Our favorite fairy tales spoke of Princesses who were rescued by their handsome Princes and they “lived happily ever after”. But as we stare into the face of the world, we realize that reality is very different. There was one tale that did not appeal to my innocent mind as a child due to the complications surrounding it. In fact, there are many lessons of life hidden in the pages of this tale. “Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!” These are famous lines from “Alice in Wonderland”.
“Who am I? Where did I come from? Am I the same as I was yesterday?” Perhaps these are the questions that each one of us have asked ourselves at some time or other from the time that civilization started. There is a “me” that exists over time and the “me” today might be wiser than the “me” that was ten years back. And the “me” could change because of my environment. The “me” could also change because of the way I am treated. They say, that one of the basic pillars of happiness is the feeling that we belong. We all need to find our tribe, to feel understood, recognized and valued – we need to feel that we matter. It is this basic fact that is the essence of inclusion.
Diversity can be mandated by an organization through hiring policies and by providing equal opportunities to everyone. But inclusion is a sentiment that needs to be nurtured. Inclusion expands beyond gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. It is the acceptance of members in our workplace who are different from us and cultivating our ability to work together to bring out the best in each other. In today’s world, Globalization has transformed our work environment. It is essential to not only focus on internal diversity and inclusion efforts, but also gain an understanding of the cultural differences between different countries. With Globalization and virtual work environments, our face to face interactions have reduced and sometimes we encounter unexpected outcomes from our discussions. So it has become even more important to focus our efforts on inclusion.
No matter which part of the world we are in, we find the characters of “Alice in Wonderland" everywhere among us.
- Curious Alice who is also a perfectionist. She is willing to take on challenges and never hesitates to plunge into any adventure ride without worrying too much about consequences.
- The Shy White Rabbit who is also occasionally aggressive leading us towards a progressive new path which helps us to achieve success.
- A Domineering Queen of Hearts threatens to behead anyone who doesn’t follow her orders.
- An Intellectual King of Hearts has the power to undo his Queen’s orders and present a more reasonable approach to solving problems and help us meet our deadlines.
- The Cheshire Cat appears and disappears at will, but brings in a clearheaded and detached logic to look at things differently.
- The Dodo sometimes tries to impress us with his big talk without truly understanding the meaning of it.
- A serious Caterpillar is wise and productive, but is sometimes hot-tempered.
Every creature had a role to play in Alice’s story and her story would have been incomplete without any of their contributions. Similarly, in our workplace, the most successful teams are created by diverse minds working together. Only leaders with a high Emotional Quotient (EQ) or Emotional Intelligence can help such diverse teams to collaborate more effectively and motivate them to succeed.
There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, "Well here I am" and those who come in and say, "Ah there you are!" - Federick Collins.