Embracing a growth mindset is absolutely vital for issues of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility—we call this the IDEA journey at TiER1, because the journey requires continued awareness, reflection, learning, and unlearning to be more inclusive while acknowledging the diversity in everyone and considering how to create a more accessible and equitable experience for everyone.
Our IDEA Journey to Inclusive Conversations was designed to build awareness, educate, and empower conversations about IDEA within TiER1, not only through facilitated roundtables but with accountability partners, colleagues when examining systems or making different decisions, and at home. This journey was designed as a continued opportunity to personally learn and grow in areas which may be challenging and/or unfamiliar.
How do you experience IDEA?
Asking yourself these questions can help you realize how IDEA shows up within your work.
Feeling of IDEA. While every organization is on their journey to deepen a culture of inclusion and everything that feeds into that, when you consider your own journey, what feelings surface for you? What feelings surface as you continue to embark on the journey? Do you notice any shifts, perhaps from a hesitancy to discuss certain topics, to a willingness for dialogue? Do you feel like you have permission to show up as your whole self? How do you acknowledge and honor those feelings while continuing to embrace the tension of the AND?
Language. What language or terminology are you learning and unlearning to be more inclusive of others or named actions? How are you prioritizing learning more along the way? Language has significant power in how we include and recognize others or even place name to an action (e.g., bias, microaggressions, etc.).
Relationships. How can you maximize on the diversity of your colleagues and customers to build trusting relationships and collaborate with impact? Who are you considering when building a team? How often are you cultivating relationships with others who are very different from you versus the same?
People Impacts. What barriers and challenges may exist for the people you’re trying to reach that you may not have yet considered (e.g., language, access to technology, mental health, neurodiversity, underrepresented populations within organizations that have different experiences/needs, etc.)?
Questioning. How has your decision making changed? How do you check your thinking on potential bias? Are you recognizing a lack of representation and taking action or finding ways to amplify voices? What questions do you now ask yourself to drive and embrace new thinking?
IDEA as a lens. What inclusive behaviors and mindsets do you integrate in the way you work with others? Do you see diversity, equity, and inclusion everywhere yet? This is not a standard; it’s simply something to consider.
The above are just a few primers of how to embrace a growth mindset when it comes to IDEA—inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility. Thank you for showing up on this journey with curiosity, bravery, and vulnerability.
