Talking about diversity is hard.
We’re on a mission to make it easier.
Our uncertainty of the right words to use to talk about diversity and inclusion can be paralysing. Most of us are worried we’ll handle it wrong, say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing – and as a result, most of us simply don’t talk about race, religion, disability or sexual orientation at work.
But that’s not helpful. In fact, it’s one of the biggest barriers holding organisations back from creating the conditions diverse teams need to thrive.
As Mellody Hobson says in Color Blind or Color Brave? not talking about our differences is dangerous because it means we also ignore related issues like discrimination and the very real barriers to equality.
One thing we see time and time again is that the organisations that tackle diversity head-on and make talking about it part of daily routine are also the organizations with the most inclusive environments.
We want to make it easy for everyone to talk freely about differences without feeling intimidated. And we also want to make it easy to talk about the practice of embracing diversity and increasing inclusion.
That’s why we’re on a mission to build the most comprehensive diversity and inclusion glossary on the web – covering everything from terms to describe race or sexual orientation to types of bias and processes you can use to rectify them.
This is our starter for 10, but we’ll be adding to it and updating it regularly so if you have any feedback or suggestions for tweaks or additions, we’d love to hear from you!