Creating cultural programs

- Culture is so important to organizations because how employees feel at work impacts their productivity and intent to stay. Here are some basic ideas on how to improve your culture so it becomes a culture of inclusion and belonging. First, create employee resource groups, or ERGs. Employee resource groups can focus on gender, race, LGBTQ, veterans, non-drinkers, parents, persons with disabilities. The point is, they give people a forum to be heard. They create strength in numbers. And if done well they provide access to mentorship and sponsorship. Next, celebrate all of your different voices, different ethnic cultures, genders, generations. That will send an overall cultural message that you recognize the value of having diverse perspectives and backgrounds. My husband and his two brothers are three white protestant boys who married a Jewish woman, a Chinese woman, and a Mexican woman. The last one's me. So think about our Christmas celebrations. My in-laws go all out to ensure that we bring everyone's culture to the table so everyone feels like they want to be there. Employees can shift culture in more inclusive ways. Consider what your current cultural practices are. Do you have happy hours on Friday, a bowling team? And then for each of those consider if they're inclusive to everyone in the organization. If they're not, replace them with an activity that is. I call this a culture swap. For example, instead of playing basketball go watch a basketball game. When I talk to people about a lack of inclusion and belonging in organizations most examples I hear are about non-inclusive meetings, but you can make meetings more inclusive with a few minor changes. You can set some guidelines like not interrupting each other, or you can assign a devil's advocate at each meeting. Even sending the questions or topics in advance is a great way to ensure that more people speak up. And isn't that the only reason to have meetings, to hear different views? If not, just send an email. Basically you want to find ways to encourage people to contribute who might not otherwise speak up, and to help remove barriers to participating for those who really want to get a word in but can't. I guarantee you this will create more effective meetings. Now pick one of these three things, ERGs, culture swaps, or inclusive meetings and set one intention for an actionable change. If it's a culture swap think about the cultural rights and rituals at your organization. Can you think of any that might be excluding people? And then come up with one new ritual that might be more inclusive and try it out. You'll quickly see the benefits of these small changes in your organization.