What is it?
Leading and governing in the new digital world means that organisations are giving greater priority to participation and representation of civil society, people who work with or represent the public e.g., carers, and marginalised groups.
Organisations, and organised ways of working, playing, or thinking, and other human activities, work best when they are inclusive. Crowdsourcing for example to build ideas, playing inclusive games in schools so everyone can participate, or finding effective strategies to tackle climate change or obesity.
Inclusion matters but we do not often stop to think (a) how best to do it (b) why exactly or (c) what the benefits are once we have become more inclusive.
Inclusion helps to build accountability within organisations – who will do what, when and why. It also helps to build organisations that can change because they have a better insight into disparities and can embrace diversity, such as cultural understandings.
The meaning of inclusion will be different in different contexts but there are basic principles that can be used. Organisations can benefit from public perspectives and diversity using the Seven Cs of Inclusion. These are:
Commitment
Everyone will face some big barriers to inclusion e.g., work or caring responsibilities, family emergencies, access (physical and conceptual), and technical glitches. Planning and support can help to overcome barriers with commitment to make inclusion happen. For example, setting out clearly everyone's expectations about the type of commitment involved and how everyone is going to support each other e.g., with getting to places (real and virtual) or arranging meetings at times that everyone can do.
Contribution is most effective when it is early on in decision making processes, when it relates to decisions about issues or work just being thought about e.g., questioning the overall aims/framing of projects and thinking about the connectivity between projects or issues. Another layer of contribution is detailed examples or links that added depth of information to discussion points e.g., using the chat function in Zoom to capture detail.
Challenge is important and needs to be respectful. People will be moved, excited, heated, tense or emotional at times. This is good, because we are all humans, and it shows we care about the issues and decisions. Different people will have different ways of taking and expressing ideas and this needs to be valued as part of the diversity of inclusion - it doesn't make sense for everyone to talk in the same way. The point is that challenge can look like tension or unrest or dissatisfaction but it is important to try and see the underlying issue and be alerted to challenges because this is where most positive change comes from.
Collaboration is wonderful and inspiring to see when it works well. It is impressive how humans are networked into so many organisations, but more so, that they can draw on a wealth of knowledge through their connections. Inclusion that enables collaboration is powerful because it isn't just drawing on the people who are directly involved it is a collaboration between ideas. Collaboration generates knowledge and tackles problems by adding information from different perspectives. A practical way of supporting collaboration is using a co-chair approach between professionals/public members to show a commitment to collaboration (see how these things interlink).
Capturing the learning is important to show how an organisation is prioritising and operationalising inclusion e.g., participation and representation of civil society, public involvement advocates or marginalised groups. The task of recording some of the learning about inclusion can be supported in a semi-structured way by using the Seven Cs of Inclusion. Newsletters, articles and blogs, for example, can be used to ‘voice the learning’ about inclusion (showcase approaches) and to feedback to people who are already involved about their contribution, inform future training and development around inclusion, and inform the enhancement of diversity in your approach to inclusion.
Continuity is not always as strong as it could be in inclusion because of the context of inclusion. This can be incredibly frustrating for everyone and leave keen people feeling underutilised. Public members are by enlarge volunteers on limited tenures and payments, which restricts the opportunities of inclusion. One idea is an 'options pathway' for different types of involvement that includes a range of roles and responsibilities, right up to honorary or emeritus roles for the most experienced people. In broader terms of continuity, it can be useful to explore the contextual limits of what an organisation can do to outside or at the margins of its current mission or remit, to connect with other organisations working in the same field, or to work wider/more internationally – which would all benefit continuity.
Compassion is something that is important, especially thinking about people at the sharp end of what an organisation is doing or producing (e.g., research, drugs or technologies). Compassion is especially important as society moves towards more digitally enabled and remote ways of delivering health care. Compassion is the recognition that no matter who we are, our lives as global citizens are connected, in one way or another. It means we are all invested in driving out discrimination and improving equality in society through our everyday interactions with other people. Compassion is the active practice of inclusion.