Author – Stephen Frost and Danny Kalman
Book discussed, 23 July 2019
Review by, Andrew Parrock 

This book tells the story of diversity in organisations, how it evolves over time from a ‘box-ticking and quotas’ system imposed on an organisation (diversity 1.0), through a process that could add value, but still needs to be imposed and actively managed (diversity 2.0), onto a business strategy. If it is adopted by an organisation wholeheartedly, it increases the organisation’s effectiveness.

The core idea is that to produce the third level (inclusion 3.0), organisations must become aware of their historically derived culture (‘segregated thinking’ that automatically classifies people into groups).  The variety of individual cognitive biases for marrying inclusion with diversity, which treats people as individuals, and recognises that diversity of thinking, when combined into teams, creates better results. Then the true talent in an organisation can be recognised and developed. 

The challenge of inclusive talent management is met, when it is applied to recruitment, promotions, development, retention and leadership. This requires the system to be changed by addressing cultural issues in small and imperceptible nudges for changing personal behaviour by conscious leadership. 

This book looks at the benefits for an organisation of becoming truly inclusive and the dangers if it does not. It provides practical examples of how to do this based on real examples. The author’s quote, “The book is urgent and required reading for anyone in a leadership or decision-making position, anyone who manages people and for anyone who cares about the future of our global economy and society.”