Welcome to the Add Ideas Podcast. Picture this. A vibrant community made up of diverse
voices, ideas and accomplishments. Everyone shines confidently, their contributions celebrated,
their successes shared and belonging strongly reinforced. What invisible or visible walls
need dismantling, like dangerous assumptions or access issues? Are there empty chairs at
the table waiting for voices that haven't been heard or much needed? Who decides who
gets a seat and who is left behind and why? What should everyday progress look like to
get us there? I am Bandile Mndebele. Today, I am going to be talking about building good
ideas. Let's break it down. Inclusion. Inclusion is mainly targeted at feelings. How do
you feel in the space? How do you feel when you go to work? How do you feel when you have
to raise an issue with your manager? Inclusion is built on 7 factors.
Number 1. Psychological safety. Psychological safety is all about having little to no fear
of being yourself, communicating your ideas, needs or perspective constructively. Giving
honest feedback and participating or showing up authentically in the way that you feel
most comfortable to be yourself. So how does that look like? There must already be existing
trust or accountable leadership that not only embraces this in action but supports continuous
learning. So there is no shaming culture on how people learn or approach their curiosity
and development. Leaders encourage you to communicate regularly, not just at certain intervals.
People are trusted to work or deliver results based on their strengths and abilities and are
not micromanaged. The next one is intersectionality. This means that there are no barriers to being
at the table. Microaggressions and biases are actively worked on to limit harm or trauma
for that matter. Intersectionality is all about allowing different types of diversity
and abilities to be prioritized. So that means that your identity is more than just one thing.
For example, I am not just black, I am not just agender, I am not just neurodiverse.
Everything informs who I am. I cannot separate one part and live it out. Tomorrow I will
always have those diversity factors. Number three, active listening. So that means listening
to understand and not to respond. There is empathy and a strong intention to align your
growth priorities towards your desired path. Your needs are clearly understood and your
lived experience is not undermined. People or leaders ask you clarifying questions that
avoid misunderstanding or misstating what the outcome should be or look like to support
you. There is authenticity. Number four, who you are and what you want to achieve or build
towards is seen, understood, celebrated and elevated. There is no frequent or unnecessary
code switching. Number five, there is positive representation. You see yourself represented
throughout all levels of the organization, company and leadership easily or throughout
the event. There are no excuses for why you cannot contribute to power structures, processes
or influence decisions and approaches to engage with leaders. You can access or find a sponsor,
mentor or coach who is culturally competent and aligns with your values, passions or growth
and career objectives. More importantly, the effective decision-making powers and organizational
support to create results or drive change don't limit who or what can be done. So what
does positive representation also look like? This means that diverse leaders are not just existing
as tokens to create beautiful presentations and reports or for companies to say, oh no,
we have one woman as a leader or we have two women and people of color or black people
in part of leadership and they stop there. No, those diverse leaders are empowered to
enforce decisions are empowered to create and contribute to solutions and drive change
that is much necessary to bring about the impact, the results that is needed in the
space. Leadership means leaders, including managers are accountable and transparent in
their unwavering commitment towards implementing people growth strategies, holistic well-being
and wide representation, meaning that they are continually building trust, reinforcing
equity at every step through policies, programs, sponsorships, mentorships and a lot
more and they provide meaningful work or opportunities for you to build the career that best fits
you. Number seven, zero tolerance. That means everyone
understand as it's made a way of zero tolerance for behaviors and discriminatory practices
that means tacit or subtle forms of exclusion that create trauma. There's not any kind of
discrimination against your age, your disability, your health, your gender, your race, your
sexuality and a whole lot more other diversity elements. Next, we're going to be breaking
down diversity. So diversity answers who you are, who you are is informed number one by
intersectionality. This means every factual element of what makes you you is not shamed
or dismissed. No one asked you to stop or edit who you are. No one asked you to stop
being black. No one asked you to stop being whoever you are in this space. There is no
reason to hide your diversity or code switch.
Code-switching means that number one, you feel the need to assimilate far more than you are to
represent your authentic self. So you don't feel safe. There's no psychological safety
for you to be who you want to be. Neurodiversity, right? That's number two, your overall
neurotype. That means your brain function, how your brain is wired, your sensory processing,
cognitive processing and social interaction styles is supported. Different neurotypes and
conditions such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, bipolar, OCD and a whole lot more are not seen
as an unorthodox, abnormal or even silenced. Number three, there is support for diversity.
People from different backgrounds find it easier to come in, connect, collaborate, grow, stay
in the firm and have a meaningful career along the way. They're able to build relationships
that work, seek opportunities that allow them to go up the ladder. People are encouraged
with their contributions and successes. There is support for them throughout the ladder.
There is no glass ceiling. There are no any issues or excuses about why people cannot
progress. Number four, thrive. From acquisition, and onboarding to your exit. Who you are does
not limit your compensation or pay, your opportunities to get promoted or what you cannot do or
go about for you to succeed. You feel valued. The next one we're going to be tackling is
equity. The key questions with equity is how do we finish together? Number one, we look
at excess. Who needs better excess? Before we begin about excess, I have to first start
about separating equality and equity because many of us confuse the two. Equality mainly
answers how does everyone start together? Equity is not about everyone starting together.
It focuses more on how do we finish together? There's a big difference. So finishing together
means people have to start at different points and allow the need and the excess and the
opportunities to create fairness throughout the systems. How does justice look
like across different communities? Our leaders and managers are committed to growing their teams
and allocating different communities that need to thrive or have an opportunity to do
so or to even come in to even start in a place that allows their abilities to grow and to
succeed. Now let's look at accessibility. There are two main factors to consider with
accessibility is how do we target support to allow people to thrive? Number one, universal
design. How your job environment is built and designed or communicated to allow different
types or different norms or disabilities and abilities to exist and work safely or productively.
This allows more equitable outcomes. Number two, neuroinclusion. That means creating
an inclusive environment that recognizes and values the diverse ways that people think
and process information, particularly focusing on integrating and supporting individuals
who are a neurodivergent? How does the environment support our brains and consider important
factors? ADHD, dyslexia, autism, bipolar, OCD, social anxiety disorder and many more.
We're going to be tackling now in our last bit, sustainability, which is now a very hot
topic throughout different types of communities, whether you are in investment, wherever
you are in your career right now, whatever that looks like sustainability is a growing
need also in inclusion. Key to understanding sustainability is about answering one question.
How do we build long-term success by considering ESG factors and impact where everyone feels
empowered to contribute? For example, where no one is left behind. Number one, you have
to look at representation. Is the environment truly representative? Who is in the margins?
Economic. Is it financially inclusive or considerate of different income levels? So you are looking
at inequality or pay gaps and inequities. Number three, how are resources allocated and
Are our decisions intergenerational? Impact exists beyond not just the present, but beyond the
present. So looking at future considerations and how our decisions impact and influence
the next generation that is to come. Number four, looking at, for example, partnerships
are all decisions developed and implemented in a way that creates number one agency. Number
two, and support advocacy. How are we sponsoring talent or people to rise together? We have
just learned the key factors of building ideas. This breakdown is mainly a summary of what
or how to go about building good ideas wherever you go, wherever you are. Thank you so much
for joining episode one. How does your ideas look like? What do you want
to build towards your ideas? Your good ideas? Please let us know. We shall build ideas together.
Thank you and chat soon.