Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Inclusion

Inclusion and inclusive leadership

 

Starting with yourself: talking about inclusion - three layers of practice

Developing your own inclusive practice begins with developing a deeper understanding of your own identity and privilege, and from this place developing an understanding of the lived experiences of others as well as how exclusion and inequalities operate in society. As leaders in public service, regardless of our role or seniority, an awareness of inclusivity needs to be at the heart of all we do – be it leading our team, designing new services or engaging in wider dialogue with citizens.

We look to develop our inclusive practice, we can think about it in terms of three different yet interconnected layers:

• Cognitive understanding: language, concepts, data and patterns
• Emotive understanding: empathy, compassion and felt responses
• Generative understanding: combining cognitive and emotive understanding to generate new ways of being and working.

Source: Inclusion - Layers of Understanding, Ruby Ubhi (2020)

Cognitive understanding

Cognitive understanding will help you to develop an understanding of different concepts, patterns and data around inequalities. As a leader you need to know the facts, therefore cognitive understanding will help you to notice patterns of inequality that you may have missed before, as well as the language needed to articulate what you see and influence others in order to make change.

Emotive understanding

Emotive understanding will help you to connect with and relate to others in meaningful ways. This is especially important when trying to understand the lived experiences of others, especially when they come from different groups, or less privileged groups in comparison to you.

Developing emotive understanding requires the leader to be in touch with their emotions and felt responses towards others. It is from this place that leaders can truly connect with and build meaningful relationships with others. It requires leaders to be vulnerable as they step into spaces that require both courage and compassion.

Generative understanding

Generative understanding is your ability to make informed and sustainable change. Developing this understanding will enable you as a leader to make informed change that helps to build a world where people from all backgrounds have improved life chances and a louder voice in society.

Informed change requires both the head and heart, which is why generative understanding builds on both your cognitive and emotive understanding of inclusion.

By engaging in rich and meaningful dialogue with those you lead, you can generate new ways of being and working that value all people.

Pause for reflection

How would you rate your Cognitive Understanding of Inclusion? (What are your strengths in this area, and what do you need to develop further?)

How would you rate your Emotive Understanding of Inclusion? (What are your strengths in this area, and what do you need to develop further?)

How would you rate your Generative Understanding of Inclusion? (What are your strengths in this area, and what do you need to develop further?)

The courage to engage

Engaging in conversations about inclusion, or even thinking about your own identity and the privilege you hold can feel uncomfortable and exposing. These feelings of vulnerability can cause leaders to hold back from, or even avoid, having transformative conversations that have the potential to broaden their perspectives, deepen relationships and develop insight and knowledge that leads to positive change.

Inclusion and inclusive practice require courage and compassion. Courage to learn and talk about things that might make us feel guilty, ashamed, sad or even angry. Compassion towards others and ourselves as we engage in what can be difficult and uncertain conversations that evoke emotions some people find challenging to work with.

Stepping into your vulnerability will take you out of your comfort zone, however it will also take you into a transformative space where you can open your heart and your head to new possibilities. It is a risk that you, and those around you will be taking together.

Watch this Ted Talk by Brené Brown - The Power of Vulnerability

In this talk Brené Brown shares finding from her research and what she had learned about the power of being vulnerable.

After watching the video please take some time to reflect on the questions below.

• When you think about the topic of inclusion what emotions do you feel, and what might be the reason for this?
• How might these emotions be helping or hindering you in learning more about this topic, or even making a positive difference?
• How can you access the support of your colleagues and friends if you feel vulnerable as you develop your inclusive leadership practice?

Come back to these reflective questions throughout this leadership programme as it will help you to see what might have changed for you along the journey.

Continue to: Recognising your own experience