A more diverse and inclusive workplace is a more productive one. And the more productive, the greater the success. This isn’t opinion, it’s just the facts. Here’s the thing, with all the best intentions, changing thought processes and unconscious bias in individuals is incredibly hard. A lofty goal, and one rarely achieved. But rather than relying on the individuals to facilitate their own change, have you considered Inclusion Nudges?

These practical and effective interventions are designed by applying insights from behavioural and social sciences, as well as behavioural economics… don’t zone out just yet as it’s not as complicated as it sounds.

“Inclusion nudges are simply a ‘hack’ and focus on changing the environment to outsmart and interrupt our unconscious biases, rather than just relying on individuals to do this themselves. So at work, it involves tweaking and making adjustments to office organisational policies, processes and practices. Nudging people, rather than just training them, towards more inclusive choices. The bottom line is, it can be a lot easier just to de-bias the environment rather than take on the might of the human mind, with all its complexities and implicit biases. Research shows that training has mixed results and limited success” –   Diversity Council of Australia.

‘Inclusion Nudges’ is fast becoming a battle cry for those seeking to implement long term, fundamental change within their organisations and are frustrated with typical approaches.

PRACTICAL & EFFECTIVE

Tinna C. Nielsen, who along with partner Lisa Kepinski is an early innovator of ‘Inclusions Nudging’, gives an example of how practical and effective they can be.

“I needed to engage leaders in combating harassment and unacceptable behaviour in an organisation where I was working. 

I collected 40 examples where people had experienced unacceptable behaviour there, anonymised them, wrote all their stories in first person quotes, printed them in speech bubbles and then put them up on the walls of the leadership conference room. I then asked the leaders to read and said ‘your colleagues and employees have something to tell you’. We know from  research  that social exclusion hurts physically, even when we’re not directly experiencing it ourselves. Empathy is also triggered when we are faced with others experiencing this kind of treatment.

I made a reverse business case, exposing by what percentage the productivity of a team is reduced when one person is treated in this way, as well as how much the person treated like this loses in decision-making power. This helps trigger the loss-aversion bias. We are twice as miserable when we lose something as we are happy when we gain the exact same thing. We are very motivated to avoid losing something.

Ultimately this intervention changed the way these issues were discussed, activated local initiatives and changed individual behaviour”.

TEDX VIDEO

Lisa and Tinna are regular speakers at TED and TEDX events. Below is a video of Lisa Kepinski at TEDxHamburg titled  “ Outsmarting Our Brains to Mitigate Bias in Talent Decisions”. It’s fifteen minutes long, but it will open your eyes and hopefully rock your organisation’s world.

If you are interested in facilitating real change within your organisation and want to find our more, then the best place to start would be by contacting the Diversity Council of Australia. You can also download a free guidebook and access successful examples from the Inclusion Nudges website at: https://inclusion-nudges.org

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