Thread by @jackdanger

The industry is getting fatigued by talk about diversity and inclusion: medium.com/smells-like-te…
Which OF COURSE will happen if we're measuring diversity as our success.
1/

That's like measuring "did we IPO?" as your test of whether product development is progressing well.
Diversity is the lagging indicator, it's the measure of whether you've been expelling certain classes of people more than others.
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Inclusion is a leading indicator - it's what you do to make your environment safe for everybody.
Inclusion is making sure extroverts don't overwhelm introverts
Inclusion is making sure everyone sees how decisions are made
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Inclusion is standardizing our promotion system to be rigorous and fair
Inclusion is giving up the illusion that there's one kind of personality that excels
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Inclusion is accepting this truth: A messy collection of brilliant individuals is less effective than healthy teams of average people
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No wonder we're fatigued by diversity work.
We're trying to add more non-binary people and people of color to our company and we're watching as they have a rough time. That sucks for everyone.
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We wouldn't be so fatigued if our efforts were just about fairness. Not fairness to women, FAIRNESS. Being honest about our biases and creating checks against them.
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We're doing so much work on Diversity and Inclusion but we're supposed to be doing Equity and Belonging.
Do we all feel like we can belong at work?
Do we all feel like we'll be treated fairly?
If yes then, SURPRISE, folks will stop crying in the bathroom during lunch.
8/

For those feeling fatigued, here's how to fix your company's inclusion:
* Ensure there are notes for all meetings, published to the whole company
* Ensure everyone has at least one person coaching them toward promotion and giving clear, actionable feedback
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* Ensure all decisions are made in the open and are subject to scrutiny.
* Ensure nobody in a position of power (implicit or explicit) is allowed to initiate romantic connections to someone with less power
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* Have someone say out loud "I'd just like to point out that this meeting has only men" every time there's a meeting of at least 4 people with only men.
* Ensure the D&I person/team sets the direction of the company but that ALL leaders are evaluated on their D&I work.
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Here's the thing: "diversity" and "inclusion" is really just "healthy, honest decision making"
If you're a professional company you cannot afford to not be great at this.
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