Striving to achieve true culture change is one of the most ambitious acts an organisation can take. As more and more companies look to do just that by fostering more inclusive cultures, awareness of microaggressions – and how to shift them – is vital. 

(Unsure of what a microaggression is? Worry no more – read this)

There are, of course, a number of challenges. One challenge might be how to present a topic like microaggressions to people across an organisation. Do you focus on specific examples, e.g. racial microaggressions? Do you give all possible examples? Or talk about the concept more generically?

As with any case of redirecting a culture towards inclusion, there are a number of change advocates we can work with and rely on to make sure the change is successful.

Leaders

Successful change initiatives don’t need to start at the top – but it helps. Topics like inclusion, and the minutiae of microaggressions, particularly benefit from a clear and consistent change narrative, agreed and communicated by leaders. This should answer the big questions. Where are we going? How will we get there?

HR

The unsung heroes of modern change initiatives, HR professionals (particularly business partners) can make the difference. If they’re engaged. Swamped with multiple priorities and demands, creating the time and energy to focus on topics like inclusion will always be challenging. But with focus and direction, HR can bring inclusion to life across the organisation – whether by modelling best practice or by coaching and supporting clients. 

Employee networks

Networks and employee groups play a huge part in supporting diversity in organisations. They can be used to enhance inclusion because they offer an opportunity for people to share experiences, particularly around microaggressions. As we learned in this article, a debilitating factor of a microaggression is how people often struggle to talk about them. Coaching employee groups in what to look for and how to talk about these concepts can enhance their ability to provide support. Bringing others into these conversations, such as HR, leaders or interested individuals, can also help to enhance awareness about particular types of microaggressions faced by people in their organisations.

Managers

Sometimes heralded as change leaders, other-times condemned as the ‘clay layer’ at which all change stops. Whichever view you take, the manager population will make or break a change initiative. What is it managers need? Support on what they can do to be more inclusive and how that ties in to managing performance. The positioning of a topic like microaggressions, for example, needs to be less about the general concept and more about how it features in giving feedback. The last thing you want to hear from a manager is praise for a part-time working mother along the lines of – “you do so well, particularly given you have to go home and look after your daughter”. Targeted training can support this transition, along with further resources – e.g. toolkits.

Individual contributors and catalysts

Real change occurs when you see a difference in the behaviour of individual contributors. ‘Catalyst’ is the term for an individual contributor who is also an influencer – someone who motivates and affects real change in their colleagues. Finding 10% of the individual contributors who fit this mould and supporting them by communicating the organisation’s vision, along with enhancing their skills in noticing and acting on things like microaggressions, can achieve greater change at low cost. 

Inclusion has recently become a cultural priority for many organisations. With more insights coming out regularly about the value of inclusion, the number of organisations deciding to change their culture is only going to increase. We need a big picture view of concepts like microaggressions – moving them from being a problem between two people to a cultural challenge. And we need clear investment and strategy across the whole organisation to shift metrics in our favour.

It’s a problem worth solving. After all, we’re aiming for a workforce where people feel able to bring their best selves to work while feeling they belong in the team and company they work for. In return we receive improved performance. What could be more worthwhile than that?

Iain Smith is a behavioural psychologist at Mind Gym. www.themindgym.com @themindgym