DEI is fast becoming a divisive topic, with business giants like Amazon and Google are scaling back their diversity initiatives. Meanwhile, other organisations, like the Co-op, have stated that they will continue to champion DEI after seeing the benefits. So, you might be wondering, where do we go from here?
Why diversity is crucial
Many studies have shown that creating a diverse workforce isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’, it’s essential to companies’ success. But managing a diverse workforce means inclusive behaviour is essential, and that’s a different skillset. Diversity is seeing differences and bringing diversity to the business Inclusivity means embracing it and managing it. Well, I hear a lot about the former and I see huge variations about the latter.
With experts finding that diversity of thought and experience gives your business a competitive advantage, the business case still stands. For example, inclusive workplace cultures attract and retain a wider range of talent – Generation Z and Millennials in particular are known to prioritise employers with a diverse work environment.
We also know that diversity in teams leads to better problem solving, boosts creativity and increases productivity. What’s more, it is what customers want. A recent report by Kantar found that a whopping 75% of consumers said that a brand’s diversity and inclusion reputation influenced their buying decisions.
What is diversity in teams?
Diversity isn’t only related to characteristics protected legally, such as gender, age, disability, religion or our ethnic background. There’s a lot more to it. Factors like how we were brought up, different political and financial backgrounds, what motivates us and what feels purposeful. How humans can differ is endless.
The conflict
Most leaders want to build a strong workforce and they know that a diverse workforce contributes to this. But the challenge is how to make sure that this ethos is embraced – and championed – throughout the company so that division doesn’t reign where difference surfaces. And this is where managers come in; they are your front line for helping to build and nurture more diverse teams.
It’s pointless bringing in DEI policies and values if there’s no-one there to implement them. So, start by training and empowering your managers.
Top training tips
Encourage curiosity
It’s important that managers don’t always see things from their own frame of reference. They need to truly understand inclusivity, and this means being as open and responsive as possible, especially in the face of challenge.
If a colleague has a different view to them on something, train managers to ask questions and be curious. They should seek first to understand, identify what’s really going on, sense-check their perspectives, and then decide and act.
If they find themselves judgemental and negative, they could flip this; teach them how to think, ‘I wonder why they see it like that?’. They also need to listen to the answers while recognising that all of us have a filter – and we therefore all have our own biases.
Nobody’s perfect!
Encourage managers (and all employees) to understand that we are all human and make mistakes. There isn’t a script to follow but there are methods and concepts that can help.
We know that as humans we instinctively feel safer when we are with people who are like us. But it’s 2025, we have evolved, and continue to, so we don’t need to perpetuate this.
Here’s one of my favourite pieces of advice for training managers from the esteemed Maya Angelou. Do your best until you know better. Then do better. It’s the premise of all our training programmes and how we work.
Also, managers shouldn’t be afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing. Give them the tools so that they feel confident enough to handle challenging situations – for me it’s about finding helpful ways through difficult dialogues. It’s about line managers working together with employees to be authentic. Equip managers to be authentic rather than correct, and they will learn from their experience not run away from it.
This could be as simple as being emotionally mature enough to say, ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that – please talk me through it again’, or ‘We need to talk about (X). I’m not sure how this goes but work with me and we can find our answers together’. Emotional courage plays a big part.
A safe space
Give your managers a safe space where they can experience all this and develop these skills away from their team. Offer relevant, professional and experiential training. Programmes that include live feedback and follow up, post workshop, individual coaching, are among my favourite approaches. Once they are ready enough, you will see them transfer those skills back to the workplace.
Looking ahead
I believe that if we all truly understood inclusivity, we wouldn’t need diversity training. We would automatically know that another person might see things differently and embrace it with interest. My final piece of advice on building diversity in teams would be to notice when you’re judging people. Then shift your perspective to curiosity – people may surprise you!
