Exploring and Managing the Paradoxes and Challenges of Inclusion

What makes diversity and inclusion—seemingly so simple—also so complicated and difficult to achieve? Truly bringing inclusion to life can sometimes feel quite challenging, especially when there seem to be forces pulling in many directions, combined with various dilemmas involved in working with and across differences. ● What are some of the key challenges and tensions that often arise as we strive to create inclusive organizations and groups? ● How can we understand and balance the inherent tensions of inclusion—for example, between comfort and discomfort, or between many identities (within us and within our groups) seemingly competing for expression and recognition? What does it mean to be truly authentic at work? Are there limits to inclusion? How can we best figure them out, together? In this session, participants will explore three key paradoxes or challenges of inclusion—those involving self-expression and identity, boundaries and norms, and safety and comfort—and consider their implications for engaging and building collective capacity for DEI. As a result, participants will be better able to address what is often experienced as resistance to DEI but may instead be a manifestation of one or more of these paradoxes. Participants will: ● Develop deeper insight into the nuances and complexities of inclusion, including their own challenges. ● Learn to recognize and better work with core dilemmas and paradoxes inherent in the practice of inclusion. ● Identify and plan ways to manage the paradoxes of inclusion so as to increase the effectiveness of DEI work. ● Apply their learning to their individual roles and functions.