Why Inclusion isn't working...a call for change

Someone asked me what I had against the Corporate world the other day.

They wondered why I help women from corporate backgrounds to find their purpose and use their skills and experience in their own business. 

And they assumed that I believed that the corporate world is “bad”. 

But that’s not true. Calling for change isn't the result of a binary scale where you have a good end and a bad end.

In fact I believe that our corporate economy holds a unique power to create lasting change in the world - some of them wield that power for good. Others, do not. 

I’ve come to love the life that I’ve lived so far and the role that my twenty years in Corporate roles has played in molding me to be who I am today. 

That experience has positioned me to be the change I’m called to make in the world.

This article focusses on gender inclusion specifically because that is my area of focus, although the concepts apply to inequality and lack of inclusion across a wide array of minority groups.

Why I'm calling for a different perspective to gender inclusion in the workpace... 

There are so many parts to the journey that we each are here to make. Each of them is important for us to learn and grow through lessons that we need to experience.

What drives me in what I do today is passion. I’m passionate about the power that women are leaving untapped. 

The strength in our femininity that makes us unique and magnificent. 

And the strength that is so often perceived as weakness. 

In many modern workplaces, we are failing to create an environment and culture that really empowers women to show up exactly as they are.

The very nature of professionalism is founded on a behaviour set that contradicts women behaving in a way which is fundamentally driven by our genetic and biological make-up.

I distinctly remember a moment early in my consulting career in a meeting with a senior leader where I asked for a moment to "be human" so that I could step out of the "professional role" I was playing and deal with how the situation was actually making me feel.

We haven’t yet embraced or mastered the art of inclusion or of harnessing diversity. We still seek in the corporate world to help those that are different to more easily conform to what makes us comfortable. 

It’s there in pockets sure, but nothing sustainable. 

Here’s why the way we've been addressing inclusion isn't working...

Until each individual human, male AND female, commits to the inner work to change their beliefs, to confront their own pain and insecurity, no quota, or inclusion program, or unconscious bias workshop, or movement of appropriateness will create real change.

Because you will always revert to the behaviours and patterns that you have built up to protect yourself. It’s not bad, it’s how the subconscious and the reptilian brain is wired to function. 

You have beliefs that have shaped how you have shown up your entire life. 

Some of them are so deeply buried that you don’t even realise that they are there. 

And from that place of pain and insecurity - you build up all the other beliefs that you hold around society, how you define good and bad, how people should act, and what constitutes success and performance.

The fact is, that for the most part, our corporate world and everything that predicates how markets and societies function is rooted in patriarchy. It is how our modern world was built. 

That’s not feminism, its historical fact. 

And we drank the coolade. 

But deep down we know that it’s not quite right. We know that how we do things today isn’t working for large chunks of our population. 

So we try to help them feel part of it. Part of our world. We help them try to fit in. 

And THAT’s the problem. 

Because we are asking people who are different to us to stop doing and being the things that make us uncomfortable.

As a woman, awake enough to know myself and how I feel and what I bring.... Well, I don’t fit into how things are done in a patriarchal world. 

Because I’m passionate, and emotional, and I stand for my beliefs and I have a burning desire to nurture and protect - and god damn it that makes me stronger.  

The problem is, that we don’t have a place for that in the corporate world. 

And my experience broke me.

But through that breaking apart is how we emerge - it’s how we confront those beliefs that have held us trapped. 

It’s messy and painful and a path filled with uncertainty and for many leaders that is too much like fragility and weakness to be trodden. 

But that is what it will take. 

What is true change to see us truly embracing inclusion going to take?

Courageous leaders who are prepared to question everything about what they believe to build a new reality. 

Leaders who are prepared to be the ones breaking themselves apart and feeling the pain inside that is driving every behaviour and belief. 

Let's unpack this a bit - every decision and choice that you make as a leader in your business (whether it is yours or someone else's) is founded on what you believe to be true.

It's also founded on your biases, your perceptions, and if you are really prepared to be honest, the thing that will best benefit you (which we disguise as staying on strategy) and minimise your own inconvenience (which we call prioritisation).

The hard truth is that you are currently blind (willfully or unconsciously) to the truth of what the impact of how our social and corporate structures has on women.

Let me give you an example.

Consider the energy that it takes for a working mother to walk into a meeting room, shedding all of the baggage that has brought her to this moment in time, and to put on her professional face, ignore discriminating comments, contribute value to a level that is recognised by others in the room and reign in all of her natural instincts and responses so that what she says is accepted...

I'm going to be controversial here...

It takes more energy to do that as a woman in a patriarchal corporate paradigm than it does for a man.

Add up all of those moments throughout the working day, fighting to constantly push down our natural instincts, and play the role that professionalism demands and we have a significant impact on the health, energy and presence that they are able to bring.

This is true for all groups but I'm focussing on gender here.

And this is why often having children presents the breaking point for a woman being prepared to exert the energy required to make corporate work. Her priorities change and the demand on her from elsewhere increases exponentially.

The breaking point comes when the compromise is a step too far. Because she is now the centre of a family unit. And she is not ok. She is exhausted, overwhelmed, getting by and constantly at the tipping point. She is operating at this hyper-stimulated state, running on adrenalin and survival instinct which is completely unsustainable.

When she is not ok, her whole family is impacted.

Too many women in corporate today are not ok. And they are so conditioned to cope, and play the game and be something that is not authentic to who they are that they just keep going.

So if this is true for even a small subset of women, then creating an inclusive environment means completely changing the way that all leaders (including female leaders) show up for their teams, their businesses and their outcomes.

That means that in order to make different decisions we have to find the courage to face into our beliefs, be prepared to own our own accountability in creating this paradigm, and be prepared to deconstruct what represents corporate success and professionalism.

It's a big ask.

But that is what true inclusion will take.

Why it's worth it to find the courage to try...

I’m a scientist too - structure is my friend. And the data backs it up - the change that we can create through harnessing the power of diversity and inclusion is irrefutable. 

That’s because when you get it right, you will unlock the power and strength that is unique to every single human being in your organisation. 

Phoar. 

Just imagine for a second what that might look like. Outside of the uncertainty that it would make you feel...imagine what you could achieve if every single person was in the flow of their own creative genius. 

Expanding, rather than contracting what is possible. Dreaming big and creating enormous waves of change instead of restricting themselves to the container that you’ve provided. 

It’s huge, and chaotic and scary...and freaking incredible in the magnitude of possibilities. 

So to the leaders of our corporate world today, the challenge is to ask yourself…

...am I prepared to have been wrong?

...am I prepared to admit that I am part of the problem?

...am I prepared to face my fears and insecurities, to address my deepest beliefs in order to be part of the solution?

...am I prepared to crack myself open and feel vulnerability and pain to walk through that gateway into a new way of being?

Because that is what it will take. 

A final note for the incredible women just existing...

To the women who are existing in corporate today, awake enough to know that the frame they’ve been asked to fit into sits on their skin like a tight, hot, scratchy wool sweater…

Well lovely lady, you are already magnificent and it just might be that you are ready to move to the next phase of this amazing journey called life. 

Ready to unlock the power that is uniquely yours to hold, and make the difference that you are on this planet to make.

It’s not as scary as it feels, you are more held and supported than you could ever imagine. 

You just need to say Yes… and leap.

It’s an honour and a privilege to work with the women who are choosing to leap, choosing to explore what is next. 

To support them as they face their fears and embrace who they are meant to be all the while turning their experiences in this world to date into a movement for change. Large or small, every dream matters. 

And to bring my expertise to bear - purpose is about both internal growth and excellent strategy. You can have the unbridled creative flow of feminine power within the container that masculine structure provides and weave dreams of incredible possibility through that.

That is where the true balance of life exists.