Derek DeWitt, Communications Specialist for Visix, Inc.
The primary thing in all communications, whether internal or public-facing, is to know who your audience is. This doesn’t just mean knowing the basics of a target audience for an email or ad. Who are they? Who do they identify as? What’s their background, their history, the lens they see the world through? What contexts and assumptions do they operate within and from? If you know that, then you’re better able to engage them and encourage them to take action. You’re better able to include them in the ongoing conversation your organization is trying to instigate and continue. And who’s best to tell you who they are? A group of people who are analyzing demographics or the very people you’re trying to connect with?
This is the idea behind the push for inclusiveness in all types of organizations, at all levels. Sure, you might have insight into how the world looks from the perspectives of a particular group, but you can never have the same depth of detail that someone who’s part of that group has. And when you’re an outsider looking in, the natural human tendency is to homogenize the group in question, making assumptions that end up becoming their own self-reinforcing stereotypes. “They think like this” fails to recognize that “they” is made up of unique individuals that represent an entire spectrum of experiences and outlooks. It otherizes the group and is much less accurate.
The very concepts of “they” and “them” is, by definition, not inclusive. A much stronger position to take is “we tend to think like this, on the whole, but with variations”. The idea of “we” includes all people, including the communicators and their audience.
What is Inclusion?
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) defines inclusion as “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.”
It’s often part of larger strategies called Diversity and Inclusion, or D&I (sometimes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DE&I). Put simply, it’s understanding, accepting, the valuing differences between people and creating a welcoming environment for everyone. In communications, it’s representing and respecting those differences in outreach efforts.
The modern trend toward inclusion is not just about righting historical wrongs and exclusions, though that is part of it. And it’s not just about race, but it’s not not about race. It’s also about age, gender and gender identity, socio-economic background, religion, sexual preference, political affiliation, consumer preference, job position, cultural background, language, dietary preference and limitations, health and psychological issues, tech-savviness and much, much more.
The Need for Inclusion
To put it bluntly, the organizational culture in the United States for most of the 20th century was one geared toward able-bodied, straight, white, Christian men with families. Considering the astonishing diversity of the people of the world, that’s a pretty narrow focus to be operating with. People who didn’t fit into all of these categories were marginalized. And if you didn’t fit any of them, you were simply ignored. There was a narrowly-defined “us” and everyone else was “them”. There wasn’t a real effort to reach out to anyone different, and people were expected to either conform to the norm, or keep quiet and out of the way.
This system, if we can call it that, was not set up nefariously with bad intent, though it might sometimes seem that way. It was the natural result of a small group of “us” making assumptions about “them”; assumptions that came from a lack of awareness, knowledge and experience. This thinking pervaded every aspect of society and every level of organizations in both the public and private sectors for a long time. And it subconsciously informed and shaped communications for decades. It thoughtlessly created only one definition of “authentic”, leaving all the rest of human experience on the outside.
The American with Disabilities Act was an early attempt to address some of these issues. Were we saying, as a society, that people in wheelchairs are not welcome in the public library? Or that a war veteran who lost both legs in combat shouldn’t use the post office or go into a hotel? Or that it’s juts too bad that blind people can’t use ATMs? Of course not. And yet, by focusing only on a narrow “normal”, we sort of ended up supporting those ideas without ever consciously meaning to.
Well, just because this way of dealing with our fellow humans developed somewhat naturally, that doesn’t mean we can’t consciously take steps to correct things. This is why words like “inclusion” and “diversity” are very much at the forefront of things today. We have the tools to address this imbalance, and any organization that wants to survive and thrive today needs to start using those concepts in meaningful ways. With a little education and effort, we can create cultures where everyone feels valued, where everyone is authentic.
The Benefits of Inclusion
It can be argued that there’s a moral imperative here, but the more bottom-line viewpoint is simply that, if you include more of your audience, if you connect with them in a way that makes sense within their contexts, you have a bigger audience for your communications, your products and your services.
With globalization creating more markets in more countries, your target audience is likely becoming even more diverse and more divergent from that 20th century American “norm”. Now part of who you want to engage isn’t just Filipino immigrants and their descendants living in America; it’s Filipinos who have never even set foot in the United States. And as more markets open up, there’s more competition, so you’d better figure out how to reach that audience effectively if you hope to succeed.
Companies that have strong D&I are more innovative, solve problems faster and more efficiently, and have a more engaged workforce (with the many, many benefits that brings). With millennials now the bulk of the workforce, and Zoomers going into universities and the job market, D&I has become one of the key elements people look for when considering who to give their energy and attention to, so it’s very important in terms of attracting and retaining talent.
When designing your D&I strategies, you want to focus on creating an environment where every voice can be heard, every viewpoint is represented, and every perspective is seen as valid. The focus needs to be on growth, reinvention and renewal. This is about allowing people to affect your organization, helping shape what it is and where it’s going.
This is a fundamentally new way of doing things. It’s a mindset shift – a strategy, not a project. And it’s an eternal process, not something to be done once and then considered complete. Just paying lip service to diversity and inclusion isn’t going to cut the mustard anymore. Modern audiences are too good at recognizing false and forced messaging.
10 Steps for Inclusion in Communications
Communications is a critical part of D&I. The web and social media make every organization a potentially global player. This is true if you make widgets, or breakfast cereal, or software; if you’re a healthcare facility, a non-profit or a university. Your customers, staff, students and visitors are from everywhere, and they’ll spend their time and money where they feel the most welcome.
1. Start at the top. Leadership must publicly make a commitment to D&I principles, and facilitate the tools necessary to inform, educate and support everyone involved, at all levels. People higher up in the org chart should be visible champions, lending their voices and assistance wherever possible. D&I trickles down through the whole organization, even affecting recruitment and employee onboarding. But people need to know that, if there’s a problem, they can go higher up the chain and be heard and get support.
2. Know your audience. To include everyone, you first have to know who you’re talking to. Yes, you can start with some basic demographics from your HR or admissions department, but you can dive deeper with surveys or even focus groups. And remember that compiling a master list of audiences and attitudes isn’t the goal, and it won’t work for all situations or subjects. Inclusion is about changing your overall attitude so that, no matter the context, you’ll be empathetic and representative.
3. Talk to, and listen to, your stakeholders. Ask them where the organization can do better. Get support from groups that have already made inroads and ask them to help bring more people into the circle. Create systems for constant feedback and reevaluation. This cannot be a one-way communication flow with dictates coming down from on high. Companies will have turnover with new people coming in all the time, and they will bring different priorities and experiences with them. This is especially true in higher education, where a new crop of students can shift priorities all at once.
4. Stay current. We all live in the world, and the world is having a long, varied conversation about many things. When certain topics become headline news, your audience will be thinking about them and wondering what the organization’s viewpoint is. This means you may have to take a stance on subjects that once were not things your communications would address. But if the people you want to engage start wondering why you haven’t said anything about a particular topic, you run the risk that they will start making their own assumptions about your perspective.
5. Be transparent. People need to see that you are not hiding anything, and that any imbalances that arise do so by accident rather than design. People are used to having access to large amounts of data, so an organization that fails to allow access or disclose things can be seen as hopelessly out of touch, or even worse, up to no good.
6. Be consistent. Look at your communications from a birds-eye view to make sure you aren’t sending mixed messages. If you use inclusive language and imagery for the public but not internally, people will notice. This isn’t to say that there won’t be some differences across mediums and audiences, but those differences should make sense within an inclusive framework.
For example, you may already be localizing your communications. An ad campaign on a campus in Maine may look different than in Texas. If you have digital signage at a hotel in New York, it wouldn’t make any sense to show messaging for Seattle. Even so, the audiences at those endpoints will still include a plethora of demographics and attitudes, so make sure you don’t let localization override the broader goal of inclusion.
7. Acknowledge your biases. And yes, you have some. Almost always, this is the result of making assumptions as you go about the day-to-day business of running things, combined with lack of a different experience or perspective.
For example, in California, tests for schoolchildren asked a question about the color of bananas. Because the people who designed the test were middle-class folks who shopped at supermarkets, it seemed obvious that the only correct answer was “yellow”. The only reference group they had was themselves. Administrators couldn’t figure out why kids from Latino neighborhoods kept getting it wrong. It wasn’t until someone from that community got involved in the testing process that they learned that in those communities, which have far more small produce shops and stalls, the children saw perfectly edible, ripe bananas that were red or pink or purple or even black. So, it turned out “yellow” was not the only correct answer. In light of this, the test was changed.
8. Challenge people. You might need to get out in front of certain issues before they saturate the news cycle and social media. And while some people might feel a little intimidated or even threatened by some topics, you can put them at ease by sticking to the core values you’ve been sharing. One of your key messages has to be that this is a place where everyone has a stake, and everyone is valued. Don’t be afraid to educate folks sometimes – not in a “we know better than you” way, but in a way that is itself inclusive and understanding that maybe this is a new perspective some of them hadn’t thought of.
9. Be an inspiration. Your organization can be more than just reactive to current events, it can be a leader in diversity and inclusion. Sharing people’s stories is one of the best ways to encourage a sense of belonging while educating others at the same time. This is far better than just a list of new guidelines, updated every couple of months. By sharing personal experiences, you give people room to identify with the issue, to internalize it.
10. Get into the “why”. You’ve decided to start using gender-neutral language in official communications, both internal and external. Great, but tell people why you’re doing it and why you think it is important. Whenever possible, tie these sorts of decisions to something specific and concrete in your organization. Circle back to your core goals.
Diversity and inclusion should become an important part of all your communications and processes. Remember that this is an ongoing conversation that should never resolve into some sort of steady state. And although communication is an important part of your organization’s overall D&I strategy, it’s only one part. You need to back it up with systems that encourage tolerance, participation and feedback, processes for reporting grievances, harassment or discrimination, and leadership who is not only on board with all this, but is a driving force behind it.