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How to Become More Inclusive at Work: A Fair Dinkum Guide from Someone Who's Seen It All
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Right, let's cut through the corporate waffle here. I've been running workplace training programs across Australia for the better part of two decades, and if I hear one more manager say "we value diversity" while their leadership team looks like a 1950s cricket club, I'm going to lose it completely.
The truth about workplace inclusion? Most organisations are doing it backwards. They're so focused on ticking boxes and avoiding HR complaints that they've forgotten the whole bloody point.
What Actually Happened Last Month
Three weeks ago, I walked into a Perth mining company's head office for what they called an "urgent diversity consultation." The CEO - let's call him Dave because that was his name - spent twenty minutes explaining how they'd hired two women and a bloke from India in the past year, so they were "pretty much sorted on the inclusion front."
Dave. Mate. That's not inclusion. That's just... hiring people.
Real inclusion means Sarah from accounts actually gets heard when she suggests a process improvement. It means Raj's engineering insights don't get mysteriously attributed to someone else in the meeting minutes. It means the bloke with the thick Kiwi accent doesn't get passed over for client-facing roles because he "doesn't sound professional enough."
The Four Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Inclusion
1. It's Not About Numbers (Entirely)
Look, representation matters. Absolutely. But I've seen workplaces where they've hired diverse talent and then created such a hostile environment that everyone leaves within six months. The retention stats don't lie - 67% of employees from underrepresented groups cite workplace culture as their primary reason for leaving.
Counting heads is easy. Changing hearts and minds? That's the real work.
2. Training Days Don't Fix Systemic Problems
Every second Thursday, somewhere in Australia, a facilitator is standing in front of a room full of reluctant employees talking about unconscious bias. Don't get me wrong - awareness training has its place, but one session doesn't undo decades of ingrained thinking.
The companies that actually move the needle? They embed inclusion into their daily operations. Performance reviews. Project assignments. Meeting structures. The lot.
3. It's Not Just a Female/Male Thing
This one drives me mental. Half the diversity programs I see are basically "let's get more women into leadership" and that's where it ends. What about age diversity? Cultural backgrounds? Different ways of thinking and processing information?
I worked with a tech startup in Melbourne where the average employee age was 26. Brilliant young minds, absolutely. But when they needed someone to navigate a complex client relationship with a traditional manufacturing company, they were stuffed. No one on the team understood how to communicate across generational lines.
Where the Magic Actually Happens
Here's what I've learned from the organisations that get it right:
Start with the small stuff. Who speaks first in meetings? Whose ideas get built upon versus dismissed? Who gets invited to the important conversations that happen after the official meeting ends?
Make it about business outcomes, not feel-good fluff. When Atlassian started tracking their gender pay gap publicly, it wasn't just for the warm fuzzies. Diverse teams make better decisions, period. The research backs this up - companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Last year, I facilitated a session where a department head realised he'd been consistently interrupting his female direct reports but not the male ones. Bloody awkward moment. But you know what? He changed his behaviour, and the team dynamic shifted completely.
The Australian Context (Because It Matters)
We've got our own unique challenges here. The tall poppy syndrome doesn't just apply to individual success - it applies to anyone who looks or sounds different from the perceived norm.
I've seen incredibly talented people downplay their achievements or adopt different communication styles just to fit in. That's not inclusion - that's assimilation. And it's a waste of human potential on a massive scale.
Plus, let's be honest about our history. The "she'll be right" attitude that serves us well in many situations can become a barrier when it comes to addressing systemic issues. Sometimes things won't be right without active intervention.
Practical Steps That Actually Work
Morning Tea Test: Look around your break room tomorrow morning. If it looks like a demographic clone convention, you've got work to do.
Meeting Audit: Track who speaks, for how long, and whose ideas get implemented over a month. The patterns will shock you.
Reverse Mentoring: Pair senior leaders with junior employees from different backgrounds. The results speak for themselves when it comes to breaking down assumptions.
Exit Interview Analysis: If people from certain groups are leaving at higher rates, stop pretending it's a coincidence.
The Leadership Blind Spot
Here's where most senior managers completely miss the mark. They think inclusion is about being nice to everyone and avoiding offensive comments at the Christmas party.
Inclusion is about power dynamics. It's about who gets access to opportunities, information, and decision-making processes. It's about examining why certain voices consistently get amplified while others fade into the background.
I worked with a law firm where the partners couldn't understand why their junior solicitors from diverse backgrounds weren't "stepping up" for partnership track positions. Took about five minutes of conversation to work out that all the informal mentoring and sponsorship happened on the golf course and at the pub after work.
Not exactly accessible if you don't drink alcohol for religious reasons or can't afford golf club membership on a junior lawyer's salary.
What Success Actually Looks Like
You'll know you're getting somewhere when:
- People stop code-switching their personalities depending on who's in the room
- Ideas get evaluated on merit rather than who suggested them
- Your company's social events don't all revolve around activities that exclude certain groups
- Performance discussions focus on outcomes rather than whether someone "fits the culture"
The mining company I mentioned earlier? Six months after our initial consultation, they'd restructured their graduate program, implemented anonymous suggestion systems, and created multiple pathways for advancement that didn't require traditional networking approaches.
Dave still has moments where he doesn't quite get it, but at least now he asks questions instead of assuming he knows best.
The Bottom Line
Inclusion isn't a destination you arrive at after completing a checklist. It's an ongoing process that requires constant attention and adjustment.
The organisations that thrive in the next decade won't be the ones with the most impressive diversity statements. They'll be the ones that harness the full spectrum of human talent and perspective.
And honestly? That's not just good ethics. It's good business.
Because at the end of the day, if you're only listening to voices that sound like yours, you're missing half the conversation. And in today's market, that's a risk most companies simply can't afford to take.
Ready to transform your workplace culture? Start with one honest conversation about who gets heard and who doesn't. The results might surprise you.