Building an Inclusive Workforce
A leadership coach explored how the legal sector needs to confront deeply ingrained mindsets—and learn how to fail first—to achieve better results related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Muireann Bolger was there.
Over the last two years, the global pandemic has impacted our work lives in ways we could never have anticipated. As colleagues throughout the legal sector begin to reconvene, what do we want our workplaces to be like? And more importantly, how can we achieve a more diverse, inclusive, and productive workforce?
These are the pivotal questions addressed by Kate Neville, co-founder of Inclusive Leadership Strategies (US), in yesterday’s Capsule Keynote: How to Build an Inclusive Workplace that Can Improve Results.
As she noted, research has increasingly shown the benefits of inclusive workforces. For example, she cited reports from KPMG as well as McKinsey that “continually show how diverse groups actually deliver better outcomes and decisions than the homogeneous ones.”
Taking Action
The persuasive arguments are there and have found traction among senior leaders in organizations. But, she queried: “How can a company actually move from conviction to action? That is hard, because how to achieve these results is not self-evident.”
Ms. Neville cautioned that the goal of greater DEI must no longer be approached as merely a numbers game. “Diversity is about the numbers, but the goal of true inclusion is about making those numbers count,” she advised.
In her view, huge questions remain on how best to leverage the disruption of “business as usual” in the wake of the pandemic as an opportunity to more effectively advance the cause of DEI.
Learning to Fail
Part of the problem, she argued, is that the legal sector is a cautious profession and is reluctant to try new solutions, due to the risk of failure.
The mindset of embracing failures that is adopted by the tech industry can be anathema to many attorneys, she explained.
“In many businesses people learn from failure, but lawyers never talk about failure. We are paid to be right, and to proofread a document 10 times before sending it to a client. It is a different situation for us,” Ms. Neville said.
The onus on perfection, she suggested, could be self-defeating in the long-run, leading to an inability to contemplate new ways of doing things.
Further, noting that studies of various professions continually show that mental health is the worst among lawyers, she said this entrenched notion could even exacerbate the existing mental health crisis among legal professionals.
“An initial solution is not going to be perfect,” Ms. Neville said, “but accepting this is not easy for lawyers, who struggle to find this much-needed wriggle room, where failure is allowed.”
In addition, she argued that in many law firms, DEI efforts fall under the categories of compliance or risk mitigation, or are even viewed as a public relations exercise in some cases.
“It is not seen as an essential business goal driving profits, and that affects how people view it,” she explained.
She also suggested that calls to tie bonuses and compensation to DEI were unlikely to find favor in law firms.
“I think law is the only industry where I am still routinely asked by practitioners about where I went to law school. I am in my mid-50s: who cares? That is not the case in other sectors.”
Kate Neville, Inclusive Leadership Strategies (US)
Trickle-Down Changes
Behavior change must be driven throughout a given organization, she urged. And while it is imperative that managing partners are on board, very often partners and senior associates deal with diverse junior lawyers.
Traditional mindsets must be changed, Ms. Neville warned, “I think law is the only industry where I am still routinely asked by practitioners about where I went to law school. I am in my mid-50s: who cares? That is not the case in other sectors.”
When navigating behavioral change, it is absolutely necessary to communicate effectively with one another, she said, noting: “We may be talking about people that work in the same organization, who by definition share something in common. But there is so much diversity among employees, and words can be used inadvertently that blow up a conversation.”
The Bubble Problem
Ms. Neville suggested that there is a bubble problem throughout society. “We all live in bubbles, and a lot of people that are in upper management socialize in settings where they are not in diverse populations. In fact, that’s true of all of us: we live and work next to people who look like us. These bubbles mean that organizational change is a huge challenge,” she said.
In her view, a failure to acknowledge differences in a diverse and inclusive workforce is problematic.
“I was brought up in an environment where it was considered impolite to mention those differences, and we were taught ‘Just treat everybody the same,’” Ms. Neville said.
“It turns out that’s impossible,” she continued. We all have biases. We must ask ourselves how we use the more sophisticated parts of our brain to think about how we want to address the fact of our bias and assumptions,” Ms. Neville added.
According to the leadership coach, building strong relationships with people from different backgrounds is pivotal in building greater inclusion in organizations.
“The thing that’s been known to make the biggest difference are relationships—genuine relationships, with people who don’t look like us. Allyship is very important. Obviously, I’m a white woman standing here talking about this’ and I don’t have lived experience as a person of color. But at the same time, white people don’t get a pass. Showing support and being an ally is something we can do.”
When the women’s right’s movement emerged, she explained, many men embraced the role of being an ally in the workplace.
“This is now being applied more broadly,” she enthused.
Ms. Neville concluded the session with two challenging questions: “We all have our lived experience, regardless of how we present our-selves externally. The question is how do we manage what we don’t know? How do we become more curious?”
Video courtesy of Adobe Stock / AILA_IMAGES
Pre-registration for INTA's Annual Meeting in 2023
Concluding the Opening Ceremonies, Mr. Sanz de Acedo revealed that next year’s Annual Meeting will take place in Singapore, from May 16 to May 20. Its format will consist of in-person and virtual offerings.
Pre-registration opens online today, May 2, and will run through May 13.
The pre-sale is available to all 2022 Annual Meeting member registrants—both Live+ (in-person + virtual) and Virtual Only—and offers a 10 percent saving off the early-bird registration rate.
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
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