Studies have shown that diversity management tops the list of priorities that businesses employ in the coming year. And, within the past 10 years, there has been an explosion of senior-level diversity officer roles added to corporations, higher education and law firms. With all these resources being put toward increasing diversity, why have most organizations not achieved the change they seek? Here's what you need to know about diversity and inclusion in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.

In the workplace, part of the issue is not knowing the difference between diversity and inclusion. Think of the high school lunch table as a metaphor for defining the distinction between the two.

You probably had a group of friends that you ate lunch with every day. Imagine that one day, you asked a different group if you could sit with them and they enthusiastically made room for you. However, after a few minutes at this new table, you noticed that you were not a part of the conversation. People were making plans for the weekend without asking if you would like to join them. When you tried to tell a joke, everyone stared at you dismissively. People talked over you and cut you off mid-sentence. While you were invited to sit at the table, you were not invited to engage at the table. Many organizations do a great job of recruiting for the diversity they seek but fail to create inclusive environments. Engagement is a measurement of a person's inclusion in an organization and drives the overall quality of the human capital brought to the table.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs states that everyone has needs that must be met before they can reach a level of self-actualization. In the workplace, an employee's safety and psychological needs are most likely taken care of because their jobs provide the financial resources to clothe and feed themselves. However, the difficulty in most workplaces starts with the social needs.

When you have friends and positive relationships at work, it creates a sense of belonging. Next is your esteem needs. Everyone has a need to have their work recognized by senior leadership. If employees never hear that they are doing a good job, they may doubt their work and themselves.

Lastly, if all your other needs are met, you may reach the level of self-actualization at work. Self-actualization is the point where you take initiative and solve the critical problems in your organization. When your social and esteem needs are met, you have the space, room and security to think about new and different ways to contribute to your company's business goals.

While there are a number of ways to uncover exclusion and unconscious bias in an organization, the process may start with three questions:

  1. Is there a team member who would view my feedback as negative if I gave them any feedback at all?

  2. Who on the team do I dislike working with?

  3. Which person on the team makes me say, "I am having such a difficult time getting to know this person"?

Creating an inclusive culture takes shaking our unconscious minds awake and questioning our actions.

Source: Natalie Holder is an employment lawyer, speaker, corporate trainer and author of Exclusion: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion. As the co-founder of the New York State Bar Association's Labor & Employment's Diversity Fellowship she developed strategies to increase diversity and retention for various bar associations. In 2013, NYU honored her with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award.