Our principal, Jen Stirrup, is presenting a session on Diversity and Inclusion at Microsoft Ignite. Diversity and Inclusion is crucial for any business, large or small. With this in mind, here is a list of things to consider. In this post, we will outline the 7 ‘E’s that you can use in order to get started on the journey to making inclusivity a habit.
- Equity – Share your knowledge, expertise and time with others
- Engage – engaging and initiating conversation can be really hard. Reach out.
- Expressions – consider gender neutral language. Buffer have a great example here.
- Exposure – step outside the echo chamber. Even having a screensaver of images that challenge your assumptions can be a small reminder every day, as suggested by Blindspot author Banaji.
- Environment – studies show that the environment can make people feel included or excluded
- Empower – studies show that if there is a role model around you that looks like you, it can serve to inoculate you against other negative or non-inclusive influences. Read more about the Stereotype Inoculation Model here.
- Empathy – empathy is a skill and it is crucial to leadership. For some people who have the dark trait of grandoise narcissm, empathy is particularly difficult and it may not go recognized by the individual that there is even an issue. UC Berkeley offer insights here.
The presentation itself is below. We look forward to your thoughts. References are also included.
Diversity and inclusion for the newbies and doers from Jen Stirrup