LEADERSHIP & INCLUSION
PVDB
LEADERSHIP & INCLUSION IBM 2023-2024
,Leadership & Inclusion – Week 1: Getting to DEI business, self-leadership & inclusive
leadership.
1. The business case.
1.1. Refresh our memory.
DIVERSITY
- Differences of identity (race, age, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, ability, …),
neurodiversity, experiences, backgrounds, …
INCLUSION
- Feeling & being valued, welcomed and being able to contribute within a team/company/industry. Able and
welcomed to be your ‘true self’.
EQUITY
- An approach that ensures everyone access to the same opportunities by correcting and addressing the imbalance.
Equity recognizes that advantages and barriers exist, and that, as a result, we don’t all start from the same place.
Diversity is a fact.
- Counting employees with certain characteristics
- Diversity of thought (different pov’s – thinking in a different way – because of experiences)
- What has influenced the way you think?
o Media
o Education
Inclusion is an act.
- Not our default mode
- Conscious & continuous effort
o Difficult to achieve inclusion = people and companies change; new people are coming, and it is hard to
achieve constant inclusion
- Feeling = more difficult to measure
- Inclusion = something you must DO
- When is there inclusion? When everyone feels the same
- Everyone in an in-group = will feel inclusion
- Everyone in out-group = will feel less inclusion
1.2. Why do companies need a business case?
Need of a business case…
- Provides justification for undertaking a DEI project.
o -> “The why” and motivation why they have inclusion and why they invest in it
- Evaluates cost and risks versus benefits.
o -> Provides a rationale for the preferred solution (storytelling)
o Try to put numbers to it to prove benefits for the company.
- Approval for action
o -> Goal of presenting BC: create buy-in, obtain resources &
o “GO” for DEI project.
1
,How will DEI work help our organization achieve its goals?
- Benefits (What do we gain from acting?) VS Risks (What happens if we do not act?)
- Research on impact in five domains:
o Talent (attract and keeping in the company)
o Team Performance
o Innovation
o Customer Intimacy (bond with the customers and product)
o Shareholder Value (people who invest time and money)
1.3. Benefits in 5 domains
Talent
- 67% of job seekers believe diversity is important when considering companies and job offers.
- 83% of Millennials say they are engaged at work when they believe the organization fosters an inclusive culture.
- Millennials are the most demographically diverse generation in the workforce, with 44% categorized as part of a
minority race or ethnic group. Generation Z will be even more diverse.
- Companies with more diversity and inclusion in the workplace have a 22% lower turnover than those without.
Team performance
- Diversity of thought enables teams to spot risks, reducing these by up to 30%.
- Organizations with inclusive cultures are 3 x as likely to be high performing.
- Inclusive leadership can increase team performance by 17% and increase team collaboration by 29%.
- Teams that follow an inclusive process make decisions 2x faster with half the number of meetings.
- Diverse teams make better decisions up to 87% of the time.
Innovation
- Organizations with inclusive cultures are 6 x more likely to be innovative and agile.
- Diversity of thought is a well-spring of creativity, enhancing innovation by 20%.
- Diverse companies realize 19% higher revenue resulting from innovation and are 70% more likely to capture new
markets.
- Innovation mindset is six times higher in the most-equal cultures than in the least-equal ones.
Customer intimacy
- 70% of the companies surveyed had captured a new market because of more diverse customer engagement.
- Companies with one or more employees who represented a customer or target end-user were 158% more likely
to reach target markets and be more innovative in their engagement.
Shareholder value
- Top quartile companies for gender diversity on executive teams 25% more likely to have above-average
profitability than bottom quartile.
- Top quartile companies ethnic and cultural diversity on executive teams outperform those in the bottom quartile
by 36% in profitability.
- Companies with more diverse boards had higher return on equity (ROE) than companies with less diverse boards
for “nearly every year over the past decade.” The research also found companies with more diverse boards were
also less volatile.
2
, 1.4. Business case VS fairness case
Arguments against the BC
- DEI commitment considered less genuine.
- Candidates underrepresented groups anticipate less belonging, being stereotyped or seen as interchangeable (not
recognized as unique individuals)
- Lowers interests of underrepresented candidates to join organization.
- Research is doubtful & presents an oversimplified reality.
- BC sets unrealistic expectations regarding enhanced profits.
o Reason: Instrumental framing
▪ Candidates from underrepresented groups are framed as a means to accomplish something.
Arguments for the BC
- The BC works in other business domains.
- Leaders want numbers to justify an investment in DEI.
- Leaders like a ready-made answer for the question “Why are you investing in DEI?”
o Alternatives:
▪ Fairness case/moral justification: Diversity in itself is a goal.
▪ No justification: “You don’t have to explain why you value innovation, resilience, or integrity. So
why treat diversity any different?” (Georgeac & Rattan)
2. Inclusive leadership
2.1. Introducing & embedding
What does inclusion mean? Why is it important?
- Inclusion is important in companies,
- It leads to better.
o financial results, creativity & innovation, more customer focus, more diverse talent, …
- Mostly discussed among leadership & HR
o -> results in marketing & communication efforts, statements
o on the website, various HR practices
- But inclusion should happen where it matters: in the actual behaviors of those closest to the employees (their
managers and colleagues)
- This training helps people, colleagues, managers to be more including.
2.2. Simulating
Setting & rules
- Typical network event: You want to talk to high-status people and avoid low-status people.
- You cannot ask what your identity is.
- You cannot tell others what their identity is.
- You may be explicit in your behavior.
- You may step out of the simulation at any time.
o Game in class
3
PVDB
LEADERSHIP & INCLUSION IBM 2023-2024
,Leadership & Inclusion – Week 1: Getting to DEI business, self-leadership & inclusive
leadership.
1. The business case.
1.1. Refresh our memory.
DIVERSITY
- Differences of identity (race, age, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, ability, …),
neurodiversity, experiences, backgrounds, …
INCLUSION
- Feeling & being valued, welcomed and being able to contribute within a team/company/industry. Able and
welcomed to be your ‘true self’.
EQUITY
- An approach that ensures everyone access to the same opportunities by correcting and addressing the imbalance.
Equity recognizes that advantages and barriers exist, and that, as a result, we don’t all start from the same place.
Diversity is a fact.
- Counting employees with certain characteristics
- Diversity of thought (different pov’s – thinking in a different way – because of experiences)
- What has influenced the way you think?
o Media
o Education
Inclusion is an act.
- Not our default mode
- Conscious & continuous effort
o Difficult to achieve inclusion = people and companies change; new people are coming, and it is hard to
achieve constant inclusion
- Feeling = more difficult to measure
- Inclusion = something you must DO
- When is there inclusion? When everyone feels the same
- Everyone in an in-group = will feel inclusion
- Everyone in out-group = will feel less inclusion
1.2. Why do companies need a business case?
Need of a business case…
- Provides justification for undertaking a DEI project.
o -> “The why” and motivation why they have inclusion and why they invest in it
- Evaluates cost and risks versus benefits.
o -> Provides a rationale for the preferred solution (storytelling)
o Try to put numbers to it to prove benefits for the company.
- Approval for action
o -> Goal of presenting BC: create buy-in, obtain resources &
o “GO” for DEI project.
1
,How will DEI work help our organization achieve its goals?
- Benefits (What do we gain from acting?) VS Risks (What happens if we do not act?)
- Research on impact in five domains:
o Talent (attract and keeping in the company)
o Team Performance
o Innovation
o Customer Intimacy (bond with the customers and product)
o Shareholder Value (people who invest time and money)
1.3. Benefits in 5 domains
Talent
- 67% of job seekers believe diversity is important when considering companies and job offers.
- 83% of Millennials say they are engaged at work when they believe the organization fosters an inclusive culture.
- Millennials are the most demographically diverse generation in the workforce, with 44% categorized as part of a
minority race or ethnic group. Generation Z will be even more diverse.
- Companies with more diversity and inclusion in the workplace have a 22% lower turnover than those without.
Team performance
- Diversity of thought enables teams to spot risks, reducing these by up to 30%.
- Organizations with inclusive cultures are 3 x as likely to be high performing.
- Inclusive leadership can increase team performance by 17% and increase team collaboration by 29%.
- Teams that follow an inclusive process make decisions 2x faster with half the number of meetings.
- Diverse teams make better decisions up to 87% of the time.
Innovation
- Organizations with inclusive cultures are 6 x more likely to be innovative and agile.
- Diversity of thought is a well-spring of creativity, enhancing innovation by 20%.
- Diverse companies realize 19% higher revenue resulting from innovation and are 70% more likely to capture new
markets.
- Innovation mindset is six times higher in the most-equal cultures than in the least-equal ones.
Customer intimacy
- 70% of the companies surveyed had captured a new market because of more diverse customer engagement.
- Companies with one or more employees who represented a customer or target end-user were 158% more likely
to reach target markets and be more innovative in their engagement.
Shareholder value
- Top quartile companies for gender diversity on executive teams 25% more likely to have above-average
profitability than bottom quartile.
- Top quartile companies ethnic and cultural diversity on executive teams outperform those in the bottom quartile
by 36% in profitability.
- Companies with more diverse boards had higher return on equity (ROE) than companies with less diverse boards
for “nearly every year over the past decade.” The research also found companies with more diverse boards were
also less volatile.
2
, 1.4. Business case VS fairness case
Arguments against the BC
- DEI commitment considered less genuine.
- Candidates underrepresented groups anticipate less belonging, being stereotyped or seen as interchangeable (not
recognized as unique individuals)
- Lowers interests of underrepresented candidates to join organization.
- Research is doubtful & presents an oversimplified reality.
- BC sets unrealistic expectations regarding enhanced profits.
o Reason: Instrumental framing
▪ Candidates from underrepresented groups are framed as a means to accomplish something.
Arguments for the BC
- The BC works in other business domains.
- Leaders want numbers to justify an investment in DEI.
- Leaders like a ready-made answer for the question “Why are you investing in DEI?”
o Alternatives:
▪ Fairness case/moral justification: Diversity in itself is a goal.
▪ No justification: “You don’t have to explain why you value innovation, resilience, or integrity. So
why treat diversity any different?” (Georgeac & Rattan)
2. Inclusive leadership
2.1. Introducing & embedding
What does inclusion mean? Why is it important?
- Inclusion is important in companies,
- It leads to better.
o financial results, creativity & innovation, more customer focus, more diverse talent, …
- Mostly discussed among leadership & HR
o -> results in marketing & communication efforts, statements
o on the website, various HR practices
- But inclusion should happen where it matters: in the actual behaviors of those closest to the employees (their
managers and colleagues)
- This training helps people, colleagues, managers to be more including.
2.2. Simulating
Setting & rules
- Typical network event: You want to talk to high-status people and avoid low-status people.
- You cannot ask what your identity is.
- You cannot tell others what their identity is.
- You may be explicit in your behavior.
- You may step out of the simulation at any time.
o Game in class
3
