“Just do it!”
This was one of the themes of a talk at the Inclusion Summit in Austin. It was a great concept – diversity and inclusion in hiring and employee engagement are so important, companies must ‘just do it’. The talk went on to call out that we cannot afford to wait to have all the answers or the perfect plan because then more months and years slip by with inaction.
I, and the rest of the room, agreed with the passionate plea for action.
There is just one small problem, there was no clear ‘how’. What do we ‘just do’ to make a difference?
There are so many who truly want to ‘just do it’ – they want to be inclusive and hire diversely right now, to do the right thing for business, society, and individuals. It is not the passion or desire they lack, it is just they don’t know ‘how’.
For some, it is being overwhelmed by the size of the problem – thinking they need to eat the elephant in one bite. For others, it is just not knowing what steps they can take. And for some, it is feeling powerless in their position to make a difference.
The thing is, we don’t need to solve everything at once, we can identify steps, and many of these steps can be small and doable by anyone.
To fix a big problem, we need a bunch of little “how”s
It is time to “just do it” – to stop the general, vague calls to action and passionate pleas for change, and to focus more heavily on the ‘how’. There are plenty of actionable things we can all do to progress each step down the path toward a more diverse and inclusive world.
That is what we at career.place are doing – through white papers, blog posts, and general tips. We are embracing the shift from ‘we have a problem’ to ‘lets solve it and here’s how’ - full of small, actionable items, many of which will cost you almost nothing in time or money but could have a huge impact on your applicants’ experiences while promoting fair and effective hiring practices.
For example, we will be launching a ‘quick tips’ series, focusing on small actionable items that everyone can do to create more inclusive hiring practices. We will also be issuing a series of whitepapers on how-to write job descriptions and define effective qualifications – we’ve already done three video’s on this that can be seen here.
It is time to create actionable insight… starting right now.
Call to action – join the conversation
As the first ‘actionable’ call to action: be part of the conversation.
Link, share, like, post, ask, comment. With social media, it is so easy to be part of the conversation - to ask for help or to share your wisdom.
It doesn’t have to be hard, or even time consuming to make a difference. For example:
See a great idea and don’t know how to do it, ask – that is what the comment section is for. If you read something and are thinking “how am I supposed to do that?”, I guarantee many others are asking the same thing. Start the conversation to share ideas and approaches. Remember, there is no “bad” question.
Moved by a blog, article, comment? Tell the author. Most people are posting because they are passionate about their topics and love connecting with those who share their beliefs and those who challenge them.
Have an idea or a technique that can solve a problem being discussed? Share it – again, great use of comments!
Don’t be shy, I promise you, it gets easier over time, and there will be many who appreciate your efforts.
Call to action – say hello
I love helping and learning from others and talking with people who share my passions. Whether you are looking for help with designing and implementing diverse, inclusive hiring practices or have wonderful stories to share about your own D&I experiences, I want to hear from you. I also, enjoy geeking out about Star Wars (or Marvel, Star Trek, HP, LOTR, Asimov, Miyazaki films… yeah, you get the point), creative writing, and sharing stories of the challenges of starting a business or juggling work and family life, as well as a number of other things. Don’t be shy - send me a hello.
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