Jody and I have been recording a new course for the Cockerell Academy called “Everybody Matters: Diversity and Inclusion.” It’s such a relevant topic. Working on the course has brought to mind even more thoughts on how to practice inclusiveness in our personal and work lives.

It starts with getting out of your silo. If you only ever interact with people just like you, you will never develop inclusiveness. Exposure and experience are the main problems here.

However, when we get out of our bubbles and get to know people who are different from us, we get to experience so much more from life. It’s exciting to know more about the world, other cultures, and what people believe. Being educated about other cultures helps you in all kinds of ways.

Inclusiveness goes beyond the color of our skin, though. You can and should surround yourself with a diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and upbringings. Especially in the workplace, you don’t want the whole table to be filled with people who think just like you.

There is discrimination today for all sorts of things. You might find it hard to accept anyone who does anything different from you. 

But be careful how you think; your brain might be polluted. Half the stuff in your brain isn’t true, so dig down and figure out what is.

If you’re the top person in your workplace, talk about diversity and inclusiveness. Make it clear where you stand on it. Tell your employees that they’ll get ahead based on their performance, not on where they went to school, what grades they got, their religion, or their sexual orientation.

If you want to learn more about this topic, you can find the whole course in the Cockerell Academy at http://www.cokerellacademy.com.