Schindler Group

In a coaching relationship, it’s essential for the coach to understand what the client is actually requesting. One of the most tricky requests is the “paradoxical request, ” or in other words, “Help me fix this, but I don’t want to change anything.”

During my 10 years working in the field of Diversity and Inclusion, I have often observed organizations and leaders who implicitly or explicitly formulate a paradoxical request or mission for their D&I managers as concerns their companies’ D&I ambitions.

The D&I manager often ends up trying to push a string, facing a stream of passive resistance as they try to “fix the numbers.” They desperately seek out a “Holy Grail” D&I business case (to use a Christian metaphor) to finally convince the by-standers to move into action.

But will the perfect business case actually spur stragglers to action?

Let’s look where passivity often comes from:

1. “I don’t have the mandate to take action.”

Many years ago, I can remember an executive level D&I session where a case study exercise implied we would risk losing a customer relationship if we supported a transgender salesperson. One of the executives said, “What would the shareholders say?” The participant clearly saw what the inclusive path forward was, but even as a top executive, they were not certain they had the mandate to devote resources or take perceived business risks for inclusion.

2. “I don’t see the problem”

I’ve hardly ever met a leader who was proud of or enjoyed being part of an unfair organization. So often leaders simply don’t have visibility on the challenges or inequities experienced by specific groups or individuals.

3. “There’s nothing I can do about it”

Many times the issue is seen as an insurmountable societal problem, which it certainly is. Leaders instinctively devote time and effort to problems where they feel they have some chance of success. If they do see their efforts having an impact, they will naturally focus on a different problem.

Looking at these three challenges, it’s not clear a detailed business case will be the game changer.

Item 1 shows us why it’s so essential that leaders clarify D&I ambitions for their organization. Yes, HR and I&D experts have a role to play in coaching and advising the organization, but themost effective Diversity Officer for creating an inclusive culture is the business leader who sets the ambition level. If the leader’s direction is clear, the business case becomes secondary. 

“While it’s important to understand the link between business performance and diversity, setting leaders up for action is key to success”

At Schindler we try to help leaders avoid the last two passivity traps through two key initiatives.

The first is the Schindler Listening Lab. To help leaders understand inclusion challenges and gain empathy, we set up ad hoc employees listening circles around a specific inclusion question. For instance, “What are the particular challenges for women moving up and into leadership positions?” or “How included are LGBTQIA+ employees in our field operations?”

One or two leaders sponsor a session. Five to six employees who have a strong connection to the topic are invited to join. Much of the work goes into the preparation cycle where we help leaders understand how their words and behavior impact the degree to which a team member feels psychologically safe to share openly. We discuss the impact of body language, of how we position ourselves. We share a specific process designed to protect all participants and maximize deep listening. Basically we say, “You are responsible to lead the process. If you want the maximum amount of data, the maximum amount of information, here is how you can obtain these results.” We warn them that they will need to pause their instinctive problem-solving mode and just focus on listening.

The session starts with the leader giving their perspective on the question at hand. This requires humility, vulnerability and conveying a desire to know what I don’t know. Leaders are walking on eggshells. No comments or reactions are allowed. It is not a dialogue, but a deep mutual listening. We value diverse perspectives.

After a 5 to 7 minute exposé by the leader we do something very odd. We sit in silence for 30 very long seconds. The purpose of this silence is for the leader to reflect on how they can still lead even in silence. It allows the leader’s words to sink in. It avoids a knee jerk reaction to what the leader might have said.

Then we continue around the table allowing each employee to share their perspective. Several things happen. For one, the leader gets multiple viewpoints. This helps to see the impact of intersectionality, or our multiple layers of individual diversity, and the granularity of experiences within a specific community. When several people’s stories coincide, it helps fight our natural instinct to discount negative information. The process has an empowering impact on the employee participants as the speaking turn moves around the circle.

Finally, we close the session not by a summary or action items, but simply by each person stating how they feel. What emotion are you experiencing?

Leaders live firsthand the positive impact of their own empathy; the impact they can have simply by truly listening and sharing how it makes them feel.

The insight gained will then be used for future action planning. Either taken directly into account in an organizational D&I plan, or as input for a solution workshop that could involve the same participants.

To help get over the second passivity trap, “There’s nothing I can do about it,” we structured our inclusive leadership training around implementing inclusive experiments. After a short awareness session, leaders coach each other to create a list of inclusive and equitable actions or behaviors they will try out in the coming weeks and months and record the impact.

Things as simple as: “Have a conversation on the topic of Inclusion and Diversity with an employee in your organization.” Or “Consciously treat your lower performing team member the way you do your highest performer and observe any difference in behavior.”

It is surprising how much insight is gained from these simple experiments. Even leaders who felt they were naturally inclusive deepened their understanding and practice. One leader’s conversation with an employee led to that employee coming out to him as gay. Another told of the impact to candidates when he starts job interviews by sharing his preferred pronoun.

While it’s important to understand the link between business performance and diversity, setting leaders up for action is key to success. These simple formats have the potential to overcome the passive inertia which so often keeps our D&I initiatives from leaving the ground floor.