Is your workforce diverse? Are you able to find skilled workers to ensure the sustainability of your organisation’s workforce?
Every organisation today is facing a workforce that is increasing in diversity. Diversity goes beyond ethnicity. It includes the visible characteristics and deep-level diversity characteristics. Beneath the surface, characteristics are hidden cultural values and worldviews that shape how each individual thinks, behaves, and relates to others. This points to the inevitable … that our workforce is diverse, if not “hyperdiverse”.
There is a growing trend of organisations who are struggling to find skilled, reliable workers who stay. While AI may enhance productivity, it will also put a spotlight on your organisation’s ability to attract and retain talent. Your best talent won’t stick around for you to reap the benefits of an engaged, productive and innovative workforce if your culture doesn’t create a place for everyone to belong. It will also become increasingly hard to replace such talent.
Culture matters more than ever in today’s context. The ‘way things have always been done here’ needs a major ‘software’ upgrade to meet today’s complex, fast-moving, and diverse environment.
Furthermore, the demographics of Aotearoa’s workforce are changing. New Zealand’s most recent census projections show an ageing population that is not replacing itself. This has implications for a shrinking workforce. Immigration and a growing Māori and Pacifika population can help fill part of the labour gap.
Our cultural software code from the past needs to be updated to consider diversity’s complexity. It’s complexity lies in that its culture’s influence doesn’t come from single visible traits like gender, ethnicity, or age that we associate with diversity. Rather, it is the different combinations of all these visible characteristics and the influence of deep-level characteristics such as cultural values, worldviews and lived experiences that show up in day-to-day people interactions. Furthermore, today there is a growing divergence between the surface-level characteristics and the hidden values, ie there is a range of values and worldviews that shape our ethnic, gender and generational diversity.
This growing complexity requires us to develop the capability to move beyond stereotypes to seeing each person as a ‘uniquely wired cultural-being’. Recognising diversity’s complexity involves learning to look for deeper patterns that can unlock inclusion of diversity to cultivate belonging. This is an ongoing journey every organisation needs to consider.
For organisations to thrive in such hyper-diversity, their leaders need to understand and navigate the development of organisation culture 2.0. This upgrade addresses the complexity of diversity in their workforce and embeds cultural inclusion along with their DEI strategies and policies.
Cultural inclusion is the practice of developing inclusive behaviours alongside your equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) strategies within your organisation’s culture. It requires managing the tension that diversity brings, with the benefits of diversity that lead to long-term sustainability. A diverse workforce that is heard, seen and respected is more engaged, productive, creative, and loyal; reducing costly turnover and resistance to change.
Unfortunately, most EDI strategies in organisations don’t go far enough, nor do they go deep enough. Many remain superficial, and in some cases, organisations have even regressed in today’s tough economic and social context. Pursuing diversity and upholding meritocracy are not opposing goals - they can and should co-exist together. Organisations must balance developing EDI strategies that focus on the visible diversity with cultural inclusion - the integration of diverse values, worldviews, and lived experiences into every facet of the organisation. Together, this is what makes EDI efforts transformational.
To build sustainable, inclusive organisations, everyone needs to develop the capability to understand and respond to diversity’s complexity. This capability involves leaders and the members of their organisation cultivating a deeper understanding of diversity’s complexity and practices to navigate its complexity. As leaders and managers develop their intercultural intelligence, which is to develop the ability to read the many cultural cues accurately and adapt behaviour to build trust, respect, and win-win solutions.
My research shows that strategic inclusive leadership is essential. Leaders need more than EDI policies - they need intercultural intelligence to develop cultural inclusion that includes many cultures. In upgrading their personal ‘software’, they can design systems for everyone and help others ‘upgrade their personal software’. This can also reduce miscommunication, conflict, and productivity loss in diverse teams.
When leaders foster environments of trust, respect, and mana, they create a ‘third culture’ - a shared space where diverse perspectives can lead to increased engagement, innovation, and productivity to develop sustainable organisations.
A Starting Point for Growth
Based on my experience and research, I’ve designed an introductory course Navigating Diversity’s Complexity and Developing Intercultural Capability to help leaders and professionals to:
- challenge their assumptions and perceptions of diversity
- explore the influence and impact of the hidden dimensions of diversity (cultural worldviews and values) in themselves and others
- recognise the deep patterns of behaviour in others and themselves
- develop strategies to develop their intercultural agility.
You’ll have an overview of some of the tools and strategies to map your intercultural journey—both for your personal growth and for the organisations you serve. Applying the learning can help you deepen your understanding of your diverse workforce, retain and attract a diverse workforce and harness their full potential.
If you’re a leader ready to unlock the potential of your workforce and build a sustainable future, this is the place to start. Come and join me to start with an upgrade to your ‘software’.