Belongingness is crucial in organizations as it cultivates a positive and collaborative work environment. When employees feel a sense of connection and inclusion, they are more engaged, leading to increased job satisfaction and productivity. Teams thrive on a shared sense of purpose and unity, fostering effective collaboration and innovation.

A strong sense of belonging also contributes to employee loyalty, reducing turnover and associated costs. Furthermore, an inclusive culture promotes diversity, creating a workplace where individuals from various backgrounds feel valued and contribute their unique perspectives.

Ultimately, fostering belongingness in organizations is key to building a positive organizational culture, enhancing teamwork, and driving overall success.

Solutions to the most complex problems come from a vast range of sources. And they require a commitment to inclusion and diversity to ensure a range of voices are heard, ideas are considered, and assumptions are identified and tested. 

To solve critical problems, we need to foster an inclusive culture that encourages diversity of thought, ensuring visibility for ideas and innovation on a global scale when faced with global challenges. This is achieved when all colleagues have the chance to contribute.

In today’s episode we will talk about what steps can be taken to power innovation through #inclusion and #diversity.

When it comes to unlocking innovation, diverse and inclusive teams are the key. Regardless of industry, field, or domain, organizations that seek diverse viewpoints — across ethnicity, gender, age, educational background, etc. — experience higher rates of innovation. Research has shown that when employees are uncomfortable sharing personal details, such as sexual orientation or whether they have a disability, those companies see a drop in levels of employee trust, pride, and camaraderie, all of which are critical to effective innovation at work.

A 2020 study by the World Economic Forum found that companies that successfully implemented diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging were more innovative and realized more revenue from innovation than the market average. 

In this episode we shall delve further in this topic and discuss the ways how diversity and inclusion (D&I) fuel innovation in workplaces.

Do share in your views and feedback. Always looking forward to hearing from you.

Inclusive, intelligent collaboration is all about having different team members draw from their expertise and unique experiences to put forth their ideas and solutions. While extroverts tend to think faster and shape their ideas by talking about them, introverts have a tendency to think deeper, and shape their ideas by thinking. It’s usually the extroverts who keep a conversation going, but if they don’t seek out the input of introverts, the discussion will lack the thinking that brings depth. So, for this magic of collaboration to truly work, everyone needs to feel comfortable to contribute.

In our last episode, we highlighted how our extroverted workplaces of today are pushing introverts back. In this episode we take the conversation further to understand how we can make our workplaces inclusive so that introverts also feel a sense of belonging, and can contribute to the best of their potential.

Do pour in your thoughts and feedback on the episode. Your thoughts really do help shape up our efforts.

Have you ever stopped to think about why being an introvert in the modern workplace is so difficult? Obviously, it’s clear that the office now has a specific look, feel, and most importantly, agenda. Offices now trend closer to university student centers with laid-back seating and ample whiteboards ready to jot down the ideas of the company think tank. This movement impacts not only how you engage with others at work but also your value to your company — and even your ability to be promoted.

Having introverts in the workplace should be met with patience and understanding, as sometimes the work environment can be overwhelming and stressful. Especially in a more extroverted work environment, it is easy for introverts to be overlooked or misunderstood.

Let's talk about this issue in this episode - are introverts the new marginalized, and how the changing space and trend of office's feel, look, and culture can be a stress inducer for introverts.

#workplace #diversity #inclusivity #workplaceinclusion #introverts

An inclusive, respectful work environment is key to empowering your employees of all genders and sexual orientations, and to your organization’s success.

According to the “Indian LGBT Workplace Climate Survey 2016” published by MINGLE, more than half LGBT Indians surveyed could be legally fired from their jobs for being LGBT, and about 40% reported having faced some form of harassment for being LGBT. This significantly affects the levels of engagement of such individuals at the workplace and can have a cascade effect on performance, innovation, retention and even talent attraction over a period of time.

Taking a leaf from our earlier episodes where we talked about the challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ individuals in their workplace, we further our discussion in this episode, with some solutions in hand. We will talk about the steps organizations can take to make their workplace more inclusive, and instill the feeling of belonging in the LGBTQIA+ employees.

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While diversity and inclusion have climbed corporate agendas over the past decade, many #LGBTQ+ employees continue to face discrimination, discomfort, and even danger in the workplace. When it comes to true inclusion, everyday interactions with peers and leaders matter as much as organizational policies or formal processes. In short, your company may not be as inclusive as you think it is.

To learn how LGBTQ+ employees are faring in today’s workplaces, we bring to light a broad set of data, both quantitative and qualitative, from various researches done across the world – more in the Western countries than in Asian. Most of these researches are firsthand accounts and reflections from LGBTQ+ people about their work lives and environments. Such voices are essential to any conversation on inclusion, whether the focus is on ending gender discrimination, racial discrimination, or any other kind of discrimination. Listening and learning about employees’ lived experiences is the first step business leaders must take if they want to create fairer workplaces.

So let's delve more into this issue, gain insights from the data, and discuss a broad range of topics in this episode. #inclusivitymatters #diversity #LGBTQlives #LGBTrights #PrideMonth2023

I hope you will find this episode informative, and data will help you navigate these stormy waters. Do send me your feedback on my social media profiles.

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Companies highlight their outreach efforts during Pride Month, but LGBTQ+ workers persistently report microaggressions and feelings of isolation at work. To keep up, businesses are becoming more adept at adopting inclusive-language practices and undertaking other allyship efforts to attract a more diverse workforce. Despite these moves, there is a disconnect, as many members of the LGBTQ+ community report feeling vulnerable, underrepresented, and unable to bring their whole selves to the workplace. A 2018 survey by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that 46% of LGBTQ+ workers reported being closeted at work and 20% reported searching for a different job because their workplace was unwelcoming to LGBTQ+ individuals.

In this episode, we will discuss this pertinent topic of what allyship means for LGBTQ+ members at work, precisely how they see allyship, and how it affects them.

#diversity #inclusivitymatters #pridemonth2023 #lgbtqinclusion #lgbtqlives

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