The Inclusion Paradox
Explore the insightful content on Inclusion Paradox. Delving into diversity and inclusion intricacies, it features engaging articles, discussions, and resources fostering a nuanced understanding. Navigate the complexities of inclusivity across various spheres and broaden your perspectives on this vital subject.
Leading with an Asset-based Mindset instead of a Deficit-Based Mindset - The Inclusion Paradox. Video profile of Andrés for Service Award by Leadershii Greater Chicago (4 mins). So this happened last week. Leadership Greater Chicago — of which I am a proud member of the Class of 2008 as well as of the Board, and now in the Daniel Burnham Fellows program — gave me this year’s LGC Distinguished Service Award.
This recognized a decade of being the Dean of the annual “Race, Identity, and Inclusion” session for each Fellowship class that, as many participants have told me, was a catalyst to profound insights for themselves that opened up new ways of seeing their leadership impact in this world. A recognition like this is always an opportunity to reflect on what is the message that meets the moment. It’s the life-affirming way to go. How Being in a Mass Shooting Changed Me - The Inclusion Paradox. By Andrés T. Tapia I don’t need to, nor want to, paint once again a vivid picture of what happened on that 4th of July in Highland Park. We all know the facts and many of us still can’t shake off what we saw and felt. But the scars and trauma are still there. Even as downtown Highland Park has regained much of its daytime vibrancy and Ravinia Festival is back to attracting music loving crowds at night, we now carry with us an unfamiliar weight that forces us to determine how we are going to deal with it all.
While each person has their own story, here’s mine. I am clearly changed. I am clearly changed. My response to this jumble of conflicting feelings? Behind this feeling, there is indeed anger toward the US’s reckless gun laws that allow weapons of war in the hands of teens and twenty somethings with mental illness, deadly grievances, or both. But my “F*** It” goes way beyond being against something. It’s about choosing to live in the present as if there is no tomorrow. How Fútbol (soccer) Explains My Leadership Style - The Inclusion Paradox. Series note: This is Part 2 of two-part series on leadership style. See part 1 here: “Don’t Be a Generic Leader: The Overlooked Power of Shaping One’s Own Leadership Style.” Here, I invite you to reflect on how you would define your own leadership style by using my own answer to this question as a foil.
Those who know me at work as colleagues or their consultant most likely are aware of my Peruvianness as a leadership style differentiator. In my work, I have leveraged this in multiple ways both in how I express myself but also in how I draw insights and lessons learned. But there is another fundamental dimension that few know about that is key to understanding my leadership style — and given the elevated appreciation for soccer among many previous non-fans due to the Qatar World Cup — it’s timely to share that this identity that shapes my leadership style is as a lifelong fútbol player, coach, and fan.
For me, fútbol has shaped my style through these three concepts: Let’s look at each: DIVERSITY MEANS BUSINESS: Fully Positioning DE&I as an Enabler to Achieving Enterprise Priorities - The Inclusion Paradox. Editors’ Note: This is Part 2 of a four-part article series on Diversity’s reckoning moment. In Part 1, “Diversity’s Moment of Truth: The Path Forward Requires Transformation,” I named three priorities we need to address. Each of the next three posts, starting with this one, addresses one of these priorities. Tangibly demonstrate DE&I’s business relevance. (This post.) The context changes, but my question to those who have asked for help in becoming more diverse, equitable, and inclusive always is the same: So what if you become more diverse and inclusive? The answers roll in: It’s about living our values. We must do better, much better with the answer. But as much as many of us wish this would, and should, be enough, in the business world DE&I needs to also be seen as a means to an end.
In the business world, as much as so many would want it to not be so, without a compelling So What answer, DE&I cannot become enduring. Missing the Mark on Motivating People to Save Going for a Ride. How Fútbol (soccer) Explains My Leadership Style - The Inclusion Paradox. When Diversity and Inclusion Gets Accused of Being Political - The Inclusion Paradox. By Marji Marcus and Andrés Tapia In a lively discussion with a CEO and his executive team about how to effectively respond to the racial reckoning and its impact on our colleagues and employees one of the leaders said, “Why are we even talking about this at work?” The meeting got very quiet. Then, the facilitator, in this case co-author Marji, asked, “Tell me more about your concern.”
The leader doubled down on why “this” wasn’t appropriate for them to focus on in a corporate setting and said it was, “just liberal woke politics.” This kind of moment is becoming more common in corporate DE&I and practitioners are going to have get more adept at preventing societal-wide polarization from sabotaging a process that at its heart is about bringing people together and not driving them apart. So, what to do to not have this dilemma not derail productive organizational conversations? Fostering Dialogues that Connect Rather than Divide Explore the objections and different perspectives without judgment. 5 Disciplines of Inclusive Hospitals - The Inclusion Paradox. DE&I’s Moment of Truth: The Path Forward Requires Transformation - The Inclusion Paradox. Editors’ Note: This is Part 1 of a four-part article series on Diversity’s reckoning moment. In this part, I named three priorities we need to address. Each of the next three posts, starting with this one, addresses one of these priorities.
Tangibly demonstrate DE&I’s business relevance. Address structural inclusion while still addressing behavioral inclusion. The Racial Reckoning of 2020 that turned into The Backlash of 2023 can become The Reinvention of the next decade. Back in 2020, after George Floyd’s murder, for all the justified skepticism accumulated over decades due to dashed expectations, would this time truly be different? For sure, energy, time, and millions of dollars followed the exhortations and outrage. So many promises were made. So many promises were made. Then the counterforces of backlash roared back in rage. Fears of recession in 2022-2023 accentuated the resistance. So, a good number of DE&I budgets tightened up or implementations delayed. WHEN THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER: The Highwire Art of Leading Through Paradox - The Inclusion Paradox.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series on leading through paradox. Part 2 will elaborate on the difference between resolving a dilemma (making an either/or choice) vs navigating through paradoxes (via a both/and approach that imagines and creates alternative possibilities). Part 3 will be a detailed walkthrough of possible ways to navigate through the paradox of operational stability while pressing for breakthrough innovation.
As an elected official of a seven-person City Council in a town of 30,000, I am part of a governing body that continually makes choices loaded with paradoxes. For example, how best to make decisions about economic development that will bring prosperity but may also displace low-income families from their homes? Or how to increase public safety in the aftermath of a mass shooting without eroding privacy? Or how to reduce carbon emissions through a gas-powered leaf blower ban without threatening the livelihood of landscapers with families to support? And on it goes.