4 July 2024 | Dr Jo Kandola

What’s the hardest inclusive behaviour to master?

No-one is naturally inclusive of everyone, and inclusive behaviour is something that takes effort to practise. While some of us will find some behaviours easier than others, research shows that there’s one behaviour that many of us find particularly tricky.
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Depending on our personality and natural style, certain behaviours will come more easily to us than others. When we analysed data from over 3000 people who have completed our K+ DIORAMA inclusion assessment, we found that when it comes to being an inclusive colleague, it’s taking action when we witness exclusion that’s our Achilles heel.

Measuring inclusive behaviours and values

One of our inclusion assessment tools, K+ DIORAMA measures people’s ability to be inclusive against four key behaviours that have been shown by research to determine how inclusive someone is on a day-to-day basis.  

The first behaviour is recognition and concerns our ability to spot micro-incivilities when they occur. This is crucial, since if we can’t spot exclusion in the first place, then we can’t do anything about it. The second is empathy – how empathetic our response is when we hear about or witness acts of exclusion.  

The third is about taking action. Do we speak up and be that vocal ally when needed, or do we turn a blind eye to exclusive behaviour and let it pass? The fourth and final behaviour concerns our ability to make people feel included, safe to be themselves, and to share aspects of their identity without fear of judgement or negative repercussions.  

We’re all likely to be better at one behaviour than others, but what is striking about the research is that there is a clear majority of people who struggle with taking direct and clear action when they witness exclusive behaviour. 

Why is taking action on inclusive behaviour important?

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Inclusion can’t happen if people don’t do anything to speak up and challenge exclusive behaviours. Failing to act compounds the impact for the team members on the receiving end, because they feel that no-one cares enough to take a stand and support them. It also sends a signal to others in the organisation that this behaviour is tolerated and even perhaps tacitly accepted as ‘part of the culture’ – and it enables these exclusive behaviours and attitudes to become further entrenched and harder to eradicate.

In short, failing to act makes us complicit in exclusive behaviour.

Allies and active bystanders

Taking action sits at the heart of active bystander behaviour and being an ally, and although these roles are inherently different, they’re not mutually exclusive.

Active bystanders take steps to prevent or intervene in a situation where they witness potentially harmful or problematic behaviour. Unlike a passive bystander who might see something happen but not take any action, an active bystander actively seeks to make a positive impact or step in to prevent harm.

Allies, on the other hand, establish an ongoing commitment to act in solidarity with people from marginalised or underrepresented communities, and they actively work to understand and challenge discrimination, prejudice, and systemic inequalities faced by the diverse groups they support.

So while both roles involve taking action to address exclusion, being an active bystander is more about focusing on immediate actions to address a particular incident or behaviour, while an ally is an ongoing and typically identity-aligned role that involves providing consistent support and advocacy for a specific group of marginalised or under-represented people.

Why do we find it so hard to take action?

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People can give many reasons for failing to act when they witness exclusion.

In the course of Pearn Kandola’s research into racism at work in the UK , for example, we uncovered a widespread reluctance to challenge racist behaviour in the workplace.

While 52.2% of respondents said they had witnessed racism while at work, nearly one-third (28.3%) took no action at all. Of those who took no action, 41% feared the consequences, while 23% said they didn’t consider it serious enough to report, 21% were unsure who to talk to, 14% felt it ‘wasn’t their business’ and 2% claimed that they simply didn’t have the time.

There can be several other factors behind our inaction.

We might lack the necessary knowledge and tools and not know what to do or say, or we might not have the confidence to take a stand. It may be the case that while we can easily recognise and appreciate the impact of overt behaviours, we fail to spot or understand the impact of micro-incivilities – the little behaviours that cause people to feel excluded or marginalised – and therefore don’t see the need to do anything.

It can often also be the case that we want to take action but are concerned about saying or doing the wrong thing and potentially making the situation worse. Last, but certainly not least, we may assume (perhaps wishfully) that someone else will do something about it – and this can increase depending on the number of other people who witness the behaviour, something known as the bystander effect.

What enables us to take action?

In order to get people taking action when they witness exclusive behaviour, they need:

  • Insight: People need insight into their natural style of challenging and a better understanding of what might be holding them back from taking action. Insight becomes particularly important when we consider that many organisations are struggling to take action on exclusion, and that many people believe themselves to be more inclusive than they really are.
  • Skills: Armed with insight, people can then start to learn the skills necessary to speak up and challenge effectively. Challenging or speaking up doesn’t have to be confrontational, and there are a number of different approaches we can take. Each of us will have a preferred approach that will work in certain situations, but it won’t be effective in every situation we encounter. Once we know our preferred style, we then need to learn to flex it so that we can equip ourselves with different techniques to speak up and be an active bystander in the most effective way, depending on the situation.
  • Confidence: This comes in part comes from having the necessary skills, but our confidence can also be affected by our social power. For example, where we sit in the organisational hierarchy and whether we may feel more exposed for speaking up if we belong to a minority or from a marginalised group.

How do you promote inclusive behaviour?

Taking effective action when we witness exclusion is key to creating a more inclusive workplace culture where everyone can thrive. From unconscious bias to inclusive leader training – contact us today to find out how digital diversity and inclusion learning solutions from Kandola+ can help you to foster allyship and active bystander behaviours in your organisation.

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