Глава 1
Unlocking the Power of Uniqueness and Belonging
Imagine a workplace where everyone feels they can be their authentic selves while still being part of a cohesive team. This isn't just a utopian dream-it's the foundation of truly innovative organizations. In her groundbreaking book "Inclusify," Stefanie K. Johnson reveals how leaders can harness both uniqueness and belonging to build high-performing teams. The concept has garnered attention from business titans like Marc Benioff of Salesforce, who transformed his company's culture after a female leader challenged his assumptions about equal pay. Johnson's research-backed approach has been embraced by companies ranging from Google to PepsiCo, with studies showing diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets. As workplace demographics shift and younger generations demand more inclusive environments, Johnson's framework offers a timely roadmap for leaders seeking both ethical and competitive advantages in today's business landscape.
Глава 2
The Dual Human Need: Uniqueness and Belonging
We all share two fundamental human needs that seem contradictory: the desire to belong and the desire to be unique. Neuroscience research has shown that the pain of exclusion activates the same brain regions as physical pain, specifically the anterior cingulate cortex, explaining why we instinctively seek acceptance. Yet simultaneously, we crave authenticity-wanting our unique talents valued and voices respected. When these needs are balanced, we experience true inclusion, leading to higher engagement, creativity, and psychological safety.
For underrepresented groups, workplace belonging challenges are magnified and manifest in various ways. Consider Jay, a Black asset manager who was mistaken for hotel staff at a conference despite wearing a business suit-a humiliating experience that made him skip networking opportunities. This happens frequently to women and people of color; one study showed 57% of women of color and 50% of women lawyers have been mistaken for non-lawyers, compared to just 7% of white male lawyers. These microaggressions accumulate over time, creating what researchers call "belonging uncertainty" - a persistent doubt about one's acceptance in professional settings.
The strain of hiding central aspects of identity is exhausting, consuming significant cognitive and emotional resources. LGBTQ individuals face particularly difficult challenges-like football star Ryan O'Callaghan who hid his sexuality for decades until Chiefs' GM Scott Pioli created a safe space for him to come out, literally saving his life. Research shows that employees who feel they must conceal their identity experience increased anxiety, decreased job satisfaction, and are three times more likely to leave their jobs. True inclusion doesn't mean pretending not to see differences. As Kaiser Permanente's late CEO Bernard Tyson explained, "We don't pretend we're color blind... we face difficult issues and conversations." This approach acknowledges that diversity isn't just about representation - it's about creating environments where differences are valued and discussed openly.
Without both uniqueness and belonging, employees experience different forms of exclusion. When neither exists, people feel invisible-like cleaning staff often ignored in offices, or women and people of color who receive less eye contact or are talked over in meetings. Studies show that being interrupted or overlooked in meetings can reduce participation by up to 33% in subsequent interactions. When accepted only after "covering" or "code-switching," people feel incomplete-belonging but denying their authentic selves. Research indicates that over 60% of employees report covering some aspect of their identity at work. Conversely, those recognized for uniqueness but facing isolation feel insular-detached and alone, often being seen as the "token" representative of their group.
True inclusion means feeling valued and accepted for who you are-your ideas recognized and your membership essential. Inclusifyers build teams where everyone belongs while acknowledging unique talents and perspectives, helping everyone contribute to shared goals. Successful organizations implement specific practices like rotating meeting facilitators, creating employee resource groups, and establishing mentorship programs that support both belonging and uniqueness. These efforts lead to measurable improvements in employee retention, innovation, and team performance.
Глава 3
Breaking Unconscious Bias: The First Step Toward Inclusion
Most of us don't understand unconscious bias or resent being accused of something we can't defend against. Yet we all have these biases-they're normal products of how our brains process information. Our minds handle 11 million pieces of information per second while we're only conscious of about forty, forming quick associations necessary for survival.
We develop mental prototypes for different roles based on what we commonly observe. When thinking of secretaries, we picture women; for CEOs, white men-because that's what statistics show. Only 19 Fortune 500 companies are headed by minorities and 24 by women, despite women making up 51% of the population.
These biases affect our perceptions in subtle ways. After having my daughter, I started closing my office door to work efficiently. A well-meaning colleague told a job candidate, "She just had a baby, so she's not in much anymore" when passing my closed door. Though not intentionally sexist, his unconscious bias led him to assume motherhood meant I wasn't working, potentially affecting my opportunities. Meanwhile, my husband who also became a parent that same day was never assumed to be home with his child when his door was closed.
To overcome biases, we need the ABCs: Admit it, Block it, Count it. Admission means acknowledging biases exist in everyone. Attempting to suppress biases actually makes them more powerful, creating what psychologist Daniel Wegner called "paradoxical effects of thought suppression." Organizations like PwC and Facebook use unconscious bias training, which has shown success in increasing diversity hiring.
Blocking bias means creating systems that prevent it from affecting decisions-establishing criteria before reviewing candidates, judging people against consistent standards, and making choices based on qualifications rather than "culture fit." Anonymizing assessments proves highly effective: GapJumpers found that removing names from applications reduced the percentage of white, male, able-bodied candidates advancing to interviews from 80% to 40%.
Finally, counting means measurement-setting goals and benchmarks. As Derek Bang of Crowe notes, "If 50% of our new hires are women, but only 20% of our senior managers are women, something's systemically wrong." The goal is diverse teams at all levels to benefit from different perspectives.
Глава 4
Three Essential Lessons for Inclusifying Leaders
Before effectively Inclusifying, leaders must understand three fundamental lessons about workplace diversity and inclusion that shape modern organizational dynamics.
First, the playing field is not level. People start from vastly different positions and face different obstacles to reach the same achievements. Using Dolly Chugh's flight analogy, some people face headwinds (like flying west) that slow their progress, while others benefit from tailwinds pushing them forward. For instance, first-generation college students who pay their own way through school may take twice as long to graduate, working multiple jobs while studying. Their extended timeline reflects circumstances, not capability or commitment. Consider Sofia Montoya, who survived multiple heart surgeries and worked full-time to pay her tuition - her journey demonstrates exceptional resilience and problem-solving abilities that bring valuable perspectives to organizations. Similarly, immigrants learning English while pursuing professional careers often face additional hurdles that their native-speaking colleagues never encounter.
Second, systems can create inequality even without individual bias through self-perpetuating cycles of disadvantage. Poor people often live in neighborhoods with underperforming schools, creating disadvantages in college preparation. The statistics are stark: at elite universities, fewer than 5% of students come from the bottom 20% of earners, while over 70% come from the top 20%. Racial wealth disparities compound these effects: Black families have 5 cents and Hispanic families 6 cents for every dollar of white wealth, limiting educational and professional opportunities across generations. Companies inadvertently perpetuate these inequalities by recruiting primarily from elite schools and requiring unpaid internships that many cannot afford to take. However, organizations can address systemic biases through concrete actions - like YouTube's extension of maternity leave to eighteen weeks, which cut women's attrition rate in half, or companies like Accenture removing degree requirements for roles where they aren't essential.
Third, we live in a post-#MeToo world that has fundamentally transformed workplace dynamics and relationships. Comprehensive research comparing 2016 (pre-#MeToo) to 2018 reveals significant changes: unwanted sexual attention toward women dropped from 66% to 25%, and sexual coercion decreased from 25% to 16%. However, workplace hostility toward women paradoxically increased from 76% to 93%, indicating a concerning backlash effect. Many men report anxiety about false allegations and express reluctance to mentor women or meet alone with female colleagues - with 60% of male managers saying they're uncomfortable mentoring women in private settings. Organizations must address these challenges through multiple approaches: implementing robust bystander intervention training, actively enlisting men as allies in gender equity initiatives, showing empathy toward all perspectives while maintaining clear boundaries, and creating transparent systems that both prevent harassment and protect against false accusations without sheltering genuine predators.
After understanding these fundamental lessons, leaders must move from awareness to action by implementing specific strategies tailored to their leadership style and organizational context. This requires ongoing commitment to measuring progress, adjusting approaches based on feedback, and creating sustainable change rather than quick fixes.
Глава 5
The Meritocracy Manager: When "Best" Becomes a Barrier
Meritocracy Managers believe in hiring, promoting and rewarding based solely on performance. This mindset often stems from personal experience-having achieved success through hard work, they believe anyone can succeed through sufficient effort. While valuing excellence isn't wrong, this approach creates unexpected diversity challenges.
The fundamental problem is that merely invoking "meritocracy" triggers bias. Research shows HR professionals evaluating identical resumes rated male candidates higher when told the company valued meritocracy. People unconsciously associate merit with white men, so hiring anyone else feels like "lowering the bar." Studies reveal that unless explicitly proven otherwise, people assume women and people of color were hired through affirmative action rather than merit.
Meritocracy Managers create homogeneous teams with dangerous "dead zones"-areas without diverse perspectives or data. While individual intelligence matters, team diversity matters more for effective decision-making. The "myth of multiplicity"-believing the best team consists of multiple copies of the "best" person-fails because effective teams need complementary skills and perspectives. A football team of all quarterbacks would be crushed by opponents with diverse specialized players.
Our brains ingeniously reverse-engineer merit criteria to justify unconscious preferences. In studies where participants chose between "book-smart" and "street-smart" police officer candidates, whichever quality the male candidate possessed was deemed more important for the job. The solution is simple: Define Criteria Before Assessing (D-C-B-A) rather than Assessing Before Criteria are Defined (A-B-C-D).
Meritocracy Managers can become Inclusifyers by implementing anonymized assessments-removing names and demographic information from applications and evaluations. The National Symphony Orchestra pioneered this approach in the 1970s by conducting blind auditions behind screens, which made women 50% more likely to advance to finals and 1.6 times more likely to be selected.
They should also embrace aggressive transparency-sharing how decisions are made, the criteria for promotions and pay, and examining practices for bias. The Cloverpop study found diverse teams make better decisions, especially with decision-making transparency. However, transparency requires good communication strategy-sudden transparency without plans to address issues like salary discrepancies can create havoc.
Глава 6
The Culture Crusader: When Similarity Stifles Innovation
Culture Crusaders value organizational culture-the shared beliefs, values, and norms exemplified through employees' collective behaviors. They seek to create teams where everyone understands each other and shares the same values. While they excel at fostering belonging, they often struggle with uniqueness, tending to hire people culturally similar to themselves.
This "similar-to-me" bias stems from our natural tendency to gravitate toward people like ourselves. One board chair explained: "If you make me trade between somebody I know and somebody I don't know who's a woman or minority, I'll take somebody I'm comfortable with... It feels like a Thanksgiving dinner kind of thing."
Culture Crusaders create cohesive but limited environments that lack fresh perspectives. PayPal's founders exemplified this by promoting "culture fit"-hiring people you'd "want to have a beer with" and even disqualifying candidates for hobbies that didn't match their "nerdy culture." This approach created a difficult environment for women, making them less likely to join or more likely to quit.
Highly similar teams risk conformity and groupthink. Solomon Asch's classic experiment demonstrated this by showing how people would knowingly choose an incorrect answer to match the group's consensus. Follow-up research showed people were less likely to conform when groups contained racial diversity (20% conformity versus 32% in homogeneous groups), suggesting diversity improves decision-making by reducing harmful conformity.
Many Culture Crusader companies foster aggressive, competitive environments where blunt feedback and yelling are normalized. Psychology research shows such atmospheres not only exclude those who "can't take it," but harm everyone involved. Even men who claim to thrive in fierce competition experience higher levels of depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse.
Culture Crusaders often let fun become dysfunctional as cultures become invisible to insiders. Our brains scrutinize negative situations for danger but are less cautious during positive emotions, making us susceptible to risky behavior when having fun. Even in 2018, companies like Under Armour were still funding strip club visits, while Silicon Valley's "brotopia" culture excluded women, gay men, and religious people.
To become Inclusifyers, Culture Crusaders should update their cultural values and behaviors. Dan Schulman, PayPal's CEO, demonstrated this by making diversity part of the company's mission. When PayPal discovered a gender pay gap in 2015, Schulman committed millions to fix it despite resistance. This alignment of values with actions built trust and contributed to PayPal's impressive growth.
Culture Crusaders should also "go for rogues"-hiring people who bring different perspectives. Research confirms this approach: adding an outsider to homogeneous teams doubled problem-solving success from 29% to 60%, even though team members felt the process was more difficult.
Finally, they should create "culture crews"-diverse, cross-functional groups empowered to solve organizational problems. Medtronic's "Culture Circles" program addresses culture clash from mergers by forming cross-functional task forces. Participants are three times more likely to be promoted and seven times more likely to stay with the company.
Глава 7
Team Players and White Knights: When Good Intentions Backfire
Team Players are typically women or minorities who don't identify strongly with their own demographic group. Having persevered through difficult career paths without special treatment, they hold others to the same high standards and often identify more with the majority group than their own. This distancing behavior emerges when people feel their group is being "clobbered"-they jump ship to a "winning" group to protect their self-esteem.
When Team Players gain power, they often become gatekeepers who prevent others like them from advancing. One Hispanic lawyer admitted she used to find flaws in female candidates' resumes that she wouldn't notice in men's, partly because she felt men expected her to be critical of women. The #MeToo movement helped her realize that as a gatekeeper, her unfairness was harming women's advancement.
Team Players who adopt masculine behaviors to succeed often find this strategy backfires. Research shows women leaders who act masculine without balancing it with feminine behaviors like warmth are less successful. The key to overcoming stereotype threat is adopting a growth mindset-believing talents can be developed through hard work rather than viewing abilities as fixed.
White Knights, meanwhile, genuinely want to support women and minorities, but their protective behaviors often backfire. Their fundamental flaw isn't their support for underrepresented groups but how their behavior inadvertently signals incompetence while alienating other men.
White Knights often view women through a paternalistic lens, similar to how they see their daughters. This benevolent sexism, though seemingly positive, causes people to perceive women as warm but less competent. Research shows that when women accept help, particularly with tasks like fixing computer problems, observers question their competence, while men accepting identical help face no such judgment.
White Knights should focus on empowering team members using the Pygmalion effect-the positive self-fulfilling prophecy that occurs when leaders hold high expectations. Robert Rosenthal's classic studies showed that teachers who believed certain students were "gifted" (though randomly selected) pushed those students harder, resulting in better performance. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, credits her success to bosses who gave her stretch assignments before she was fully ready, making her believe in herself and work harder to prove them right.
They should also address the unequal distribution of office housework-non-revenue generating tasks that carry little reward but consume significant time. Research by the American Bar Association found women of color reported doing 20% more administrative tasks than white men, while white women were 18% more likely to do such work. White Knights should ensure these nonpromotable tasks are distributed equally among all employees.
Глава 8
Shepherds and Optimists: Final Paths to Inclusifying
Shepherds are the female or minority equivalents of White Knights-they support underrepresented groups but face perception problems when they appear to give special treatment to people like themselves. Research shows women and minorities who visibly value diversity are seen as less competent than those who don't, and less effective than white male leaders regardless of diversity stance.
Some diversity initiatives inadvertently alienate men by appearing to devalue traditionally masculine traits. A controversial example comes from Google, where HR materials advised managers not to reward traits "valued by the U.S. white/male dominant culture," including individual achievement and meritocracy. This approach backfired when engineer James Damore wrote a memo claiming men were being treated unfairly under these policies.
Shepherds should build amplification networks where team members support one another. This draws from a strategy used by female staffers in the Obama White House who noticed men dominated meetings. They supported other women through eye contact, echoing positive comments, and reattributing ideas to their original female sources when men took credit.
They should also combat misperceptions through aggressive transparency. When nominating someone for recognition, provide transparent data showing why they deserve it-this silences skeptics and builds confidence in the beneficiary. Finally, Shepherds must develop empathy for their outgroups, whether white men, women, or ethnic minorities.
Optimists believe diversity and inclusion will happen naturally over time. While optimism is generally positive, meaningful inclusion requires deliberate action. Optimists make two critical errors: confusing equality with equity, and believing that achieving diversity means they're done. While equality means giving everyone the same thing, equity means giving people what they specifically need to succeed.
Organizations already practice equity in some contexts-like providing paid smoking breaks for nicotine-addicted employees-but resist applying the same principle to accommodations for parents, nursing mothers, or religious practices. In reality, inclusion is the harder but more crucial element. Deloitte research shows teams with higher inclusion rates outperform others by eight to one, with 74% of employees in inclusive cultures reporting their organization fosters innovation versus just 10% in non-inclusive environments.
Optimists can become Inclusifyers by setting specific, measurable diversity goals. One company flipped the script on hiring practices by requiring finalist slates to include at least two diverse candidates and mandating that hiring managers justify choosing white male candidates. Organizations should also set supplier diversity goals-PepsiCo has been committed to this since 1982, even directing non-diverse suppliers to use minority-owned subcontractors.
Глава 9
The Journey to Inclusifying Leadership
Becoming an Inclusifyer is a continuous journey, not a destination. Most leaders exhibit hybrid characteristics, typically blending different leadership styles-perhaps "40 percent Meritocracy Manager, 40 percent Culture Crusader, and 20 percent Inclusifyer." The key lies in honest self-assessment of your current position and implementing systematic changes for improvement. This hybrid nature allows leaders to draw from various strengths while working toward more inclusive practices.
Johnson's personal journey provides a compelling illustration of this evolution. Growing up poor in Los Angeles with her Mexican mother, she experienced the constant tension of code-switching and cultural adaptation. She never felt she truly belonged because she was continuously self-monitoring-changing her speech patterns, behavior, and presentation to fit different contexts rather than expressing her authentic self. This early experience shaped her understanding of belonging's complexity in diverse environments.
In college, she began navigating the delicate balance between uniqueness and belonging, eventually embracing her identity as a self-proclaimed nerd despite social pressures to conform. This period marked her first steps toward authentic leadership, demonstrating how personal growth influences leadership style. She learned to leverage her distinctive perspective while building meaningful connections with diverse groups.
As a professor, her research consistently revealed significant race and gender disparities across various industries and organizational levels. These findings pushed her toward becoming a Shepherd-actively advocating for diversity and inclusion, sometimes taking confrontational stances when necessary. Like many working mothers, she faces ongoing challenges balancing career demands with family responsibilities, finding purpose by believing her work creates better opportunities for her children while modeling gender equality in leadership.
The path to becoming an Inclusifyer begins with cultivating deep empathy through multiple channels: engaging in meaningful conversations with people from different backgrounds, establishing mentoring relationships with diverse individuals, creating amplification networks that elevate marginalized voices, and designing meetings that encourage productive dissent and diverse perspectives. For HR leaders, this translates into developing diverse recruitment networks, implementing anonymized assessment processes, and establishing clear evaluation criteria before reviewing candidates. Executives must focus on embedding uniqueness and belonging into core organizational values, setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) diversity goals, maintaining transparency in progress, and taking swift action when issues arise.
The business case for inclusion is compelling and well-documented: diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets and demonstrate superior innovation capabilities. Research shows that a 1% increase in gender diversity correlates with a 3% increase in sales revenue, while a 1% increase in racial diversity corresponds to a 9% increase in sales performance. However, beyond these quantifiable business outcomes, Inclusifying creates transformative workplaces where all employees can thrive-bringing their whole, authentic selves while experiencing genuine belonging and contributing their unique perspectives to organizational success.
