What companies like Amazon and Uber can teach us about the importance of inclusion

On the rare occasion I’m asked to provide the business case for inclusion, I encourage leaders to consider the risks of not doing inclusion.

There are over eight billion people on the planet and we all need different things at different times. And in 2024, consumers and employees are demanding a more personalized experience. If your organization doesn’t respect them or provide for their needs, they take their money and talents elsewhere, respectively.

Despite this, many high-profile organizations have recently stepped away from their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And many organizations—from Amazon to Uber—have faced high-profile consequences for products, processes, and workplaces that do not prioritize inclusion. Indeed, not investing in inclusion comes at a cost.

Why is inclusion so hard to get right?

Most of the policies, products, and services that organizations have inherited were designed with a one-size-fits-all approach based on this idea of the “average” employee. However, there’s no such thing as an average human.

Inclusion is the opposite of one-size-fits-all. And inclusion doesn’t happen without a conscious effort, because most of our thinking is automatic and based on our own knowledge and prior experiences.

Those in positions of power, for the longest time, were typically upper-class, heterosexual, white, able-bodied, neurotypical men. And they designed the world based on what made sense to them. So, our laws, policies, research endeavors, services, workplaces, marketing, broadcast content, products, and everything in between, work better for you if you share that same demographic makeup. And less well if you don’t.

Now, it is our collective responsibility, and opportunity, to update our approach and make the world work better for everyone.

Most people aren’t waking up wondering how they can make an experience better or worse for different demographic groups, but it happens all the time.

Take the “racist” soap dispenser that only dispensed soap for people with pale skin, because the sensors hadn’t been tested on dark skin. Notice how inaccessible airplanes can be for people who use wheelchairs. Or how voice recognition technology often fails to respond to people with high pitched voices. And lastly consider the sensory overload neurodivergent people face in bright and noisy retail spaces and workspaces.

The costs

In all these scenarios, and the many more you may already be aware of, multiple people would have been involved in the research, design, and sign-off of these products. And despite going through many business processes, the problems are often only identified by the end consumer.

This leads to financial and operational costs as teams must redevelop and redeliver. And then there is the reputational risk of delivering a substandard offering, which can limit future revenue from those being underserved.

Take Amazon who made headlines for a sexist AI recruiting tool that automatically filtered out women from job applications. Or Uber, which used a facial recognition app that was “racially discriminatory” and blocked people from work. And earlier this year, the value of social media platform X fell 71% due (at least in part) to a reported rise in hate speech.

Not prioritizing inclusion can also negatively impact an organization’s ability to attract and retain employees.

Potential employees can, and will, do their research on a prospective employer in a matter of minutes. They can scan Glassdoor, or post a message in Alumni WhatsApp groups, to ask if anyone knows what it’s like working for an organization. They can visit an organization’s website and LinkedIn page to see how diverse the leadership team is. And they can read annual reports to see if the commitment to inclusion goes beyond a few community organized events, and the regulatory required reporting.

More and more people want to work for organizations who care about people, planet, and profits. Generation Z are expected to account for 27% of the workforce by 2025. For most of their lives, Gen Z has been immersed in fast-paced political discussions on social media, and they want to work for companies supporting social progress.

And let’s not forget how quickly word spreads with friends and family—and on social media—when someone’s had a terrible experience with a product or service.

The benefits of inclusion

Prioritizing inclusion can not only improve an organization’s employee attraction and retention but also help them reach new consumers.

Many organizations get to know their consumers better, and find out what they need, so they can develop and segment their offering accordingly. For instance, retailer Urban Outfitters was celebrated by shoppers for creating a beautiful Eid Mubarak window display on Oxford street in London, to delight Muslim consumers celebrating the end of Ramadan. And travel company Ocean Holidays has reportedly generated more than £11 million worth or bookings since launching their accessible travel program.

In my day-to-day life, I notice the influence of conscious inclusion all the time. I see greeting cards with braille on them or for same-sex weddings. Many restaurants now have vegan and vegetarian friendly options because they want to serve those customers. And in many airports, there are calm and quiet “sunflower rooms” for travelers with disabilities. All of these are deliberate decisions to appeal to consumers that were previously being underserved—or not served at all.

How to embed conscious inclusion in your organization

Conscious inclusion is easy to adopt when you know how to nudge your brain out of automatic thinking. You need to do this each time you’re making decisions that will impact other people, and here are three simple and practical habits that can help your team prioritize inclusion and boost your bottom line.

1. Add inclusion to your design principles

You need to build diversity into every part of the research, design, and testing process to make sure you consider the mix of needs people have.

Whenever you gather feedback, or work with third parties, seek to understand which demographic groups are going to benefit most and least from potential new designs, policy decisions, etc. And steer away from findings presented as an average of the total group, because that often masks the reality that people from underrepresented groups aren’t getting such a good deal.

Creating a standard approach that prioritizes inclusion equips teams to make better solutions from the offset, rather than needing to modify something later, which is much harder and often more expensive.

And when a project has been completed, decision-makers should ask, “What did the research and testing tell us about the impact on different demographic groups?”

2. Build with, not for

No one knows everything, and they never will. So you need to use data and collaboration to build inclusive products and experiences for customers and employees.

If your internal research suggests that you have underserved a particular demographic group, find ways to collaborate with people in that group. This might include partnerships with external organizations, or it could be a collaboration with colleagues in your Employee Resource Groups.

Be open about what you already know and what you need to learn—and ask if people can help you find a solution. I have found that people are generally happy to be involved and help your organization be more inclusive, especially when the work benefits them or the people they care about.

It’s important to acknowledge that it’s not the responsibility of people from underrepresented groups to find the solutions and develop them themselves. But the “build with, not for” mentality is all about creating collaboration with those affected, and those in positions of power and influence.

3. Make it safe to disagree

The next thing that leaders can do is to create an environment where colleagues feel safe enough to disagree and to speak up.

How often have you been in a meeting where the most confident person gets their idea backed, and concerns expressed by others are quickly dismissed as being negative or not open-minded enough? Or, maybe, people don’t speak up at all because they’re fatigued by having their contribution routinely overlooked?

In my experience, colleagues who haven’t been encouraged to speak up make astute observations. And any concerns or alternative ideas they have are worth finding out about.

Here are some questions you can regularly ask in team discussions to ensure that you hear from a wide range of your colleagues:

• What does everyone else think?
• What would be the risk if we get this wrong?
• What other perspectives do people have?
• What alternative ideas could we consider?
• What else is on your minds?

Creating psychological safety ensures that everyone on the team can contribute without a fear of being punished or ridiculed. Each member of the team should understand the value of seeking multiple inputs to increase their collective ability to succeed.

Because conscious inclusion is how organizations will remain relevant. And unless you’re consciously including people, you’re almost certainly unconsciously excluding people.