Empathy in action

To make inclusion work, leaders must shift from announcements to authentic narratives.

- CHARLOTTE OTTER, AUTHOR, WE NEED NEW LEADERS

Most change initiatives fail. They start with a big bang—an announcement, a company-wide meeting, some excitement—and six months later, there is little to no change in the organisation. The initiatives fail because the communication is top-down and doesn't provide context and clear signals on how to change behaviours.

And the same goes for inclusion. If it's stated as a company goal and then handed over to a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) head to manage without further engagement from leadership, then it is performative at best. One of the challenges Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts face at the moment—beyond the outright cancellation that is happening at some companies and in some geographies—is the accusation that they are siloed.

For inclusion to truly work, it needs to be threaded through every team, every meeting, every workplace interaction, and not tacked on as a convenient nice-to-have. The fact that DEI has been siloed has made it that much easier for companies to remove it overnight. Threading inclusivity through every team is a power move that binds it to company culture. And the way to get there is through strategic communication.

Getting strategic

Strategic communication is not about broadcasting company messages from the CEO's inbox.

Communicators would argue that it is often the opposite of strategic. The role of strategic communication is to help employees understand context—what Simon Sinek calls 'the why'—and change behaviours so that company culture shifts and becomes more inclusive.

And one way to get there is by listening to and telling stories.

Stories are our oldest technology