For an organisation to thrive in times of complexity, constant transformative change and unforeseeable crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemics, it needs to build resilience. Working towards a culture of inclusion is a key factor for resilience because it trains skills that are essential for it: adaptability, trust and open communication, desire and capacity to learn, and acceptance of change. An inclusive environment is one that embraces, promotes and capitalizes on the differences that unique individuals bring and can therefore enable innovation, higher performance and employee well-being. Inclusion is thus not a “nice to have” element. It is essential for our capacity to deal with the major challenges humanity as a whole faces. Through the COVID-19 pandemic many of us experienced the most rapid change in working culture of our lifetime. Juggling home office with child-care created many struggles for parents, especially women*. At the same time, this disruptive phase accelerated the adoption of new ways of working.
Many teams across sectors have come up with creative ideas and fundamentally changed their working practices for the better. Our aim is to find these practices and bring them to the awareness and benefit of Swiss organisations.
Inclusive Team Practices
An inclusive team practice is anything you do to positively impact your team's collaboration and dynamics, e.g. something that
makes it easier for every team member to be heard, seen or represented
allows team members to balance professional and private life easier
helps team members and leads to make unbiased decisions
helps the team benefit from the individual strengths of all its members
makes it easier for underrepresented groups to be considered as a talent
increases the safety for everyone to be themselves within the team
allows people with special needs to be part of the team
protects team members from harassment or
allows team members to increase awareness of their biases
This list is meant as a starting point to get one thinking but must be extended continuously.
Why
We are convinced that there is at least one inclusive team practice in every organization. Imagine the amount of knowledge and inspiration for all of us if we manage to bring those treasures to the surface. We believe that a joint effort across organizations and sectors will enable teams in Switzerland to create inclusive team cultures step-by-step without their executives approval or budgets.
This project is a collaboration between the Swiss association collaboratio helvetica, which is getting supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Gender Equality, and Diversify GmbH. It was initiated as part of the Nova Helvetia Programme: "An explorative journey to a healthy post COVID-19 Switzerland" during the first lockdown phase in 2020. The prototype will contain three concrete practices from different sectors and types of organizations and has been funded by engagement migros. To be able to continue the project after the prototyping phase, running from October 2020 to March 2021, we need additional funds from organizations, individuals and foundations. Please get in touch with us if you would like to contribute. The project team consists of Anna Krebs, Johanna Seeliger and Anne Stammwitz.
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