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Five practical tips for people leaders to make the workplace more inclusive
TIP 1: Raise awareness of Gender Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) and why it matters
Build awareness
The journey starts by ensuring everyone understands what GDI is – we can’t change what we are not aware of.
For some, the subject is intuitive but for others it needs some explanation, simple definitions and clear examples.
Build yours and your team’s awareness through the GDI eLearning module. The online 30-minute training will ensure everyone understands what GDI is. We recommend you share the link with your team and encourage them to take the course.
Accompanying the module is a People Leaders’ Inclusion Workbook. This has a range of exercises you can use with your team to build their awareness and understanding. Use Activity 1, a short 20-minute team ‘What is inclusion’ activity (pages 11 – 12) in one of your regular team meetings to help individuals understand what inclusion and exclusion feel like.
Share why it matters
Research shows that one of the biggest challenges to building an inclusive workplace is that many people don’t really understand the benefits.
The online 30 minutes training includes a ‘Why it matters’ section. This is also included in the People Leaders’ Inclusion Workbook (pages 13 – 14). Take the time to familiarize yourself with this explanation so you can easily engage with team members who are uncertain.
Use Activity 2 on ‘Why It Matters’ in the People Leaders’ Inclusion Workbook (pages 13 – 14) and hold a short 20-minute discussion in one of your regular team meetings. You can do this after the “What is Inclusion” Activity or on its own.
Share CGIAR’s anti-racism statement, webinar and 10 Point Action Plan with your team. Make the space for safe conversations.
TIP 2: Value diversity
Intentionally seek out diverse people and points of view
All of us like to believe that we are inclusive people who really value diversity but when we step back and take an honest look at ourselves, we may find that our actions and behaviour do not always match our intent.
Reserve 2 -3 times a week to have lunch or coffee (or a virtual catch up) with someone you normally do not spend time with or naturally gravitate towards.

Visibly demonstrate you value diversity
A key success factor for inclusion is modelling the right behaviour to our team members.
Here are some suggested activities – pick one or two to try and set a reminder in your calendar to ensure you do not forget:


Make it clear you will hold yourself and your teams accountable for behaving in an inclusive way. Be open and give your team permission to provide you with feedback when you may have inadvertently behaved in a non-inclusive manner. Contract with them to also give them the same feedback. Everyone one on the team is included equally
TIP 3: Ensure fair treatment and equal access to opportunities for all
Be aware of the diverse needs and styles of others and make account for them
Being inclusive does not mean that we necessarily treat everyone exactly the same, as demonstrated in the image below.




Use person-first constructions that put the person ahead of their characteristics, e.g., instead of “a blind man” or “a female scientist,” use “a man who is blind” or “a woman in our science team.” See the table below for more guidance.
Mention characteristics like gender, sexual orientation, religion, racial group or ability only when relevant to the discussion.
When speaking about disability, avoid phrases that suggest victimhood, g. “afflicted by,” “suffers from,” “confined to a wheelchair”.
When addressing a group of female colleagues avoid calling them ‘girls’ (as they are fully grown women) and also ‘ladies’ (it prescribes women act in accordance to traditional, social acceptable feminine behaviour). The term ‘women’ is fine.
For mixed gender groups, “Guys” is not gender neutral and using it to mean “people” assumes that the normal, default human being is male. Use people, folks, team.

Make your own preferred choice of pronouns clear – you can add them to your email sign off – learn more in this GDI Pronoun Guide
Flexible, remote and agile working
Offering different kinds of flexible working creates a more inclusive environment.
Make it clear that you are open and receptive to exploring flexi-working arrangements for all team members as long as it fits with work outcomes (and is in line with your existing HR policies). It is essential you do not make this available to certain groups but not others (i.e. just to working mothers) as this is the opposite of inclusive. This approach also stigmatises flexi-policies thus preventing others who could benefit from them, from taking it up.

Note that flexible working has positive outcomes for staff when they feel in control and can decide for themselves – rather than it being a requirement or forced upon them. This means that some employees may have had a negative experience of flexi-working during COVID-19 (perhaps from struggling trying to balance work and extra childcare, or inadequate technology) but this does not mean that they are uninterested in flexi-working
TIP 4: Counteract conscious and unconscious bias
Recognize bias and the role it plays
Bias is a prejudice in favour of or against a person or a group when compared with another person or group, usually in a way that’s considered to be unfair.





Addressing the impact of bias on diversity & inclusion
Unconscious bias can result in unfair discrimination in many aspects of the workplace – from hiring decisions to performance evaluation, promotions and even how work gets allocated within a team.
Take the upcoming 30 minute GDI ‘Unconscious Bias for People Leaders’ eLearning module to find out more about how unconscious bias manifests itself in CGIAR’s workplaces and tips on how to help mitigate the impact it has on your people decisions.
Help fight gender imbalance head on with your team in an engaging way using this ‘50 Ways to Fight Bias’ toolkit developed by Leanin.org and Stanford. It includes ready-to-go presentations and workshops, short informative videos and a card-based activity.
TIP 5: Build psychological safety
Make it safe for your team to have conflicting points of views and to make mistakes
Psychological Safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.

How is this linked to Diversity and Inclusion? The perception of risk and need to impression manage is higher for individuals from different diversity dimensions because they are likely to bring new and different perspectives. If we want to reap the benefits of greater diversity of thought, we need to create team environments where everyone is comfortable expressing their unique point of view. Without this we rob ourselves, our team and our organisation of the unique contribution that diverse talent can bring.
We can’t learn and grow unless we feel comfortable asking questions, seeking help, expressing concerns, experimenting with unproven actions, or seeking feedback. When employees join a new team or workplace, they observe how their manager and peers react and quickly assess the interpersonal risk associated with a given behaviour. So, an action that might be unthinkable in one team, will be readily taken in another.




Being receptive and open to feedback, especially if it challenges your current mindset, requires being skilful at having difficult conversations. Create opportunities for connections by using words that invite different perspectives and help people feel heard and valued.