Tag: Diversity

It Pays to Understand People

                                                

Understanding people pay great dividends. This is true in many contexts, from interpersonal relationships to business dealings. No matter the context, understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings, motivations, and experiences is an invaluable asset.

People want to be listened to, respected, and understood. One of the most critical aspects of understanding people is empathy. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and seeing the world through their eyes can help you gain valuable insights into how they perceive their environment. This knowledge can be used to improve communication and strengthen relationships. The University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. David Burns noted, “The biggest mistake you can make in trying to talk convincingly is to put your highest priority on expressing your ideas and feelings.”

Research supports the idea that understanding people benefits us in many ways. This includes fostering empathy, improving communication and relationships, expanding one’s perspectives, learning to appreciate diversity, and forming meaningful connections. Dr. David Burns noted the importance of prioritizing understanding and overexpressing one’s own ideas, which is essential for effective dialogue. In order to understand people, effort, patience, and humility are essential. Doing so will lead to numerous rewards, both in personal and professional contexts.

One research study that supports the benefits of understanding people is titled “The Role of Empathy in Interpersonal Relationships” by Souza and Shulman (2018). The study found a positive correlation between empathy and positive relationships, indicating that understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations can help strengthen interpersonal connections. Another study, titled “Appreciating Differences: Cultivating an Understanding of Diversity” by Gomez and Pollack (2012), found that taking time to understand different perspectives can foster a sense of appreciation for diversity in society.

So, by striving to understand people, you can open yourself up to new possibilities and ideas. Hearing a different perspective can help expand your horizons, challenge existing assumptions, and encourage you to think more critically. By embracing this open-mindedness, you can learn to appreciate the value of diversity and foster a sense of mutual respect for those around you.

Understanding people is an ongoing journey that requires effort, patience, and humility. Whether a simple conversation or a complex business negotiation, taking time to listen and learn from others can pay dividends in the long run. By fostering an understanding of people and their experiences, we can create meaningful connections, open up new opportunities, and build a more equitable and inclusive society.

Here are a few tips that can help.

Understanding people is a skill that can be improved with practice. Here are some tips to help you understand people more effectively:

1. Be Present—Take time to listen to what others say, and don’t simply wait for your turn to speak.

2. Ask Questions—Show genuine interest in the other person’s perspective and ask questions to help clarify points of confusion.

3. Avoid Judgments—Stay away from making assumptions or judgments about someone else’s beliefs or experiences.

4. Connect—Try to find common ground or shared experiences that can help foster connection.

5. Summarize—Summarize the conversation and ask if you still need to include anything to ensure everyone has had an opportunity to be heard.

By taking the time to understand people, we can create more meaningful relationships and build a better future for us all. So, make understanding people your top priority today.

Dr. D

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Are Your Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Working?

Today diversity and inclusion efforts are a part of the core strategy amongst top organizations, no longer are most companies giving lip service that in order to be competitive in a global workforce, a diverse workforce is necessary.

Although the business case for diversity and inclusion (D&I) may be clear to you, everyone in your organization may not be on board. One reason is that while people usually understand the benefits of D&I in theory, they sometimes find them harder to relate to their everyday experiences at work. Even teams that are highly effective because they are diverse might not connect their performance to their composition.

Not having your employees on board can put your organization’s efforts to build a diverse and inclusive brand at risk. To create a culture of inclusion that everyone subscribes to is not a quick and easy task. If you want to prevent a disconnect between your D&I goals and the on-the-ground experiences of your employees and clients, here are five pointers to bear in mind.

1. LEADERSHIP PLAYS A CRITICAL ROLE
An organization’s diversity and inclusion efforts will fail without leadership commitment. As important as bottom-up initiatives are, diversity and inclusion need to be embedded in the way the organization operates. It needs to be a strategic priority and not an optional add-on. It’s the leaders who show what is important for the organization. They are also the role models who shape the organizational culture.

2. EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ON BOARD
If any of your employees feel excluded from diversity initiatives, they will most likely not subscribe to the messaging. Make sure you consult regularly with staff representing all the different groups in your workplace to get their input and have them shape your diversity and inclusion activities.

3. GOOD COMMUNICATION IS KEY
To ensure that everyone on your team sees the link between diversity, inclusion and business success, it is crucial for leadership to be thoughtful and consistent in communicating the reasons behind D&I efforts.

4. START AT THE BEGINNING
The hiring and onboarding process is the first contact a new employee will have with your organization and can leave a lasting impression. Look at your recruitment and onboarding procedures. Where do you distribute your job postings? What questions do you ask in an interview? What does your onboarding process look like? Simple things like assigning a new employee a mentor or creating a list of frequently used acronyms can be quite helpful.

5. INCLUSION IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
Being inclusive is something you need to keep doing, consciously, again and again. An organization should regularly examine its practices and policies through a D&I lens and provide training to employees so they all have the awareness, skills and knowledge required to build a more inclusive work culture.

It might seem overwhelming at times, but through collaboration and taking small actions, you will make progress. As the famous proverb goes, “the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”hey are diverse might not connect their performance to their composition.

by Anna Kostecka

Are Your Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Working?

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