“Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance, and belonging is to dance like no one is watching’. This is a modified version of the statement given by Verna Myers.

There have been certain unfortunate instances of discrimination, in certain parts of the globe, that has brought Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging (DIB) as a top-of-mind concern for employers. Organizations that implement DIB assessments and strategies enable high-performance cultures, protect themselves from reputational risk, and concretely demonstrate commitment to organizational values, which all positively impact business performance. Perhaps most importantly, though, is that organizations are recognizing that pursuing DIB is the right thing to do for society.

But in the organizational context, we often use diversity very specifically as referring to dimensions of race, gender, ability, sexuality, class, age, and religion. Why is that so? Mostly, these are characteristics that are visible and discernible from a distance. These are both easy to measure and easy to track and work on. This may lead to some of the other aspects like values, beliefs, and cognitive aspects to be overlooked.

Some of the easy wins that organizations get from a diversity perspective, are in terms of nationality and geography. An international MNC with offices across APAC, may easily have members of five or more countries in a single team. Though this team may be having similar skills or education, it may still look like a diverse team from an outsider perspective.

But, is diversity alone, sufficient? As a starting point, maybe, yes. But, the next part is do these team members feel truly engaged? If not, soon they will quit, and the diversity situation will be back to square one. The next step is therefore, fostering inclusion, as experienced by the team members. If most of the team members are located in one country, the remote team members may find it hard to feel included. Though, they may get invited to formal meetings through video calls. They may still miss out on say informal dinner parties that are happening beyond office hours for local colleagues. Hence, they would lose out on networking opportunities.

Humans are social beings. We all have an inherent desire to feel that we are an integral part of the team or group that we are a part of. That is what makes the next stage, belonging as an important piece of the equation. The feeling of belonging, is experienced by employees when they are repeatedly included within the team and provided psychological safe environment to be themselves. Where they neither need to cover-up their physical form nor mask their personalities. The acceptance without judgement, can help build a long-term sense of belonging for employees. This then converts into innovation and higher productivity levels for team members. This reduces turnover and adds to the financial performance of the organization in the long run and balanced society at large. Is that not truly a win-win for all? And, so is the journey of moving from Diversity to Inclusion to Belonging in the true sense.