Tuesday Dec 14, 2021

Make your company culture inclusive by design.

“When people can bring a full version of themselves to the workplace, then it makes things better for all of us,” says La’Kita Williams, Founder and Principal Strategist of CoCreate Work, a future-focused coaching and consulting company. As a professional coach with over 15 years of experience, La’Kita developed “The 5 Components of Inclusive Culture,” a step-by-step guide for companies to build more inclusive workplaces.

La’Kita strongly believes that companies can be more successful when they step back, evaluate their processes, and redesign them to be more inclusive and people-focused. She explains that many of the typical systems used by workplaces are outdated, rooted in white supremacy, and fail to help employees thrive or feel supported. In order to cultivate a healthy workplace culture, fundamental changes often need to be made to systems that people never thought to question – including systems of thinking held by leaders themselves.

Tune into this week’s episode of Problem Performers to hear La’Kita and HRuprise founder Rebecca Weaver discuss how to intentionally transform your workplace to be people-centered and community-led. Learn about what truly defines an inclusive culture, and how emerging founders, especially women, are leading the way in designing radical new systems that support all employees.

Quotes

• “I actually believe that systems are one of the most powerful things you can use to be in community and to work together more effectively, to have more successful companies. But we have just been reusing systems that are based in white supremacy culture, or based in ways of working that are not good for humans. So how do we create new systems? And that's about design and partnership and working together.” (25:51-26:18)

• “As I think about the future of work we’re designing it now, I completely agree with you. The pandemic accelerated a lot of change – big transformations or challenges often do that. And so, we’re shifting towards a new way of working that I think we all recognize as more employee-driven than it had been in the past, which I’m very excited about. I think it provides a great opportunity for us to think about partnership and how we build workplaces and building systems that really work for people.” (27:06-27:41)

• “And so, what I've found with the founders that I've worked with is that they are really thinking end-to-end: what does it mean for someone to make a decision to come and be in partnership with me? Not just to, quote, ‘work for me,’ but what does partnership look like? So that we all create or all have win-win situations in how we work together.” (9:54-10:19)

• “What we know is that when people can bring a full version of themselves, their new ideas, their innovation, and how they view things to the workplace, then it makes things better for all of us.” (10:57-11:08)

• “One of the things that I have found most powerful as I do this work is this idea of design. That you have an opportunity to work with your team and your community, your clients, to take all of those inputs, and help to design a workplace that's different than not just the way things used to be, but is more effective than the way things are.” (19:14-19:45)

• “On my wish list is that folks, especially organizational leaders, take a step back and think about how we can redesign and rebuild the way we're working in ways that are actually supportive of people, and that they have the insight to know this is going to be better for us all. So it's not from a patriarchal view of, ‘Here's a gift. I'm willing to be flexible,’ (but) that we come to this knowing that we can build something that's greater together.” (27:43-28:25)

• “Often people want to separate, ‘When does this end? When does leadership development end, La’Kita? When does coaching end? When does working on this damn culture end?’ It doesn't end. Because it’s a part of the work.” (29:57-30:09)

Links

• Connect with La’Kita on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakitafwilliams/

• And on Instagram: @lakitamwilliams

• And check out CoCreate Work at www.cocreatework.com

• White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun

https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_culture_2020.pdf

• End Imposter Syndrome In Your Workplace, by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey

https://hbr.org/2021/07/end-imposter-syndrome-in-your-workplace

Connect with a coach at https://www.hruprise.com/

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• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hruprise/

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HRuprise/