In Alden Habacon’s view, diversity is a fact of Canadian work. Most workplaces in Canada will include people who bear dissimilar appearances, backgrounds, and beliefs. Yet inclusion – ensuring that every member of a workplace team feels welcomed and valued – is a goal that bears its own challenges.

“It’s an aspect of Canada that’s non-negotiable. But, in our effort to create diversity, we’ve created mythology about how diversity is supposed to work,” says Habacon, a diversity and inclusion strategist who consults for such clients as Arc’teryx clothing, the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong. “The reality is what we’re never willing to admit, that a diverse team is going to be a more difficult team.”

Habacon will detail these difficulties and how to resolve them in a workshop at Simon Fraser University, entitled “Inclusive Leadership and Intercultural Skills for Leaders,” which will take place on Oct. 31. Admission is free.

An accent on understanding

Alden Habacon. | Photo courtesy of Alden Habacon

Many of those who work in and lead diverse teams have no comprehension of what inclusion entails, Habacon opines.

“The myth is that contact with diversity leads to understanding,” he says. “If I eat sushi every day, I’ll get to know Japanese culture. If I have women in my workplace, I’ll know where women are coming from.”

But, Habacon says, instead of doing the difficult work that true inclusion requires, Canadian companies have often turned to simplistic solutions.

“I genuinely believe that those in leadership want to create a positive environment for everyone,” he says. “I’ve never yet met a leader in any environment whose intention is to keep people out, to keep women or people with disabilities out. But that’s sometimes the impact that we have.”

As one example, Habacon speaks about an early solution to the lack of female representation in Canadian leadership.

“The assumption 15 years ago,” he says, “was that the more women we would have in corporate Canada’s leadership the more inclusive workplaces would be for women. [But] to be leaders [the women] had to take on behaviours that were not inclusive. We have to go back to those environments and see if leaders are having the effects they want to have.”

These problems are not necessarily about people’s prejudices, Habacon points out. In fact, it’s often the opposite.

“I asked an audience once, ‘How many people here have struggled with someone’s accent?’” he says. “They’ve asked the person they’re speaking to, two, maybe three times to repeat, but on the fourth time, they stop. They pretend they understand. Why? Because [they’re] scared of being called a racist. But [they] have no idea what has been said. That’s not communication!”

This fear of being labelled bigoted prevents needs being met, Habacon notes.

“It’s really hard to address the stuff we’re struggling with, so we tend not to,” he says. “Let’s figure out what adaptations and supports we need.”

Committed to courage

Rather than resorting to quick fixes, says Habacon, people in diverse teams should look more closely at their behaviours, particularly with regards to the layers of privilege that, for example, white or able-bodied people have.

“The research is very clear,” he says. “When you have power, authority, you see the world differently. You are more insensitive. It’s harder to give feedback to those in power.”

But awareness is not the only quality that people must possess in order to work well in diverse teams, says Habacon.

“They should be committed to making inclusion work,” Habacon says. “It takes courage. We need to be humble. It turns out that it takes courage to be humble in our society. You need to empower people to contribute.”

“People get excited,” he says. “I get them to identify what the benefits are from working in a diverse team.”

For more information, please visit www.sfu.ca/sfu-community/events.html#!view/event/event_id/6924