built different: redesigning work to actually work for everyone
Creating a culture of engagement and innovation requires intentional design, one that enhances business performance while supporting employee wellbeing and authentic self-expression. It’s increasingly evident that fostering an environment where all individuals can thrive is essential to organizational success. Good intentions are no longer enough; meaningful progress demands deliberate action. Inclusion must be embedded into the very fabric of how organizations are structured and operate. If exclusion is a result of design, then we have the power and responsibility to redesign for belonging.
The challenge lies in the fact that there is no universal one-size-fits-all blueprint for building inclusive workplaces. Each organization must take an individualized approach, tailored to the unique needs of its people and the communities it serves. Whether we realize it or not, we are always designing. Every system, product, and experience from the chairs we sit on to the way we order our morning coffee has been intentionally crafted to meet specific needs.
Workplaces are no different. They are designed to support productivity, wellbeing, and engagement. Yet, many current systems reflect a narrow default one that often aligns with dominant cultural norms and overlooks the full spectrum of human experience. This results in environments that unintentionally disadvantage individuals from underrepresented or historically marginalized backgrounds. By viewing this as a design challenge, we can begin to reimagine workplaces that prioritize human diversity, social inclusion, and fairness.
Organizations that have not previously focused on inclusive practices must now take intentional steps to reshape their environments. As an HR practitioner, I’ve approached organizational development through the lens of inclusive design, an approach rooted in curiosity, empathy, and co-creation. Inclusive design is a problem-solving methodology that draws on insights from those at the margins to create solutions that work for everyone. It begins by centering the voices of those most often excluded and valuing their input throughout the design process.
Seek exclusion.
We must constantly ask who is being unintentionally or structurally excluded. To assess if your culture is inclusive, you will need to review all touchpoints of the employee lifecycle journey to identify points of exclusion that disproportionally reduce opportunities for already oppressed groups. This warrants a re-examination of all policies, practices, and processes. Once you learn who is most excluded and at which points, it then entails partnership with excluded communities and requires their full participation in the process of redesigning for equitable outcomes. This is particularly vital if teams responsible for redesigning solutions are homogenous and reflect dominant culture. The goal of inclusive design is to bring people historically excluded into the process, not to solve on their behalf.
Prioritize inclusion.
To successfully build products and services that cater to diverse markets, it is important to co-design with people from the target communities. This requires your organization to keep a pulse on the demographic team composition, source for diversity and hire inclusively. Demographic surveys should be designed to measure both demographic diversity factors, as well as inclusion sentiment. These surveys should provide opportunities for people to elaborate on low inclusion scores, so that points of exclusion could be explored and resolved. Inclusion creates conditions for people to confidently leverage their diversity and supports talent retention. Inclusion comes first. Without it, you will inflict undue harm to groups of people whom you intend to engage. For greater impact, design standards for inclusion; reward people managers for inclusive experiences and hold them accountable for exclusive ones. Design at its core is action aimed at transforming existing structures into desired ones; in this case, removing institutional inequities so that everyone belongs, thrives and is able to fully contribute.
Get proximate by empathetic understanding and acknowledging privilege.
To design for people, is to be in a seat of privilege as the ultimate bridge between people and services. As humans, we all hold biases, and we are vulnerable to reproducing assumptions and reinforcing status quo through design based on our limited worldviews. We are susceptible of designing for people who are similar to us; those who reflect our abilities and characteristics. We cannot effectively mitigate institutional bias and reliably design an equitable workplace without gaining insights directly from underrepresented groups. This can be gathered by holding focus groups and observing employees using services and navigating spaces. These ethnographic methods and analyses are carried out with a high regard for empathy. It invites you to see the organization and its offerings through the lenses of others to understand how their participation is shaped by their multiple, intersecting identities and social contexts. Empathy is a starting point, but it does not replace the ingenuity and creativity of lived experience that employees can bring as contributors and co-designers of solutions.
Co-design with interdisciplinary teams that include people from historically excluded communities.
Collaborative partnerships reduce groupthink and generate breakthrough solutions by getting to the core of what will truly improve the lives of end-users. When you collaborate with people who look and behave like those you are creating for, you foster the conditions for your product or service to land favorably and meet their needs. Participatory design consciously blurs the boundaries between the creator and consumer. All participants (including those that are testers or part of focus groups) should be adequately rewarded, promoted and valued for their contribution and labor.
Adapt for human difference.
A one-size-fits-all design that universally serves all people has been successful in the architecture of many workplaces; however, a one-size-fits-one design creates a more inclusive experience. When designing for inclusivity, we must consider accessibility with a broad lens on a diversity of possibilities that allow people to participate in different ways for a shared sense of belonging. Inclusive design predispositions towards multifunctionality and morphs to best fit its users. Thus, an inclusive design may not lead to a single universal design but will provide adaptivity to fit different users’ unique and evolving needs. An example of this in the workplace is offering employee’s flexibility in benefits and time off. This empowers people with a degree of options to choose from to decide what best fits their needs and evolving lifestyles.
Applying an inclusive design process helps organizations tackle the complex and wicked root causes of exclusion by grasping the needs of people and translating it into the experiences and products they offer. Any time we design for the workplace, we inevitably take on the responsibility of determining which prospective employees can interact with the environment and who cannot. Design is a component of all intentional acts. If we are not proactively and deliberately inclusive, we will unintentionally be exclusive. Co-designing for inclusion is an opportunity to bridge the divide and bring people into the the conversation and work by considering how the design of workplace programs, services, and products could equitably address human needs.
Resources to learn more about inclusive design:
Inclusive Design: A Universal Need - Linda L Nussbaume
Inclusive Design: Designing and Developing Accessible Environments - Peter Hall
Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design - Kat Holmes
Building for Everyone - Annie Jean-Baptise
Inclusive Design for a Digital World: Designing with Accessibility in Mind - Regine M. Gilbert
Inclusive Design for Products: Including Your Missing 20% - Jonathan Hassell
Inclusive Design: Implementation and Evaluation - Jordana L. Maisel
