4.3 Strategies to Help You Talk About Inclusion
Hire a consultant
One of your options to begin a conversation is to invite resource people in to support your process. Many consultants support governance boards to build cultures of inclusion. It can be helpful to have an outside perspective to give you feedback on the process, and can also increase your level of accountability.
Continue to talk about barriers to include different identities
Your governance board has already done a self-assessment to look at barriers to full participation of all board members. You can continue that conversation, ensuring that you do not focus on only one kind of difference, but acknowledge that difference happens in many different spaces and places, such as those represented in this image, which is also found in Appendix 1. Although there are many kinds of differences among people, the diagram below shows differences linked to structural inequalities. [1]
Your governance board has already done a self-assessment to look at barriers to full participation of all board members. You can continue that conversation, ensuring that you do not focus on only one kind of difference, but acknowledge that difference happens in many different spaces and places, such as those represented in this image above from Appendix 1.
Diversity policies are an important way to address an imbalance of power and privilege in which some identities are over–represented, and others are under-represented. For those who have been under-represented or discriminated against throughout history, it is particularly important that we create a culture and environment that is welcoming to them.
Keep individuals at the centre of the conversation, not only their identities
When talking about the politics of over-representation and under-representation of different groups of people, finding the right language can be challenging. It is important to focus discussions on the individual and that person’s experience. Although an individual’s identity is a part of who they are, take the time to get to know the whole person, not the identity they appear to represent.
- Adapted from Alberta Urban Municipalities Tool (2014). ↵