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Welcome to the Add Ideas Podcast. Picture this. A vibrant community made up of diverse

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voices, ideas and accomplishments. Everyone shines confidently, their contributions celebrated,

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their successes shared and belonging strongly reinforced. What invisible or visible walls

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need dismantling, like dangerous assumptions or access issues? Are there empty chairs at

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the table waiting for voices that haven't been heard or much needed? Who decides who

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gets a seat and who is left behind and why? What should everyday progress look like to

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get us there? I am Bandile Mndebele. Today, I am going to be talking about building good

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ideas. Let's break it down. Inclusion. Inclusion is mainly targeted at feelings. How  do

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you feel in the space? How do you feel when you go to work? How do you feel when you have

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to raise an issue with your manager? Inclusion is built on 7 factors.

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Number 1. Psychological safety. Psychological safety is all about having little to no fear

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of being yourself, communicating your ideas, needs or perspective constructively. Giving

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honest feedback and participating or showing up authentically in the way that you feel

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most comfortable to be yourself. So how does that look like? There must already be existing

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trust or accountable leadership that not only embraces this in action but supports continuous

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learning. So there is no shaming culture on how people learn or approach their curiosity

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and development. Leaders encourage you to communicate regularly, not just at certain intervals.

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People are trusted to work or deliver results based on their strengths and abilities and are

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not micromanaged. The next one is intersectionality. This means that there are no barriers to being

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at the table. Microaggressions and biases are actively worked on to limit harm or trauma

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for that matter. Intersectionality is all about allowing different types of diversity

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and abilities to be prioritized. So that means that your identity is more than just one thing.

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For example, I am not just black, I am not just agender, I am not just neurodiverse.

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Everything informs who I am. I cannot separate one part and live it out. Tomorrow I will

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always have those diversity factors. Number three, active listening. So that means listening

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to understand and not to respond. There is empathy and a strong intention to align your

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growth priorities towards your desired path. Your needs are clearly understood and your

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lived experience is not undermined. People or leaders ask you clarifying questions that

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avoid misunderstanding or misstating what the outcome should be or look like to support

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you. There is authenticity. Number four, who you are and what you want to achieve or build

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towards is seen, understood, celebrated and elevated. There is no frequent or unnecessary

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code switching. Number five, there is positive representation. You see yourself represented

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throughout all levels of the organization, company and leadership easily or throughout

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the event. There are no excuses for why you cannot contribute to power structures, processes

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or influence decisions and approaches to engage with leaders. You can access or find a sponsor,

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mentor or coach who is culturally competent and aligns with your values, passions or growth

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and career objectives. More importantly, the effective decision-making powers and organizational

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support to create results or drive change don't limit who or what can be done. So what

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does positive representation also look like? This means that diverse leaders are not just existing

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as tokens to create beautiful presentations and reports or for companies to say, oh no,

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we have one woman as a leader or we have two women and people of color or black people

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in part of leadership and they stop there. No, those diverse leaders are empowered to

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enforce decisions are empowered to create and contribute to solutions and drive change

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that is much necessary to bring about the impact, the results that is needed in the

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space. Leadership means leaders, including managers are accountable and transparent in

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their unwavering commitment towards implementing people growth strategies, holistic well-being

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and wide representation, meaning that they are continually building trust, reinforcing

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equity at every step through policies, programs, sponsorships, mentorships and a lot

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more and they provide meaningful work or opportunities for you to build the career that best fits

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you. Number seven, zero tolerance. That means everyone

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understand as it's made a way of zero tolerance for behaviors and discriminatory practices

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that means tacit or subtle forms of exclusion that create trauma. There's not any kind of

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discrimination against your age, your disability, your health, your gender, your race, your

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sexuality and a whole lot more other diversity elements. Next, we're going to be breaking

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down diversity. So diversity answers who you are, who you are is informed number one by

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intersectionality. This means every factual element of what makes you you is not shamed

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or dismissed. No one asked you to stop or edit who you are. No one asked you to stop

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being black. No one asked you to stop being whoever you are in this space. There is no

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reason to hide your diversity or code switch.

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Code-switching means that number one, you feel the need to assimilate far more than you are to

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represent your authentic self. So you don't feel safe. There's no psychological safety

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for you to be who you want to be. Neurodiversity, right? That's number two, your overall

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neurotype. That means your brain function, how your brain is wired, your sensory processing,

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cognitive processing and social interaction styles is supported. Different neurotypes and

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conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, bipolar, OCD and a whole lot more are not seen

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as an unorthodox, abnormal or even silenced. Number three, there is support for diversity.

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People from different backgrounds find it easier to come in, connect, collaborate, grow, stay

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in the firm and have a meaningful career along the way. They're able to build relationships

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that work, seek opportunities that allow them to go up the ladder. People are encouraged

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with their contributions and successes. There is support for them throughout the ladder.

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There is no glass ceiling. There are no any issues or excuses about why people cannot

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progress. Number four, thrive. From acquisition, and onboarding to your exit. Who you are does

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not limit your compensation or pay, your opportunities to get promoted or what you cannot do or

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go about for you to succeed. You feel valued. The next one we're going to be tackling is

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equity. The key questions with equity is how do we finish together? Number one, we look

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at excess. Who needs better excess? Before we begin about excess, I have to first start

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about separating equality and equity because many of us confuse the two. Equality mainly

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answers how does everyone start together? Equity is not about everyone starting together.

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It focuses more on how do we finish together? There's a big difference. So finishing together

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means people have to start at different points and allow the need and the excess and the

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opportunities to create fairness throughout the systems. How does justice look

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like across different communities? Our leaders and managers are committed to growing their teams

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and allocating different communities that need to thrive or have an opportunity to do

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so or to even come in to even start in a place that allows their abilities to grow and to

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succeed. Now let's look at accessibility. There are two main factors to consider with

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accessibility is how do we target support to allow people to thrive? Number one, universal

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design. How your job environment is built and designed or communicated to allow different

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types or different norms or disabilities and abilities to exist and work safely or productively.

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This allows more equitable outcomes. Number two, neuroinclusion. That means creating

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an inclusive environment that recognizes and values the diverse ways that people think

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and process information, particularly focusing on integrating and supporting individuals

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who are a neurodivergent? How does the environment support our brains and consider important

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factors? ADHD, dyslexia, autism, bipolar, OCD, social anxiety disorder and many more.

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We're going to be tackling now in our last bit, sustainability, which is now a very hot

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topic throughout different types of communities, whether you are in investment, wherever

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you are in your career right now, whatever that looks like sustainability is a growing

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need also in inclusion. Key to understanding sustainability is about answering one question.

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How do we build long-term success by considering ESG factors and impact where everyone feels

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empowered to contribute? For example, where no one is left behind. Number one, you have

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to look at representation. Is the environment truly representative? Who is in the margins?

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Economic. Is it financially inclusive or considerate of different income levels? So you are looking

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at inequality or pay gaps and inequities. Number three, how are resources allocated and

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Are our decisions intergenerational? Impact exists beyond not just the present, but beyond the

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present. So looking at future considerations and how our decisions impact and influence

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the next generation that is to come. Number four, looking at, for example, partnerships

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are all decisions developed and implemented in a way that creates number one agency. Number

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two, and support advocacy. How are we sponsoring talent or people to rise together? We have

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just learned the key factors of building ideas. This breakdown is mainly a summary of what

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or how to go about building good ideas wherever you go, wherever you are. Thank you so much

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for joining episode one. How does your ideas look like? What do you want

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to build towards your ideas? Your good ideas? Please let us know. We shall build ideas together.

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Thank you and chat soon.