Diversity & inclusiveness

A couple of weeks ago, the company where I work held a week-long series of events to increase awareness and understanding of Diversity & Inclusiveness (D&I), of which I was part of the organizing committee. Some of the activities, and trying to get participation, reminds me of school times (and not in a positive way unfortunately). In addition to that, having this ‘co-curricular’ activity to do in a busy time when my boss was chasing me for this and that was rather stressful. But I’m not going to talk about that actually. Rather, I’d like to share a bit of what I understand about D&I. I’ve previously written a bit on microinequity (something highly related to D&I) here plus the addendum.

D&I is a concept that the group (referring to the worldwide group of company I’m working with) has adopted for many years. Edited from the official site:

Diversity means all the ways we differ. It includes visible differences such as age, gender, ethnicity and physical appearance; as well as underlying differences such as thought styles, religion, nationality, family background and education.

Inclusiveness means a workplace where differences are valued; where everyone has the opportunity to develop skills and talents consistent with our values and business objectives. The aim is to create an organisation where people feel involved, respected, connected – where the richness of ideas, backgrounds and perspectives are harnessed to create business value.

The group embraces D&I not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it truly believes that a diverse team creates value to the business; having people from different backgrounds in an environment where there is no barrier to fully contribute, will unleash creativity and facilitiate effective decision-making. The idea is to appreciate individuals for who they really are and what they can contribute rather than being biased because they are from a certain ethnic group, for example. D&I is such an important agenda such that target KPIs are put in place to ensure there’s fairly diverse team at almost every level, for example a certain percentage of women managers etc.

Of course, D&I is something applicable not just at the workplace but also in our everyday life. Do we judge or stereotype people by how they look or what their background is, rather than who they really are? Hope not. In Islam of course, D&I is naturally imbedded. Allah said, in Surah al-Hujurat verse 13:

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).