Diversity and inclusion are top-of-mind issues in the workplace today. These are both real issues and they matter. Whether you are talking male to female, race, religion, or national origin. It also includes career history, education, and their general past. In order to fully maximize efforts to improve diversity and inclusion, start by understanding the world as you see it and the many ways that your peers and colleagues may see it by trying to view it through their lense.
A lens is an optical device which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam. All of our experiences shape our lens and creates our biases. Those experiences determine how our lens converges or diverges what we are seeing. No two people have the same lens because everyone’s life experiences are different. By understanding the lens that someone else views the world through fosters diversity and inclusion.
To see the world that someone else sees ask “what are you seeing that I am not”? From there you can start to use the refractor to move between lenses until your eyes focus on the world the other person is living in. When you are able to successfully see their world it is like putting glasses on for the first time, the floor seems to fly up and smack you in the face.
You have to change your lens in order to better understand the people around you. You have to accept that your truth is but a small piece of the situation and that other people have their truths too. Force yourself to walk over to where they are to see their truth. Keep in mind that both truths are right. Understanding that everyone has their truth and that it may differ from yours opens the door to diversity and inclusion which creates opportunity.
Foster more inclusion by closely looking at who you are skipping over. Don’t allow the assumptions your brain forms based on the shape of your lens to miss out on opportunities to know, collaborate and build success with people you otherwise would not have taken the time to meet.
Changing Your Lense to Foster More Inclusion
To foster more inclusion, change your lens to better understand the perspectives of others’. Ask yourself these questions to help see the perspective other people are coming from.
1) Who in the group can you relate to?
Identify those in the group who share similar views as you do. Who can you relate to, who in the group has had a similar journey as you? Even though you can relate there will be variations of perspectives. By knowing who you can relate to in the group can help you be more comfortable in the beginning. Once you are comfortable with the setting, branch out, and focus on those who aren’t like you.
2) Who in the group is not like you?
Actively seek out people in the group who are not like you and get to know them. Be curious about who they are and the journey that brought them there. Getting to know who in the group isn’t like you opens dialogue and your mind. It helps you get to know people you would have otherwise discounted or dismissed altogether. Balancing your circle with varied viewpoints gives you a better perspective and allows you to open your own mind to possibilities you never would have thought of.
3) How are you going to integrate into this group?
This is done by identifying the shared purpose that brought everyone together. Find the commonalities and build upon “get to know you” phase from there. More than just you integrating, this is also bringing the multiple groups together. It is making sure everyone’s points are heard. It is helping others who quickly object to stop and think through what was proposed in a more well-rounded way. Integrating is helping to mediate debates by helping each side see the opposers’ side of the argument. In doing so you are helping others to reshape their lens. You are encouraging real debate that will lead to better outcomes.
Look at who you are skipping over and not taking the time to know and interact with. Think about this: if you only stay within your circle of like-minded people, you are not even scratching the surface of knowledge, innovation, and experiences that could help you refine and expand the lens that determines your world. It may be a big world but if you don’t check your lens you will find yourself in a very small world indeed.
You see the world as you are; start going over to someone else’s world by seeing it from their lens.
Last updated on December 29th, 2020 at 07:59 am
