I this episode I am giving you my take on the relationship between culture and inclusion. Is there a relationship? Is inclusion all what culture is about? Is it part of an organisational culture?

A culture is shared by people who share the values, what is important, appropriate for that culture. They share behaviours, communication patterns and ways of seeing the world. Cultures are made by people. People within a culture choose what they want their culture to be. This is true for your organisation. Its culture has evolved and is shaped by its people.

And it is here that inclusion comes in. An organisation, via its culture, can choose to be inclusive, or not.

Inclusion is an action. As an organisation, and as an individual, you decide to behave inclusively or not. This is how inclusion becomes part of your culture, or not. But this is not just an add-on to your culture. Because being inclusive has ramifications to everything everyone does and says in the organisation. Deciding to be inclusive will shape your messages, your procedures, processes and rules.

Inclusion is part, or not, of your organisation culture because it is underpinned by the values of the organisation and is exhibited, or not, in the behaviours and actions of the people within the organisation.

And it all needs to be in sync. No point of saying you value diversity and you are an inclusive organisation if you are not really diverse and if people do not feel they can express themselves, their ideas are belittled and they are not valued and recognised.

Inclusion is not words. The people interacted with your organisation, whether employees, customers, suppliers, partners; they will judge if you are inclusive. So, yes you first decide if you want to be or not, and by the way, I would more than strongly encourage you to be, and then put in place what is necessary to translate inclusion into actions, which it is. When you do it well, people will notice!