging a variety of perspectives to create a richer and more innovative work environment. How do you do this? I mean, you know, it's, I think so there's to me there's two different pieces you know that we're talking about. One is the diversity piece and diversity plays. It could be race, it could be experience level, it could be background, it could be you know, so diversity really I think encapsulates quite a bit. And then for me the inclusion part is you know, it's the way I think about it is more once the team has actually come together.
How are we, how are we bringing ideas and passions and thought process together so that we can really include the group at large and benefit from that as an organization. But you know, right now there's a ton of conversation about diversity and inclusion in corporate America. It's kind of a hot topic right now. I think it's always been something that has been you know, discussed certainly in the corporate space for some reason or another right now it's on the tip of the tongue of a lot of media. And you know, for me, I think I've never really paid attention to that even though you know, as as corporate leaders I think you know, there's certain criteria that legally that we have to. And I think you know, obviously I've fallen into those, you know, that you know criteria just organically because I don't really ever look at anything other than talent. I'm constantly on the hunt for talent. And to me if talent is brown, yellow, purple, whatever it is it's talent. And so my main focus has always been on creating an organizational structure that allows us to win. I will say though that over the years of you know, bringing you know diversity into the workplace, you know, whether it's through specific directives or through organically, it has allowed us to I think open up opportunities for our organization.
And so I think that we think differently when we have a diverse workforce, I think that we are stronger in a lot of different ways. And you know, there's so much benefit and power related to bringing together a group of people that don't all think the same and act the same. And what are those, you know, what are those benefits? I think the benefits are ideation and creativity and you know, all these things that I think give companies or can give companies a competitive edge. That's what I have personally found as being something that will continue to drive me to make sure that we are always on the hunt for people that are bringing different perspectives and different experiences to the workforce.
Yeah, and the two words that you said that really resonate with me is think differently in like you. I see talent as well. And the perspective that I'm coming from this is there's two sides of it is one are you a fit for the core values? So there is an element of you fit into the way that we do things here, but then you take on the thing differently side of things. And I know for a lot of leaders or entrepreneurs, we are designed a certain way and it can be natural to say, I just want to hire a bunch of people who are like me.
But then when we take in what you said about thinking differently, this is where having people who are not like you is such a benefit and in building teams. And this has been slightly challenging and I'm really experiencing this the best way right now with the AI company that I run that we have three very unique and different people from a skill set standpoint.
One person definitely technology, one person, military leadership background here I come from coaching, creating marketing and each one has a specific silo and it's very refreshing to not have to wear all of the hats where you're like this person is great at this lane, this person is great at this lane. So when I'm looking at diversity, I'm looking at almost subject matter experts, but it's not just we all we're all exactly the same as our core values are the same, but different perspectives allow there to be more innovation, more growth, more continuity and harmony in the team. 100%. You know the other what what I was thinking about this particular discussion that we're about to have, there's you know I was I did a lot of studying in college and anthropology and in biology. And so you have a lot of conversation about evolution and how specific diverse gene pools actually create advantageous growth and evolution for you know for for species. And so and where it can also be problematic is if the gene pool discontinues or no longer is diverse, you can start having issues within that the genetic makeup of these species. And that's why you know when they think about you know Safari and they think about you know specific populating different species into different areas so that they can diversify the gene pool. I think about it in a very similar in a very similar sense, it's like if you are able if you're bringing a bunch of very very like-minded people together, I think you're really restricting what what you're capable of doing. And you know for sure in the businesses that I'm actively involved in a lot of it is is marketing ideation creativity that that is a requirement. And if I'm sitting there at a table with a bunch of people that are you know in the same mindset we're not going to get the same output, we're not going to get the same output. And so and I think when you kind of when we were able to touch back on the inclusion part you know to me when you have this diverse workforce and you're able to allow people to really feel included that means you the idea sharing is really powerful because people feel included.
They feel that their opinions or their thoughts or their time investment is going to matter. And so you know those two things for me are again it's you know really a powerful place to be. Yeah and when it comes to the inclusion side of things probably one of the notes that I say the most to clients or in business conversations is all around communication where success and leadership rises or falls to our level of communication. So as it relates to inclusivity, our ability to communicate or not communicate and allow others to be part of that flow is going to be part of the success because many of us have probably experienced being on the side of not being included in a conversation on something whereas we as leaders we get the opportunity to be aware of what does inclusivity look like in my organization and how is the flow of communication structured to ensure that that's part of it. Yeah you know I think for me there's also you know there's a couple kind of remaining pieces to this thing and it's my businesses are very sales centric as well you know and so having a diverse group of people allows you to have just a better understanding of a broader client base. You know if you have a group of people that potentially can relate or have stronger connections to you know this broader base it's a huge advantage big time and the other thing is you know I think as an organization that is you know constantly trying to grow or replace talent as people leave and new people come in. The young talent force right now they want to see that they want to see commitment to diversity and inclusion and again I'm not driven by any mandates or criteria. I'm driven by doing what I believe in my heart is the right thing to do and that is to and it's beyond the heart it's also it's a strategy play for me it's a strategy play it's like how do I bring together the most qualified diverse set of talent that we can possibly do because I've seen it work and I know 100% that it works and so and I know for a fact that as you're really speaking in you know you can when you're looking at maybe potentially lower level talent maybe that's not extraordinarily important but once you start getting into the executive level people want to see what the workforce looks like what it's going to feel like and I think that this these are concepts that are very very important to a young workforce as you know as we get older right and I think depending on what your business is I mean there's a lot of businesses obviously that that aren't necessarily community dependent because they're an online business but you know if you have a business that that is community dependent or city dependent or you know region dependent I think finding finding you know this diversity piece I think plays into that that understanding of a client base you know where you begin to have a broader sense of what the community or the region or the city particularly needs and to me that creates advantage.
So our turn now time for our action item or takeaway and I'm going to go back to the thing that you said the two words think differently and my action item is for you to audit yourself on your systems and process for how you and your team are thinking differently because on the surface it can be like yeah it's easy we're doing this but I've learned the more intentional you can be so it's like wow there's an opportunity for us to think differently what is our system or process or how are we doing it because you inspect what you expect so if you expect a culture and a work place that is thinking differently well then tell me how you guys are thinking differently and what does that look like what about you Arturo what's your action item or takeaway I mean I think the the action I like you know I really like your action I know my I think that you know my my drilled down a little further and that would be to to to look at the systems in the process related specifically to HR and kind of what that what that looks looks and feels like I also think people that are really putting themselves in a leadership position today have to get involved in that in that aspect right and so I don't like to hire anybody in my organization unless I've met them thoroughly like I don't I don't like giving even though we have people in place that can fully handle this I take a tremendous amount of pride and responsibility and making sure that we are building the future and that future for me is is how do we create the most dynamic team possible and so I think we need we insert ourselves and I think the other thing is in terms of like you know this this audit concept are you you know it's the start of the year it's 2024 are you really are you doing things in your workplace that people with deem are inclusive and are you are you ask ask people if they feel like they're they're that they're input and they're you know their their existence really in the in that corporate construct feels inclusive and if it doesn't then that's a big that's a big area to focus on immediately so I know there's a book I would encourage people to check out I believe it's called Fierce Conversations for something like do we have an inclusive workplace for a lot of people that can be an uncomfortable thing so of course one of the things that I do is let me start learning about how I can get comfortable having potentially uncomfortable conversations so we would love to hear from you what are you doing to think differently or be more inclusive in your workplace make sure to hit us up on LinkedIn we've got a leadership DNA page where you can connect with us. Arturo, where can everybody connect with you it's going to be Arturo Gomez LinkedIn and on my end you can hit me up on Instagram or LinkedIn at Rob Cressy I love connecting and hearing from everyone in Arturo on LinkedIn I love seeing the number of people coming from your network over to me because it's a very simple thing it's like boom they're connected to Arturo I know exactly where they come from
Transcript cleaned up for reading. Sign-off trimmed.