Whether you know it or not, your team is diverse.
Even when you can’t see diversity, it’s inevitably present. Like an onion, everyone has many layers of differences– things like education, socioeconomic status, ethnic or racial background, childhood and family life, physical ability, neurodiversity, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle, just to name a few!
And that’s a good thing because studies show diversity is a major asset to businesses. In fact, a recent McKinsey study revealed that diverse teams are 39% more likely to outperform others.
But there’s a caveat. If you don’t know how to harness your team’s diversity to cultivate inclusion, it can actually inhibit collaboration and pose a detriment to your organization’s bottom line. Once you’ve built a diverse team to drive innovation and creative decision-making, the next necessary step is to make sure you create a culture of inclusive collaboration
where everyone feels valued and respected for exactly who they are.
Here are 4 key strategies from our Inclusive Virtual Teams course to help you foster effective collaboration skills and create an inclusive work culture on both remote and in-person teams:
1. Prioritize Inclusion
It’s not enough just to believe inclusion is important. It’s critical to also take concrete actions:
- Make inclusion part of the everyday: Educate your team about inclusive behaviors, and make sure they know that you value forging connections among people. You can encourage certain times for communication so that colleagues can get to know each other better, such as:
- Virtual or in-person “water cooler” meetings where people can talk about things outside of work and talk in a more casual environment
- Text chats for things like wishing team members a happy birthday or sharing good news with the group
- Set aside times for curiosity conversations, dialogues devoted solely to asking open questions and getting to know others more authentically
- Be a role model: Beyond just teaching and talking about inclusion and inclusive collaboration, make sure to visibly model specific examples of inclusion as a collaborative leader so that you create an environment where everyone feels a true sense of belonging. You can do things like:
- Make sure everyone who wants to has a chance to speak at meetings. Try to be sure that more introverted team members are heard from as well as those who are more talkative..
- Intervene if you notice employees discussing someone who’s not present at a meeting.
- Establish yourself as an ally for all team members by identifying and eliminating any non-inclusive behaviors like microaggressions, whether they are obvious or subtle.
2. Create Cultural Awareness
Understanding cultural differences is paramount for effective team collaboration. Here’s what you can do to help your team develop cultural awareness:
- Provide learning: You might assume that people who value inclusion will already understand the significance and impact of cultural diversity, but it’s actually a very nuanced subject matter that needs to be explicitly taught.
Offer tools and training that teach how cultural differences can create misunderstanding and miscommunication if team members don't understand diverse approaches and behaviors. Learning about differences facilitates collaboration across cultures. RW3 CultureWizard’s 8 Dimensions of Culture© and Culture Calculator are examples of frameworks for understanding others and navigating cultural differences on inclusive teams. - Teach “flexing”: This means to adapt your style to meet others where they are. For example, if you’re typically a very direct communicator because you come from a culture where this is common and even preferred, it can help to soften your language somewhat when working with those from cultures where communication is less direct so that you don’t inadvertently cause offense.
It’s not about changing who you are at the core; it’s adjusting how you work to ensure productive collaboration.
3. Build Trusting Relationships
Trust is the glue that holds teams together. Here are some ways to build trust:
- Put in the time: Take time to learn about employees and colleagues. You can do things like establish regular 1:1 check-ins, which serve as an opportunity not only to improve productive collaboration, but also to offer support, get to know team members, and share about yourself.
- Demonstrate that you are trustworthy: Building trust requires collaborative leadership. It’s important not only to consistently demonstrate your competence as a leader, but also to model reliability, authenticity, and integrity. Make sure you’re true to your word, that you offer support when it’s needed, and always honor commitments so that employees know they can depend on you.
- Create psychological safety: Trust requires an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging, able to take accountability without fear of repercussion, and comfortable challenging others respectfully. Set the tone for your team in the way you communicate with everyone, and make very clear your expectations of inclusive behavior among colleagues.
4. Establish Team Guidelines
A team identity can be a uniting force even during challenging times. Here’s what you can do:
- Create together: Hold a team meeting to brainstorm group agreements that define collective values and guidelines for respectful interaction. Especially when there is conflict or confusion, these can serve as valuable reminders for colleagues to stick to inclusive behaviors that support effective collaboration.
- Define roles & responsibilities: It’s best to outline everyone’s roles in a clear and detailed manner so that there is no confusion about responsibilities. This ensures that everyone can fulfill their maximum potential while knowing their colleagues are doing the same, and helps the team operate smoothly.
These are some examples of strategies for building an inclusive team culture where collaboration is the cornerstone of success! Our Inclusive Teams course delves even further into actionable steps for cultivating productive team collaboration and driving the best organizational outcomes.
Ready to try our Inclusive Virtual Teams course? Schedule a call with our experts.
