These 5 tips will help you feel part of an inclusive team where everyone feels welcome, listened to, and equal.
Working well as part of a team is essential when it comes to succeeding in school, university, or the workplace. And a big part of successful teamwork is inclusivity. Being inclusive means that everyone feels welcome, listened to, and like an equal part of the team.
But what does inclusive teamwork actually look like? Here are five principles that will help you to make your teams more inclusive, no matter what you’re working on together.
Ensure everyone gets an equal chance to speak
Some people are naturally louder and more confident, while others are quieter and shyer. If you want your team to be inclusive, everyone needs to have the opportunity to speak and have their voice heard.
You can encourage people to speak up by actively soliciting their opinions. Try asking “what do you think, Tobi?” or saying “Priti and I were chatting about this the other day and they made a really good point…” This can prompt someone to share their thoughts if they might not otherwise get a word in edgeways!
If someone is dominating the conversation, you can gently head them off by saying something like “I’d like to give the quieter people a chance to chime in, so can we come back to that?” And if you hear someone interrupt someone else, speak up! Saying something like “I don’t think Alesha was finished making her point” is a good way to show your support for your shyer colleagues and ensure they’re included.
Don’t be tokenistic or focus on diversity quotas
Diversity and inclusion are not necessarily the same thing. You might think that your work is done because your team consists of people of different genders, races, ages, and so on. But that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone in that group feels included.
In fact, focusing on diversity quotas alone can often lead to people feeling more excluded. If someone feels tokenised—like they have just been added to the team so that a person of their particular demographic is represented—they will likely feel isolated and as though they are not truly valued for their skills. Never distill a person down to just the demographic groups they’re a part of, and never expect someone to speak for their entire group.
Use inclusive language
We recently shared an article on how to be more inclusive in the ways you communicate at work or school. Even with the best of intentions, it’s easy for people to feel excluded and othered when their teammates don’t use inclusive language.
You can find extensive inclusive language glossaries online, but remember that language evolves and people from a particular group are not a monolith who all think in the same way. In general, default to being as inclusive as you can. This might mean using terms like “everyone” instead of “you guys” when addressing your whole team, and ensuring that you remove everyday phrases with offensive connotations from your vocabulary.
Make it safe to speak up
People won’t speak up in your team if they feel as though they will be interrupted, mocked, or told that they’re wrong. A sense of safety and trust within the team is vital if you want things to be inclusive and function well.
You can achieve this by setting a few basic ground rules: no interrupting someone who is talking, no making fun of or dismissing someone’s ideas, and always speaking to one another with empathy and respect. Even if you’re disagreeing with someone, approaching the conversation from a place of mutual good faith and courtesy will go a long way.
If it is not safe to speak up, then your team will be dominated by those who have the most power in the situation. And that is the opposite of inclusivity.
Play to people’s strengths
Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and you cannot build an inclusive team if you expect everyone to be good at the same things. The beauty of teamwork is that you get to play to everyone’s strengths.
Instead of making assumptions, ask your teammates what sort of role they’d like to take on and which aspects of the project or task they feel best equipped to handle. Their answers might surprise you, so keep an open mind.
Remember that people can sometimes be more modest about their strengths than is warranted. This is often particularly true amongst groups who have been marginalised or discouraged from recognising and championing their own strengths. So if you know your colleague is amazing at a particular thing and they’re not speaking up, use your voice to advocate for them.
