How to Become More Inclusive at Work: Why Your DEI Training Probably Isn't Working

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Right, let's cut through the corporate waffle for a moment. I've just sat through my fourth "diversity and inclusion workshop" this year, and I'm convinced most organisations are getting this spectacularly wrong. The facilitator—bless their heart—spent ninety minutes telling us about unconscious bias whilst demonstrating it perfectly by assuming everyone in the room had the same suburban middle-class background.

Here's what nobody wants to admit: most workplace inclusion initiatives are performative nonsense designed to tick boxes rather than actually change anything meaningful.

The Real Problem Nobody Talks About

After seventeen years working in organisational development across Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, I've seen the same pattern repeat itself like a broken record. Companies spend thousands on glossy training programs, hire expensive consultants, and pat themselves on the back for their "commitment to diversity." Meanwhile, the actual workplace culture remains as exclusive as a private golf club in Toorak.

The fundamental issue? We're treating inclusion like it's a compliance problem instead of a business advantage.

Last month, I worked with a logistics company in Western Sydney—won't name them, but they're massive—and their approach to inclusion was essentially "don't say anything offensive and we'll all get along." That's not inclusion. That's just basic human decency with a corporate PowerPoint template.

Real inclusion means creating an environment where different perspectives aren't just tolerated, they're actively sought out and valued. It means acknowledging that the bloke who grew up in housing commission might have insights about customer service that your MBA graduate doesn't. It means recognising that your colleague who speaks three languages probably understands cross-cultural communication better than your training manual.

Why Traditional DEI Training Falls Flat

Most diversity training programs are built on three flawed assumptions:

First, they assume people are naturally prejudiced and need to be taught not to be. That's backwards thinking. Most people aren't actively trying to exclude others—they're just operating within systems that accidentally exclude people.

Second, they focus on what not to do instead of what to do. "Don't make assumptions about people's backgrounds." "Don't use exclusionary language." "Don't, don't, don't." It's like trying to teach someone to drive by only telling them where not to steer.

Third—and this is the big one—they treat inclusion as an HR responsibility rather than a leadership competency. Your managers need emotional intelligence training just as much as they need technical skills training.

The result? Employees sit through sessions, nod politely, and then return to their desks without changing a single behaviour.

What Actually Works: The Practical Stuff

Here's where I probably lose some of you, but I'm convinced the best inclusion strategies are often the most obvious ones that everyone ignores because they're not sexy enough for corporate presentations.

Start with hiring practices that make sense. If your job ads are full of buzzwords and "cultural fit" requirements, you're accidentally filtering out perfectly capable people. I worked with a tech startup in Adelaide that couldn't figure out why they weren't attracting diverse candidates. Turned out their job descriptions read like they were written by and for university graduates who spoke fluent startup jargon. We simplified the language and specified exactly what skills were actually required—not just preferred. Applications from different backgrounds tripled within two months.

Make meetings actually inclusive. Revolutionary concept, I know. But how many times have you sat in a meeting where the same three people dominated the conversation while everyone else checked their phones? Create structure that gives everyone a voice. Use round-robin discussions. Ask for input from specific people. Don't let meetings turn into performance theater for the loudest personalities in the room.

Address the small stuff consistently. When someone consistently mispronounces a colleague's name, that's not a minor issue—it's a signal about whose presence matters. When birthday celebrations always happen during lunch hours but some employees can't participate due to dietary requirements, that's exclusion in action. When team drinks always happen at the pub but several team members don't drink alcohol, you're accidentally creating an inner circle.

The magic happens when you fix these seemingly minor problems consistently over time.

The Generational Challenge Nobody Mentions

Here's something that'll ruffle some feathers: age diversity is often the hardest inclusion challenge to address, and it goes both ways.

Younger employees sometimes assume older colleagues are technologically incompetent or set in their ways. Meanwhile, experienced workers occasionally dismiss younger team members as entitled or lacking "real world" experience. Both perspectives are usually wrong, and both create barriers to effective collaboration.

I've seen this play out dramatically in construction companies where apprentices work alongside tradies who've been in the industry for decades. The successful sites are the ones where knowledge flows both ways—where the experienced workers share practical wisdom while learning new approaches from younger team members. The unsuccessful ones turn into generational battlegrounds where everyone loses.

The solution isn't sensitivity training. It's creating opportunities for meaningful collaboration where different generations can see each other's strengths in action.

Why "Cultural Fit" Is Killing Your Innovation

This might be controversial, but I think "cultural fit" as a hiring criterion is mostly garbage wrapped in good intentions.

What companies usually mean by "cultural fit" is "this person reminds me of people who already work here." That's not culture—that's preference for familiarity. True cultural fit means someone who shares your organisation's values and can contribute to its mission, regardless of whether they went to the same schools or have the same hobbies as your existing team.

I worked with a manufacturing company in Newcastle that prided itself on its "family-like culture." Sounds lovely, right? Except their idea of family apparently excluded anyone who didn't enjoy after-work drinks, weekend barbecues, and constant banter about football. They wondered why they struggled to retain employees from different cultural backgrounds.

The breakthrough came when they separated their actual values—safety, quality, respect—from their social preferences. They kept the values, loosened up on the social expectations, and suddenly discovered that diverse teams were actually better at problem-solving than their homogeneous "family."

The Money Side of Things

Let's talk numbers because everything in business eventually comes down to money, and inclusion is no exception.

Research consistently shows that diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones, but the reasons aren't always what you'd expect. It's not just about different perspectives—though that matters. It's about what happens when you force teams to actually communicate clearly instead of relying on unspoken assumptions.

When your team includes people from different backgrounds, you can't rely on shared cultural references or implicit understanding. You have to be more explicit about expectations, more deliberate about communication, more thoughtful about processes. Those skills make every team more effective, not just diverse ones.

A client in the financial services sector—can't name them, but they're huge—tracked the performance of their project teams over eighteen months. Teams with high demographic diversity but poor inclusion practices performed worse than average. Teams with moderate diversity but strong inclusion practices performed significantly better than average. The diversity wasn't the magic ingredient—the inclusion practices were.

Implementation That Doesn't Suck

Right, enough theory. Here's how to actually implement inclusion strategies that work:

Start small and be specific. Don't launch a company-wide inclusion transformation. Pick one team, one department, one specific practice. Change that thing properly, measure the results, then expand. I've seen too many grand inclusion initiatives collapse under their own weight because they tried to change everything at once.

Make it about performance, not politics. Frame inclusion as a performance improvement strategy, not a social justice initiative. Both are valid, but the performance angle gets buy-in from people who might otherwise resist change. Communication training becomes more appealing when it's positioned as a business advantage rather than a moral obligation.

Train managers first, everyone else second. Your frontline employees can't create inclusive environments if their managers don't know how to support them. Invest in leadership development before you worry about company-wide awareness sessions.

Measure behaviour change, not attitude change. Don't survey people about whether they feel more aware of unconscious bias. Track whether meetings run differently, whether hiring patterns change, whether retention improves among underrepresented groups.

The truth is, most inclusion challenges aren't actually that complicated to solve. They just require consistent attention and willingness to change processes that everyone's gotten comfortable with.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Resistance

Here's what inclusion advocates don't want to acknowledge: some resistance to inclusion initiatives comes from legitimate concerns that get dismissed too quickly.

When long-term employees worry that diversity hiring means their experience is no longer valued, that's not necessarily prejudice—it might be poor communication about what's actually changing. When managers feel overwhelmed by the complexity of navigating different cultural expectations, that's not resistance—it's a training need.

The most successful inclusion efforts I've seen address these concerns directly rather than labeling them as problematic attitudes. They provide clear information about what's changing and what's not. They offer practical tools for navigating complexity rather than just telling people to "be more sensitive."

This doesn't mean accommodating actual prejudice or accepting discriminatory behaviour. It means distinguishing between people who oppose inclusion and people who need help implementing it effectively.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Inclusion isn't just about being nice to people—though that's obviously important. It's about creating organisations that can actually adapt and thrive in a changing world.

Homogeneous teams are comfortable, but comfort is the enemy of innovation. When everyone thinks the same way, you miss opportunities and repeat mistakes. When everyone comes from similar backgrounds, you develop blind spots about customer needs and market changes.

The businesses that will dominate the next decade are the ones that can harness different perspectives effectively. Not just collect them like trading cards, but actually use them to make better decisions.

And frankly, from a pure self-interest perspective, inclusive workplaces are just more pleasant places to spend your time. When you don't have to constantly navigate unspoken social rules or worry about whether you "fit in," you can focus on actually doing good work.

Getting Started Tomorrow

If you're serious about improving inclusion in your workplace, here's what you can do starting tomorrow:

Look at your next three meetings. Are the same people talking every time? Are you making assumptions about what everyone knows or understands? Are you accidentally excluding people through timing, location, or format choices?

Review your team's communication patterns. Are important decisions made in informal conversations that some people aren't part of? Do you have channels for input that work for different communication styles?

Examine your celebration and social practices. Do they assume certain religious, cultural, or personal preferences? Are there ways to honour achievements and build relationships that include everyone?

Check your feedback and development processes. Are you giving everyone equally specific and actionable guidance? Are advancement opportunities equally visible and accessible?

None of this requires expensive consultants or elaborate training programs. It just requires paying attention and being willing to adjust practices that might be accidentally excluding people.

The goal isn't to eliminate all differences or create some bland, corporate uniformity. It's to build workplaces where different kinds of people can do their best work together. That's not just good for society—it's good for business.

And if that's not enough motivation, consider this: the companies that figure out inclusion now will have a massive competitive advantage over the ones that are still struggling with it in five years' time.

The question isn't whether inclusion matters. The question is whether you're going to be ahead of the curve or behind it.

Because one way or another, this is where business is heading. You can either develop your workplace team proactively or find yourself playing catch-up later when it's much more expensive and difficult to change.