The power of listening: 3 ways to build a diverse business culture

“When we’re communicating with people, we communicate for around 75% of our day. We listen to people for 55% of that time. But we remember only 25% of what we hear.”

- Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator, Watch This Sp_ce

Over the last few years, businesses and their employees have become more and more aware of how important diversity in the workplace really is. 

There are many reasons for this. Employees and customers are putting increasing pressure on businesses to demonstrate that they promote diversity at every level. If organisations don’t do this, they risk losing valuable skills, talent and customers.

The promise and challenge of diversity in business

But perhaps more importantly, diversity is an unambiguous benefit for business. According to LinkedIn, organisations in the top quartile for ethnic diversity have a 36% likelihood of outperforming the market average. At the same time, diverse companies earn 2.5x higher cash flow per employee and inclusive teams are 35% more productive. 

The benefits of diversity in business are clear. But realising that potential requires more than just hiring diverse people and letting them get on with it. That’s because different kinds of people thrive in different ways. 

In a business environment, it’s easy to rely on the same habits and processes that we’ve always used. This is as much the case for SMEs as it is for large corporate enterprises. But if these processes don’t work for everybody, you aren’t going to unlock the many benefits that diversity has to offer. Sometimes, it’s important to reassess the way we work to make sure we’re getting the best out of everybody – no matter the background they come from. The key to getting that right is listening. 

In the following sections, we explain practical steps for how employees, managers, and HR teams can do just that. 

1. How employees can listen to colleagues

“When I used to work in corporate, everything was always done in a meeting and the same people used to speak up all the time. And actually, it takes a lot of confidence to be the person that said, I don't agree and offer a different opinion. It's really hard to do that.”

- Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator, Watch This Sp_ce

Every employee has a role to play in building a diverse, inclusive and productive workplace. But too often, the cultural practices of a company can make certain people feel less comfortable than others. This is particularly the case when it comes to neurodiverse employees or those from other marginalised groups. 

But a few simple changes can make a huge difference to how inclusive and constructive our workplaces are. Here are a few ideas: 

• Don’t rely on meetings: Meetings tend to favour the loudest voices and those most able to think on their feet in a conversational setting. Instead, consider a mixture of working styles, including digital whiteboard tools like Miro, collaboration software like Notion or Google Docs, chat platforms and more. 

• Create agendas and share reading material: If meetings are needed, it can be helpful to prepare agendas and reading notes and invite participants to bring ideas or content to the meeting for discussion. This means those who are less comfortable in meetings have the opportunity to think and prepare in their own time. 

• Use chats/polls in meetings: This gives everybody a chance to voice their thoughts equally and avoids the conversation becoming dominated by a few large voices. 

• Active listening: This involves giving full attention, summarising what you’ve heard to check your understanding - and asking clarifying questions. 

  
  
  

2. How managers can listen to their teams

“Managers can ask themselves a range of questions to work out how well they’re listening to their teams. How well are you as a manager listening to what your team is saying to you? Are you making assumptions? Are you only listening to some people who speak the loudest? What about those people who are not from a dominant group? 

How well are you listening to them about issues like drinks on a night out, whether they have their own religious festivals they want to celebrate or if they have difficulties working with certain people? These are the kinds of things that managers need to be aware of.”

- Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator, Watch This Sp_ce

Managers have a particularly crucial role to play in helping guide and shape the culture of a company. That means it’s important to lead by example, creating processes and structures that empower all colleagues to deliver their best work. These can include: 

• Implement anonymous feedback: The best place to start is to have anonymous feedback, through employee net promoter surveys (eNPS), or simply an anonymous suggestion/complaints box. This allows everybody to provide their thoughts without fear of repercussions, conflict or social intimidation. 

• Use individual meetings: A group meeting will generally be dominated by a few loud voices. This doesn’t effectively represent the collective ideas of the whole group. Instead, it’s helpful to have one-to-one meetings with colleagues so you can get their individual thoughts in a less intimidating environment. 

• Assess cultural habits: When it comes to team bonding activities, managers tend to default to the same few ideas – days out, breakout sessions, after-work drinks, etc. But some employees may feel more comfortable with group activities than others and alcohol-based activities aren’t inclusive for non-drinkers. Instead, ask what activities and formats the team would prefer, ideally anonymously. 

• Train yourself: The best managers know how to recognise their own biases and actively work to overcome them. There are lots of ways to do this, including workshops and training sessions for unconscious bias training, or just consuming online resources on the common symptoms of bias. 

3. How we can all listen to the world around us

“We listen and hear a lot of words but we don’t always take them in. We’re all listening to what we want to listen to. Take a look at one example - the recent race riots in the UK. There were people saying that week ‘I don’t know what you’re worried about, going to town in Brighton’. 

And I thought ‘have you not seen what’s going on – are you not listening?’”

- Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator, Watch This Sp_ce

Whether we’re managers, executives or individual contributors, we all have a role to play in understanding more about the world around us. No person exists in a vacuum, and events in our communities and around the world can have a huge impact on our mental health and ability to fully engage at work.  

A key example of this is the recent race riots in the UK. Many from minority ethnic backgrounds felt understandably uncomfortable leaving the house during this dangerous time. The best response would have been for companies to proactively reach out, going out of their way to encourage remote working or shift swapping during that period. 

Small acts of proactive support like this can be really reassuring and meaningful to colleagues going through a hard time. But to do that, you need to know what’s going on in the world. 

• Stay informed: It’s important to understand what’s going on in the world – either via news or social media. This will help you understand when and why particular groups are going through a hard time – so you’re not forcing them to do all the work for you.  

• Encourage a listening culture: Team members should also feel comfortable speaking up and sharing how external issues affect them, without feeling pressured. Organisations should work to create a culture of open and non-judgemental dialogue, so employees can educate and inform each other. 

• Inviting feedback or hosting discussions: Employees can choose to actively create groups in the workplace who want to have these conversations. These can be scheduled meetings or more informal ‘coffee break’ style chats. 

• Organise a workshop: It can be hard to proactively start a difficult conversation. Instead, set aside time for particular discussions – either through a power hour workshop, in-person meeting or an informal group chat. This can be about work-related matters or more specific topics like how to build diverse teams, engage in active listening or how to better communicate with colleagues. 

  
  
  

Diversity is a journey, not a destination

When it comes to diversity in business, there are no easy solutions. Even the most passionately pro-diversity employees have their own biases and preconceptions, and learning to overcome these is a constant battle. 

But the best place to start is always the simplest: Listen to people and take what they say in good faith. Then, do what you can to make them feel safe, engaged and empowered to deliver their best work. If you start there, you’ll be well on the way to success.