Maintaining an inclusive workplace means addressing more than cultural differences

Nancy RobertsWhether an organization serves only a local market or does business in many countries across the globe, its leadership has the responsibility to welcome diversity and difference in the workplace. Publishers who set an inclusive tone will see a change in management – and in the mirror.

Maintaining an inclusive workplace means addressing more than cultural differences, says Nancy Roberts. She encourages leaders and others to identify and nurture “cognitive diversity.” The reason is all about the bottom line, she says, but the result will find leaders challenging themselves and the status quo. Using a model developed by Deloitte Insights, Roberts stresses six key traits of inclusive leadership, including Cognizance, Curiosity, Courage, Cultural Intelligence, Commitment and Collaboration.

“As management guru Peter Drucker famously said, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’  Simply putting a diversity strategy in place is probably not going to be enough,” Roberts tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “You need to develop an inclusive culture so that those diversity strategies that bring different people into the business can create an environment where they’re going to succeed.”

Founder and Director at Business Inclusivity, a social enterprise working to encourage greater diversity and inclusion in corporate life, Nancy Roberts speaks in London on Monday, November 13, at the second annual Building Inclusivity in Publishing conference, chaired by the BBC’s Razia Iqbal. Themes to be explored include getting more writers from minority groups published, managing disability in the workplace, and return on inclusion.

IBPA’s Publishing University 2017 Panel
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