From the Margins to the Middle: Leadership for Inclusion

Session Submission Type: Panel

Short Description

Corporations are struggling to remain innovative and competitive in our increasingly complex global market. To remain relevant to diverse constituents, our organizational culture, the teams we build, the way we treat global partners and employees on through to the customers we serve all require new and more inclusive leadership. This panel will discuss ways in which businesses can identify and develop inclusive behaviors in their leaders to improve corporate culture and customer relations, acknowledging that inclusion is no longer the responsibility of specialists alone. This means moving inclusion from the margins of leadership practice to its very core.

Detailed Abstract

In today’s increasingly complex global market, corporations are struggling to remain innovative, competitive, and attract and retain valuable employees. To remain relevant to diverse constituents and maintain a positive, well-deserved corporate reputation, all of the following require new and more inclusive leadership -- our organizational culture, the teams we build, the way we treat global partners and employees on through to the customers we serve. This panel will discuss ways in which businesses can identify and develop inclusive behaviors in their leaders to improve corporate culture and customer relations and so forth, acknowledging that inclusion is no longer the responsibility of specialists alone. This means moving inclusion from the margins of leadership practice to its very core.


In the last decade we have seen an explosion of research in areas such as diversity and inclusion, global leadership development, the benefits of biculturalism and multiculturalism, cultural intelligence, global competency and so forth. The knowledge base related to domestic and global diversity , as well as the number of assessments and training tools and programs, has grown exponentially. However, this knowledge has not been fully incorporated in all university curricula or thoroughly transmitted throughout all organizations. Instead, we generally see individual champions or pockets of commitment and expertise limited to specific types of diversity.

Gaps in diversity expertise are unfortunately most glaring in the leadership ranks. From decades of research on organizational change, we know that the leader’s role in bringing about lasting and authentic organizational change is critical. Leaders must serve as an example, model real commitment to diversity, and figure out how to promote and maintain this change throughout the entire organization. Therefore, our goal is to educate, inspire and share best practices for inclusive leaders, while simultaneously modeling inclusive practices ( following Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message”).

In this panel discussion, we will begin by understanding the phenomena and discussing the complexity of the demographic shifts happening in the US and in the global marketplace. We will question each other on the ways in which the complexity of diversity is impacting corporations, for example, by limiting both innovation and competitive advantage.

The panelists will then share their research and some best practices that they have used to both identify inclusive practices currently used by leaders and ways in which these behaviors can be cultivated. Next they will trade insights on methods for scaling up this work in order to transform corporate cultures and create globally inclusive readiness throughout organizations.

The audience will be asked to as identify the types of demographic shifts that are most challenging in their contexts and to share their own challenges in building inclusion. They will also be quizzed to offer their insights into best practices for building inclusive leadership in their organizations, as well as ways that have worked to successfully create inclusive culture within their organizations.

Together, the panelists and participants will leave the session with renewed resolve to carry on the work of building inclusive leadership, along with proven approaches and tools for cultivating inclusive leaders who can build stronger and globally relevant corporations.

The panelists assembled for this session have years of experience in consulting with corporations globally in the areas of global talent management and development, intercultural competence, assessment and evaluation, corporate organizational change, inclusive behaviors identification and development, and global leadership. They have published scholarly research as well as trade books and articles and leveraged their findings to serve organizations in every sector of the economy and every continent in the world.

Sub Unit

• Business Leadership

Chair

• Chris Taylor Cartwright, Self-Employed

Presenters

• Joyce Marie Osland, Kozai Group

• Ernest Gundling, Aperian Global

• Erby Foster, The Clorox Company