This is a recap of Harvard Business Review @HarvardBiz ’s Good Leadership is About Communicating Why, by Nancy Duarte @nancyduarte.

Becoming a bold leader means that communication should be your top priority. More than that, extremely clear communication should be what you’re consistently striving for, because everyone works better when there are no questions left on the table.

Nancy Duarte @nancyduarte.

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The Two Minute Takeaway

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

Get to the crux of the “why” to whatever you’re communicating.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

Think about what action you’re asking your audience to take, and then follow it with “because.”

KEY TAKEAWAY 3

Share ideas you abandoned and why.

Why This Matters

Sharing the ‘Why’ around decisions that have been made, why a pathway chosen, explaining full concepts when problem-solving or coming up with ideas are all incredibly essential the good leader’s toolbox. This will show that you care for others by getting everyone onto the same page.

This is how people become inspired and motivated and how you can become a more efficacious leader and clear communicator (two vital foundations to bold leadership).

How to be seen as a Brilliant and Bold Leader

In today’s ever-evolving remote/hybrid working environments, things are shifting more and more and clear communication could not be more important. In these environments, what leadership skills do you need most?

Communication is at the tippy top of this report that displays votes of the most important skills needed for all management positions (from The Skills Every Leader Needs by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman).

The way you inspire and motivate others is through communication, and the way that communication gets even better is when it’s backed by high integrity and honesty.

As we all know, data never lies!

Here’s a great chart to show you what skills should be polished to move you into that bold leader quadrant:

Using Missions & Proposals, Swae helps our clients be bold leaders by

• getting to the crux of what problems the organization needs solving,
• lets everyone propose actionable ideas complete with justification (‘the because’)
• and gives a transparent archive of ideas that were abandoned so everyone can understand why and start a cycle of continuous improvement. 

This Article refences Harvard Business Review @HarvardBiz ’s Good Leadership is About Communicating Why, by Nancy Duarte @nancyduarte.

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s strategy. From Start-ups to Charities, and Enterprises to DAOs, our clients find that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

Find your next winning ideas using Swae

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This is a recap of Harvard Business Review’s @HarvardBiz “Decisions Without Blinders” study.

Being honest in leadership roles seems as if it’s a no-brainer, but as we well know, that’s hardly the case in many organizations around the globe. It may not always be about “not being honest” but there are still many ways that employees of any company, leader or not, can be more cognizant of information seeking when making decisions.

According to this study’s insight, “Social science research has shown that decision-makers ignore certain critical information without realizing it.” Why? Because of something they’ve coined “bounded awareness,” which means the cognitive blinders that prevent a person from seeing, seeking, using, or sharing highly relevant, easily accessible, and readily perceivable information during the decision-making process. The cause can be anything from hiding information to not asking the harder questions.

“ Most people fail to bring the right information into their conscious awareness at the right time.”

HBR

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The Two Minute Takeaway

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

Failure to see information

According to this research, this has led to massive problems because those who should be aware closed their minds off. This led to the inability to adapt their strategies so that their organizations could thrive. The outcome then becomes a lack of long-term success due to vital mistakes.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

Failure to seek information

“Executives must rely on others to streamline the data flow for them, but they must be skeptical of the absence of contradictory evidence: It’s a red flag indicating highly bounded awareness.”

HBR

Failure to Share Information

Team members frequently fail to share unique information with one another. This is why meetings must have agendas and informational reports from the parties involved in the process of making a decision. Assuming that people will speak up is not, at this time, possible in many workplaces (due to employees not feeling safe to do so, and so much more. We’ve got loads of this kind of research within our resources center here).

Failure to Share Information

Why This Matters

There is going to be a split of how people operate in these remote/hybrid models. Some people can adapt easily and find it more rewarding, and then there will be those that have serious issues separating “being at home” and having to actually DO work at home (emphasis on the fact that they aren’t doing work hardly at all).

Asking questions like the ones shown here in these charts could help you get you ahead of the game when it comes to dealing with issues arising now (versus later). And, this is a time to look to your people to get more ideas as to how to ensure your employees don’t overdo it and end up working way too long not getting proper rest or time away from the computer/phone/whatever other device.

This recap references the Harvard Business Review article Decisions Without Blinders
by Max H. Bazerman and Dolly Chugh

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s strategy. From Start-ups to Charities, and Enterprises to DAOs, our clients find that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

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This is on top of the approx. 4.3 million Americans that left their jobs in December 2021. The event that has been coined the “Great Resignation” and this new data demonstrates that the job separations haven’t slowed down.

“ On the last business day of March, U.S employers reported 11.5 million job openings- the highest number on record”

US Bureau of Labor Statistics Mar 2022

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The Two Minute Takeaway

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

Companies are hiring immediately because people are leaving their positions like never before.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

The reason why so many people are quitting should wake up a lot of leaders in companies around the globe.

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the reason so many are quitting their jobs is due to low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and feeling disrespected at work. These are the top reasons why Americans quit their jobs last year in 2021 (read full article here at Pew Research), and per takeaway one above, this trend continues.

Source, HBR

The bottom line: many of those who switched jobs seek improvements, and they want something more.

Why This Matters

There’s a big reason why people want more and that’s because the world is changing, and it’s changing fast. If leaders aren’t awake enough to see that the “same ole-same ole” isn’t going to cut it anymore, then the companies that they’re with will be left in the dust.

People around the globe have gotten a dose of reality in terms of looking more closely at their work situations and assessing what they desire. Employers that continue the pattern of devaluing their employees with low pay, providing no opportunities for advancement (or at least offering talks about what an advancement pathway might look like), and continue to foster a culture where many feel unsafe and disrespected will be forced to change (or worse, close their doors).

At Swae, we’ve seen this data firsthand. Employees desire to feel safe, valued, and want to feel like they’re on teams that can support real collaboration and where they have a voice. There are countless studies that show this, and you can find more of them here on our site.

People are demanding more and if companies don’t wake up to this fact, we’ll see the numbers of people quitting continue to rise.

https://theorg.com/iterate/u-s-workers-are-quitting-their-jobs-like-never-before  

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/ 

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s strategy. From Start-ups to Charities, and Enterprises to DAOs, our clients find that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

Ready to learn how Swae can help your organization?

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This is a recap of Harvard Business Review’s  @HarvardBiz “The Realities of Remote Work” (download the full PDF at the bottom of this article) by Laura Amico. 

For some great tips for remote work, within this recap (and the full article) there are some essential questions that you should be asking your now to help them get more adapted to the hybrid work environment.  

Asking these questions and getting in front of potential issues is the best way to handle all of this, and we’ve included an extra chart below for some important information about companies offering hybrid work models. This could help your people adjust further, and if your organization can understand that there are some concerns to address then it can combat larger issues that could potentially hit you down the road. 

There are two critical questions that you can ask of your people, and it may behove you to also make an ask for ideas and solutions to help solve the issues that could arise (this is what Swae is meant for!).  

“ How has the pandemic changed how you think about work-from-home opportunities? Have your work-life boundaries shifted in ways that you are happy (or unhappy) with? Does “always on” mean that you are more productive?”

Laura Amico @HiLauraAmico

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The Two Minute Takeaway

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

The pressure is building

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

Trusting how much work is getting done in-office versus at home

Source, HBR

Why This Matters

Here’s some extra research (not provided in the PDF) if you’re curious…

Are you working for a company that’s thinking about getting rid of the hybrid (remote + in-office) work model?

Harvard Business Review did some research around this topic (you can see this in the chart here below) as to what it would mean if a company did NOT offer a hybrid work model now and the numbers are staggering.

If you’ve thought about cutting that hybrid model out, think again! Companies that cut out the hybrid model could lose more than 40% of their employees (this study asked over 10K people in the U.S. which is a pretty good sample set).

Download the HBR Report

This recap references the Harvard Business Review article by Laura Amico @HiLauraAmico.

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s strategy. From Start-ups to Charities, and Enterprises to DAOs, our clients find that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

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This is a recap of Harvard Business Review’s  @HarvardBiz How to Solve Problems by Laura Amico @HiLauraAmico.

“You’d think that many brains working together would mean better solutions, but the reality is that too often problem-solving teams fall victim to inefficiency, conflict, and cautious conclusions.”

Laura Amico @HiLauraAmico

Watch this video recap, or read the full article below.

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The Two Minute Takeaway

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

Approaches to solving problems: there are 5 stages to problem-solving according to this research:

Source, HBR: Why Groups Struggle to Solve Problems Together

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

There’s another batch of research (here) also from HBR regarding the top traits of the best problem-solving teams in workplaces. This research states that highly effective teams that solve problems the right way has a pair of common features: the teams are cognitively diverse and psychologically safe (to note, these are two of the core fundamentals as to what Swae brings to the table!).

Source, HBR

What’s essential to understand is that it’s best to fully map out the problem-solving approach that you’re taking. This will make sure you consistently use everyone’s time wisely (including your own) and allow you to come back to the “what works” time and time again. From this place, you can iterate off of that list, and continuously build the go-to document for your group’s problem-solving best practices (becoming a template to make this process much easier).

Some common approaches to building your group problem-solving best practices list:

• Think about the last problem you had to solve as a team and map out what you remember about each step you’ve used in the problem-solving process.
• Answer these questions after each group problem-solving session: Were you all on the same page at each stage? If not, why? How could you ensure people are in sync as you move through each phase of the problem-solving process? What would you do differently? Take copious notes to ensure you’re tracking against these things so you can make sure you do better each time.
• Take the chart above (how to solve problems) and ask each person where they felt that they ranked. Log what behaviors could be adopted across the group that would help more and more people move into the top-right quadrant.

Why This Matters

Leadership and managers in companies across the board can solve problems faster with groups that have more cognitive diversity (as you gain a lot more perspective), and the engagement and outcomes are far better in environments where people feel psychologically safe to voice their opinions, thoughts and provide ideas/solutions.

Toxic cultures permeate many corporate workplaces where people don’t feel safe speaking up and this has a negative effect on the entire culture and the way people operate day to day. (You can see more on this subject in this research recap here.)

Solving problems is a vital part of any role, even in junior positions, because one person’s decision can affect the entire whole in any workplace (regardless of size or business category). All it takes is one person to make one really bad decision, right?!

Summary and Next Steps

Read the full HBR Article

This recap references the Harvard Business Review article How to Solve Problems

https://hbr.org/2019/11/why-groups-struggle-to-solve-problems-together

by Laura Amico @HiLauraAmico.

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s strategy. From Start-ups to Charities, and Enterprises to DAOs, our clients find that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

Ready to learn how Swae can help your organization?

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MIT Sloan Management Review Research Recap: A Framework for Innovation in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond. A new playbook can help leaders determine which changes will endure and when to invest more in opportunistic transformation.

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The Two Minute Takeaway

Now is a time of great innovation, even during great disruption. Times like these require creativity and innovation ideation that lies outside the box.

In this study, Cromwell and Kotelly analyzed a broad range of organizational responses to the coronavirus crisis over the past year through the lens of the latest research on innovation.

Here’s a recap of the innovation playbook:

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

Innovation types

A Identify the core problem or customer need to address. Explore different approaches and problem solve, this creates a culture of exploration.

B But there are situations with emerging products or companies where the core problem or need is difficult to address or identify via data. This research shows that there is another way to innovate by anchoring on the solution (such as a new technology or patent) and then searching for the core problem.

Many businesses have adopted one or both types of innovation but it can be difficult to know which one to use and when.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

Along with this research, they’ve developed a framework (or a playbook) to help business leaders conduct the analysis on which innovation approach is best. Assessing whether your organization’s response to the pandemic represents the traditional innovation process or the emergent innovation process will help you create sustainable change and make progress by continuously innovating.

See below the company innovation profiles to help you assess where your organization is at with a brief description around each profile.

The Adapter

This quadrant is for businesses that saw temporary changes to demand for products and services they already produced before the pandemic. An example would be the restaurants that created outdoor dining and the successful companies have learned to deliver the same products or services but likely with fewer resources.

The Optimizer

Companies in this profile learned how to reconfigure their resources to satisfy existing customer demand, and must shift their focus to increasing the efficiency by which they deliver these products and services.

The Trendsetter

These companies have developed entirely new products or services that will continue to be in high demand post-pandemic.

The Trailblazer (Emergent Innovation)

Those in this quadrant have used existing resources to solve new problems they had never tackled before.

“Emergent innovation can provide new business opportunities and yield tremendous long-term value, it also presents important challenges for organizations to overcome.”

Why This Matters

One of the good things that has transpired is that companies have been forced in almost every industry to innovate in some regard. Innovation is what drives progress and companies are now being asked to understand the best way to innovate to make changes that are sustainable as well as leverage new opportunities for long-term growth and success. 

Summary and Next Steps

Read the full report to decipher which profile most fits your organization to choose the best ways to drive innovation. 

Read the full MIT Sloan Report

This recap references MIT Sloan Research @MITSloan article:

https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/a-framework-for-innovation-in-the-covid-19-era-and-beyond

by Blade Kotelly @bladek and Johnathan Cromwell @JohnathanCromwell

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and create tomorrow’s strategy. From Start-ups to Charities, and Enterprises to DAOs, our clients find that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

Ready to learn how Swae can help your organization?

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Recap of new book and MIT Sloan’s Review: Easing the Invisible Burdens of Collaboration. A new book delves into collaboration practices and offers creative suggestions to transform them.

Your collaboration efforts could be hurting your organization, but it’s often just because simple things are done incorrectly or ineffectively. Three important questions that will be reviewed in this article recap:

• What precisely do we need in collaborative interactions?
• What are we trying to get out of them?
• How can we optimize our time together?

Download the full report at the bottom of this article ↓

Author and MIT Sloan Management Review contributor Rob Cross, the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College, explores these questions in his new book, Beyond Collaboration Overload: How to Work Smarter, Get Ahead, and Restore Your Well-Being (Harvard Business Review Press).

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The Two Minute Takeaway

Rob Cross’ new book, as noted above, is focused around a methodology called organizational network analysis; this maps the often-invisible informal working relationships through which collaborative work typically gets done.

Invisible implications of the collaborative footprint are increasing burnout and reducing impact.

Cross has found that general collaboration efforts increased the burnout rate because of the invisible implications that put more pressure on people.

“A task may look easy on the project plan, but if it requires you to coordinate across three time zones with two leaders who dislike one another to secure resources from somebody with misaligned incentives — that’s huge in terms of time. And that’s what’s been invisible.”

– Rob Cross

The actual collaborative footprint of work needs to be understood to make collaboration less difficult and have more of an impact. Seeing the invisible elements that take a lot of time is extremely essential to be successful in collaboration. And companies must now create better ways to collaborate in this hyper-connected world.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

Taking on too much (for accomplishment or status) can cause collaboration bottlenecks

When you hit bottlenecks (or the “mid management roadblock” as was mentioned in our last recap here) when trying to collaborate and the creation of new processes and systems to support these efforts, it doesn’t mean that people want to be roadblocks. Rather, what Cross found is that they’ve taken on more than they can handle. People’s internal battles with themselves can cause a whole slew of headaches within an organization.

The “leader who takes on too much” is mentioned frequently in Cross’ book. Many people feel like the collaborative overload/issue is something that’s out there somewhere (external) when the reality is that the internal need for accomplishment or status, or fear, or something else internally that is causing issues to arise.

KEY TAKEAWAY 3

Hold each other to account when hitting roadblocks. 

Sometimes when hitting roadblocks, it means that we need to confront colleagues. And as many of us know, confronting colleagues is difficult (let’s face it, confrontation in general is difficult).

Cross recommends this diagnostic tool here to use with your teams to discuss what you should be holding each other accountable for to help alleviate unnecessary roadblocks.

Its something Steve Jobs insisted upon at Apple- always assigning responsibility for everything, so everyone knew who’s responsible for what. This approach called the “DRI” (Directly Responsible Individual) famously helped to avoid roadblocks by assigning personal accountability, and delivered breakthrough collaboration results. 

KEY TAKEAWAY 4

Collaboration works when you pre-plan how to communicate

• What are the five positive things we want to do in these [communication] modalities?
• What are the practices we want to agree to?
• What do we not want to do to each other?

Eliminate confusion about usage and agree on whatever will work for the team and configure the EXACT way that communications need to go out and what tools will be utilized.

KEY TAKEAWAY 5

Meetings do need to happen- so increment how to make them efficient and effective.

Meeting efficiencies and dealing with this hybrid and/or fully remote workplace situation today is causing more headaches for many teams. Your company must figure out the best ways to have meetings (because meetings do matter and they must happen). Figuring out the best use of people’s time is important today.

“We need to think more, and more carefully, about what we’re bringing into these meeting formats and what can be made more efficient.”

– Rob Cross

In-person meetings have been found to be preferred by many people, but that may not always be possible. There are ways that teams can connect despite being physically distanced from one another, so it’s important to get creative in how to meet to collaborate, and devising new strategies to make the invisible work become less stressful. And, it’s critical to analyze the tools you need for innovation to help make this easier.

There are ways that teams can connect despite being physically distanced, so it’s important to get creative in how to meet to collaborate, and devising new strategies to make the invisible work become less stressful.

Why This Matters

Invisible constraints on a person’s workload causes issues in the workplace and at home. These are not things that we can separate because stress affects the body no matter where a person is located.

Cross’ book brings up important points that collaboration for the sake of collaboration is not constructive, but intentional and purposeful collaboration can be, if done correctly.

Using Swae can help reduce the pressure of collaboration by putting things into a dedicated format, process and workflow. Lots of the ‘thinking behind the thinking’ has been refined by our platform over the years, leaving the creative thinking, innovation and problem solving to your team- thats where great ideas emerge and become the best they can be. 

Summary and Next Steps

When it comes to collaboration, organizations need to act to help employees avoid burnout, and the inevitable HR retention issues we are seeing in the ‘Great Resignation’.  

The world has changed and collaboration is more remote, complex and digital than it ever was. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so don’t expect to change overnight, but a small amount of planning beforehand, and some great digital tools (like Swae) can pay dividends in day to day collaboration. 

Where is your organization seeing overload burnout due to collaboration bottlenecks. 

How can you alieveiate collaboration issues in your organization using the 5 tips above?

Comment below, we’d love to know…

Download the Report

Get the MIT Sloan Report for FREE

This Article references: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/easing-the-invisible-burdens-of-collaboration/ by Deborah Milstein @debmilstein interviewing Rob Cross, @RobCrossNetwork the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College.

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and generate tomorrow’s strategy. Our clients are finding that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

Ready to learn how Swae can help your organization?

More to explore…

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The Two Minute Takeaway

How many organizations say they have “strong DEI programs” yet fail to execute anything truly game-changing for their people?

We would say way too many if we would guess, and we all know that actions speak louder than words!

“We have decades of research saying how fraught diversity, equity, and inclusion can be. How do we change that?” asks Stephanie Creary, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, who co-authored a large-scale research study that shows what practices underlie positive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) outcomes.

Research from Creary’s May 2021 report she co-authored at Wharton is called “Improving Workplace Culture Through Evidence-Based Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Practices,” which describes evidence-based insights that identify which specific actions lead to which kinds of changes.

Download the full report at the bottom of this article ↓

This study states to meet in the middle so that everyone can sync around immediate concerns to address. Many DEI programs are “one size fits all,” and when it comes to DEI programs and initiatives, that doesn’t work.

Creary’s research found that certain practices are more influential in driving specific outcomes than others, so the job is to assess the deeper issues that need to be fixed and drive the DEI action steps from there.

There must be an overarching goal to strive for, not a templated approach.

In Creary’s Work/22 video presentation of their research, some of the more significant takeaways are:

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

KEY TAKEAWAY 3

KEY TAKEAWAY 4

You can watch her full Work/22 presentation video with the seven workplace practices here: https://youtu.be/Rk6bFxEh-6o

Why This Matters

Swae’s CEO/Founder, Soushiant Zanganehpour, has been researching the “why” behind DEI for a long time, and what is found repeatedly is that many companies like to fill their websites full of marketing fluff that they’re all about DEI. Yet, the actions behind these efforts are often sparse, or worse, lacking altogether.

When it comes to DEI initiatives, companies can’t afford lip service anymore because people are expecting more. Here’s our recap of McKinsey & Company’s research here that states why employees desire more of their companies today to build more inclusive cultures (and what organizations can do about it).

Definition of lip service
:an avowal of advocacy, adherence, or allegiance expressed in words but not backed by deeds

Additionally, data proves time and time again that when inclusive environments are created, everybody wins. If you don’t believe us, believe this research we reported on also from MIT Sloan here with comprehensive insight about why inclusion matters and how it changes the game for all involved (especially the organization that does it right!).

So, how can a company move from DEI lip service to taking DEI actions that matter?

The answer is that it’s crucial to figure out which specific DEI actions lead to which kinds of changes and to start from there. This research provides seven focal points to get started (the report can be downloaded below).

Summary and Next Steps

The key is to pick one DEI initiative to focus on and keep working on that until it’s done, then select the following strategy and toolkit, and so on.

Trying to do it all at once never works and isn’t practical nor productive for anyone. That’s what sets up a workplace for DEI failure before they even get started.

Where is your organization making positive strides around DEI?

Where can your DEI programs be strengthened?

Comment below, we want to know!

Download the Report

Get the MIT Sloan Report for FREE

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and generate tomorrow’s strategy. Our clients are finding that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce.

We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can help you find your next winning ideas…

Ready to learn how Swae can help your organization?

More to explore…

Research recap for a McKinsey & Company study: “Survey results show that many employees do not feel fully included at work and want their organizations to do more to advance inclusion and diversity.” 

Inclusion is defined by McKinsey & Company as the degree to which an individual feels that their authentic selves are welcomed at work, enabling them to contribute in a meaningful and deliberate manner. 

“Our survey research finds that respondents of all backgrounds encounter barriers to feeling included—and that women, respondents who are ethnic and racial minorities, and those who identify as LGBTQ+ encounter additional challenges.”

The guts of this research by McKinsey & Company, as our own data has also shown from our clients here at Swae (you can see more on that here), tells us that organizations that make inclusivity a priority can increase innovation, look at and change old ways of thinking (that no longer add value), and improve financial performance. 

People that feel included in their organizations are three times more likely than their peers to feel excited by and committed to their organizations. 

Imagine having a bunch of people working at an organization that feel truly excited and committed! By creating a more inclusive culture, this is how organizations can build teams where there is more trust, and better (and deeper) collaboration. From this point, this is when things can change, and more positive gains can be seen.

There are new generations of workers that are becoming the majority who want to know and feel that they add value, want to be included, and diversity does matter.

There are some common barriers that this study found as to why employees from a diverse set of companies don’t feel inclusion.

1. There are some types of employees that automatically feel less included than others based on their role.

2. There’s a disconnect between the individual capabilities that employees value most and their perception of which capabilities matter most to their organizations.

3. Too many workplace microaggressions happen on a regular basis, which are everyday slights rooted in bias. In every subgroup—by gender, gender identity, minority status, or sexual orientation—more than eight in ten respondents report these indignities.

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The Two Minute Takeaway

On the other hand, there are companies that are doing inclusion right! These were 4 of the common threads that this research found of the companies doing it right (this is how your leadership team can start creating a more inclusive culture within your company):

KEY TAKEAWAY 1

KEY TAKEAWAY 2

Build in meritocracy and develop initiatives to increase fairness in performance evaluations: A meritocratic company culture is strongly associated with a sense of inclusion, as are initiatives that increase fairness in performance evaluations.

KEY TAKEAWAY 3

Provide career advancement sponsorship: If colleagues go out of their way to create professional-advancement opportunities for people, then a strong sense of inclusion is felt.

KEY TAKEAWAY 4

Why This Matters

In this time of uncertainty, companies can win and potentially create a much more successful path if their priorities are shifted to focus on their people. 

These are some of the simple shifts that a company can make starting today:

1. Include all employees in conversations around these efforts that surround creating an inclusive culture. 
2. Build teams that represent this (diverse and inclusive), and it starts with leadership.
3. Change behaviors to be more inclusive. Demonstrate inclusivity through actions rather than words.

Summary and Next Steps

People that feel included in their organizations are three times more likely than their peers to feel excited by and committed to their organizations. There are some common organizational barriers that hinder inclusivity, as there are also common ways to do it right. 

And the bottom line is that the new generations of workers that are becoming the majority want to add value, be included, and they want to see diversity in the leadership and teams because it matters to them. If people see themselves reflected in others, they can be more at ease being who they truly are (this is where the word authentic comes into the equation). 

What organizational barriers can you see in your organization that hinders inclusivity? 

Does leadership (or do you) put real actions and efforts into creating a more inclusive environment within your company? If so, how? 

This Article references:

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/understanding-organizational-barriers-to-a-more-inclusive-workplace

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This is a recap of Forbes: The Future of Crowdsourcing, defining crowdsourcing as an open collaboration process intended to help solve problems, and we find this to be a straightforward definition that’s easy to understand. 

“Crowdsourcing offers an opportunity to bring together large groups of diverse individuals to solve problems with the assumption that diverse groups bringing a variety of opinions and backgrounds can make higher quality decisions than a small group of ‘experts.’” 

Throwing people into a room to brainstorm without any direction, strategy or intention isn’t how crowdsourcing should be done. The process needs as much finessing, organization, and clarity as possible to ensure that it’s effective and productive for all included. 

Plus, there are many things you can crowdsource around, like crowd creativity, crowd voting, crowd contests and challenges, and crowd innovation, to name some examples.

Technology is a crucial aspect in assessing how it can support receiving large amounts of data to find clues and patterns that people may miss. The strategy portion is also important when starting any crowdsourcing process to ensure that it can be more successful.

More Knowledge, Less Time

The Two Minute Takeaway

Here’s the key takeaways from @Forbes on how your can improve your Idea Crowdsourcing and Collaboration strategies:

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Define a clear process:
• 1. Define your goals before you start. To get great participation, there must be intentions set and clarity for all.
     (There’s more great tips in this article How to get better results when Crowdsourcing: Great ideas need a powerful Problem Statement) 
  2. Ask the right questions (don’t skip this simple step)!
  3. Create safeguards to ensure that the process is ethical and productive work for all that are included.
• Bring in the experts inside or outside of your organization to facilitate. 
• Provide valuable data that can support your mission you want to solve for so that the time people take to provide their input is effective. 
• Make sure feedback is given.
• Create safe spaces for people to feel comfortable in sharing their ideas.
• Have an open mind, don’t discount ideas as that kills trust.
• Check intellectual property rights about sharing things surrounding your business (more crucial should you be crowdsourcing with those that aren’t inside of your organization). 

Why This Matters

“In a world where the challenges we face become increasingly complex, finding methods of bringing together crowds, experts, and technology in ways that facilitate creative and beneficial solutions presents exciting opportunities where a great many ‘laypeople’ can engage in activities that they enjoy while solving real-world challenges.”

Giving people a voice or at least a place to be included to vote on new ideas or solutions to problems truly helps people collaborate at much deeper levels. 

Feeling more valued is important to most humans and developing this kind of environment in an organization can be a way to create more trust amongst your people. And creating more trust means more collaboration can happen, so it can also mean more people want to engage. Crowdsourcing is integral in creating a speak-up culture, and in this type of environment, everyone wins. Here’s a great research recap with more insight on the speak-up culture topic.

Summary and Next Steps

Crowdsourcing is a powerful idea and solution-finding process that can enable all kinds of good things to blossom within your company, like deeper collaboration, more engagement, more trust amongst the people involved, and so much more. But there is a well-defined way that this should be done to ensure these efforts can be successful because throwing people into a room to brainstorm isn’t the right strategy (that’s a lack of strategy and won’t give you results you seek). 

Looking at technologies that can help you receive a lot more data and process new insights in an easier way is also extremely valuable. 

How can crowdsourcing empower your team, department, or company? 

Do you need more diverse perspectives and new ideas to solve some significant challenges that you’re hitting? 

(Maybe Swae can help you implement crowdsourcing! If you’re curious, see below to book a demo!)

Swae is helping organizations across the world to solve today’s problems and generate tomorrow’s strategy. Our clients are finding that their greatest resource is their people, and Swae is proven to help get the best from the untapped potential within their workforce. We’d love the chance to show you how Swae can ‘pay off’ for you…

Ready to learn how Swae can help your organization?

More to explore…