Transform your company into a community of care by fostering Dignity, Diversity and Belonging.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have been one of the worst times to be in the travel business. But for Felicia Williams, VP of People for TravelPerk, it was one of the best times for boosting a culture of belonging. Not only did the company not make any layoffs, but CEO Avi Meir announced they were going to retain people in preparation for growth on the other side. “That, right off the bat, reminded everyone that our stated values were not just what I call posters and coasters,” says Williams, “but living, breathing things. And when push comes to shove, we stick to our values.”

So strong were the bonds forged, it made Williams wonder how they could keep it going. In parallel, the company’s growth was taking off: In 2022, TravelPerk achieved the fabled $1B+ unicorn status.

“When I started in 2018, we were a 70-person organization,” says Williams. “Managing diversity was a lot easier when we were just one office in one location, where everybody could literally see eye to eye.” Now TravelPerk’s team spans 70-plus nationalities in eight offices across five countries. “We got to the point where we needed to codify our values in a more intentional way.”

Leveraging Meir’s connection with IESE (where he got his MBA in 2011), Williams consulted IESE’s Office of Dignity, Diversity & Belonging for inspiration. “IESE’s approach is very practical,” she says. “And its focus on belonging just instantly resonated with us.”

In this report, we explore the issues that an increasing number of companies, like TravelPerk, are facing today: How diversity can be a source of strategic value if united around a common purpose and managed, not in a reactive way (solely to deal with conflict and compliance), but in a proactive way — where diversity is a source of mutual enrichment; where each person contributes their unique experience as they collaborate, innovate and grow in connection with the corporate mission; and where, vitally, the dignity of the person is central.

What is diversity?

Myrtha Casanova (pictured) — founder of the European Institute for Diversity Management and author of The Power of Diversity (as well as El poder de la diferencia in Spanish) — has charted the rise of corporate diversity management over many decades.

In the beginning, the focus was on segmenting people by their differences in order to neutralize the problems those differences might create in destabilizing organizational norms. In time, the focus shifted to understanding and respecting differences, both to achieve organizational effectiveness but also to avoid discrimination, as enshrined in law.

Diversity is “the very nature of humanity,” she has said, and “its management is a critical factor for progress — a resource that must be a fundamental part of a strategy focused on creating inclusive development that brings social and economic benefits.”

During the 1990s, Marilyn Loden — credited with coining the term “glass ceiling” — developed a popular framework, known as the Diversity Wheel, to visually depict the myriad dimensions of human diversity. One’s personality is located at the hub of the wheel, with multiple dimensions emanating outward in concentric circles: from internal characteristics (age, race, etc.) to external traits (income, education, etc.) to organizational features (function, field, etc.) on the outermost rim. The wheel is still used today to get individuals and teams to reflect on the multifaceted dimensions of their own diversity as well as how they line up with other people’s. As an exercise, it can start helpful conversations as people discover the intersectional nature of their diversity.

More recently, IESE ethics professor Domenec Mele has begun work on a Taxonomy of Human Diversity, this time oriented toward ethics. This work-in-progress identifies four categories of diversity: ontological (related to the uniqueness of each human being); individual features (age, ability, etc.); status (socioeconomic, education, etc.); and adherence (religious, cultural, etc.).

As managing diversity becomes increasingly important in society, IESE recognizes that companies are looking for deeper guidance beyond the basic “avoid discrimination.” We require a more nuanced ethical approach. As such, the starting point for Mele’s framework affirms “the dignity and innate rights of each person beyond surface-level differences,” he states. “We focus on the virtues and on the common good.” Namely:

• Justice: respect for each person and his or her innate human rights.
• Reciprocity: mutual give-and-take in a balanced and fair manner.
• Care: the interconnectedness of persons, with a strong emphasis on understanding and responding to the needs of others and their human development.

Both the Diversity Wheel and the Taxonomy of Human Diversity are honest attempts to put “the what” of diversity in practical terms — to help companies think more holistically about the multiple ways people may identify as diverse, so we can ensure our talent attraction, hiring policies and the composition of our employee populations reflect the vast richness and complexity of the real world in which we live and operate.

But descriptors aren’t enough. We also want to think about the contributive nature of diversity — not just “the what” but “what for.” As TravelPerk states, “Diversity is an indicator but not the end destination.” There has to be a reason for why diversity in an organization is desirable. For what purpose? Let’s dig into the research.

Diversity, for better or worse

When people talk about diversity, they often extol its benefits: the more diverse perspectives in the room, the greater the number and quality of ideas, the more creativity, the more considered the decision. Having diverse talent brings new skills, knowledge, capabilities and information to the table, increasing the chances of innovation.

There are plenty of individual studies affirming the broadly positive effects that diversity can have on outcomes.

For example, a recent study by IESE’s Anna Saez de Tejada Cuenca (pictured) looked at the diversity initiatives of Fortune Global 500 companies in relation to their suppliers, when companies intentionally choose to work with suppliers from traditionally underrepresented or discriminated-against groups, particularly women and ethnic minorities. She found that the more proactive companies were about embedding diversity requirements in their supplier codes of conduct, the stronger their reputations and partnerships, and the more committed they were to sustainability concerns. There was a discernable correlation between companies with (or without) diversity programs and those seeking to reduce negative environmental and social impacts (or not).

What is diversity good for? Here, the suggestion is that diversity is for more sustainable business practices.

That said, other studies reveal more mixed results. Speaking at the IESE-ECGI Corporate Governance Conference, Jillian Grennan shared findings from her study of S&P 1500 firms to assess whether greater diversity on boards was associated with more diverse workforce hiring, more equitable pay practices and more inclusive corporate cultures — things that diversity policies ostensibly favor. The good news, according to her research, is that there was a trickle-down effect: a diverse director’s appointment led to an improved corporate culture, a stronger sense of community and more approval for senior management. The bad news is that salary gaps for underrepresented gender and racial groups persisted.

What about if we look, not at “the needles” of individual studies, but at “the haystack”? Numerous meta-analyses — that is, big-picture summaries of all the existing research on a topic — have examined the impact of diversity, whether of gender, ethnicity, age, nationality or culture, on performance. To put it bluntly, no clear direct relationship has been found. One meta-analysis of over 100 different studies even found that diversity was negatively correlated with performance. And when there were any positives to report, they were small.

What should we take from this? Do such findings negate all the reported benefits of diversity?

Not at all, says IESE Prof. Yih-Teen Lee (pictured). Rather, it speaks to the point that diversity, in and of itself, doesn’t guarantee positive outcomes and can, in fact, be quite hard to manage.

Lee’s own research attests to the challenges. He studied multinational teams with maximum diversity in terms of gender, nationality and professional background, who had to collaborate intensively on a variety of self-managed team projects over a period of several months (not unlike how many international organizations operate today). He found that identity dynamics (i.e., the heterogeneity of team members) had less of an influence on who was regarded as the natural leader than did status differences associated with people’s nationalities. So, while the existence of diversity did not prejudice the effective functioning of the team per se, perceptions of certain nationalities as being of “higher” or “lower” status opened up inequalities within the teams; those from “higher status” nations were considered more competent, giving them a natural leadership advantage, not by virtue of anything they did but simply because of their nationality.

This underscores that we shouldn’t treat diversity “as synonymous with equality or inclusion,” says Lee, echoing Grennan, who noted in her paper that improving on the diversity quotient doesn’t necessarily result in more equity.

As Lee says, “Given the reality that identity categories can trigger interpersonal dynamics with implications for likeability, competition and leadership, managers must make strategic choices and timely interventions to minimize the development of social fragmentation and reduce the undesirable consequences of diversity, while at the same time proactively fostering a climate of inclusion — as a moral imperative.”

Why so controversial?

This framing of diversity as a “moral imperative” turns up a lot in conversations on diversity and inclusion, with Grennan concluding in her paper that “inclusion is simply the right thing to do.”

If that’s true, then why has there been such a backlash lately against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), particularly in the United States?

Over the past several years, as DEI offices have become more established features in organizations, there has been pushback from some quarters. Texas and Florida, for example, have banned DEI offices from state-funded educational institutions. And in 2023 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down nearly 50 years of precedent that had allowed universities to use race for admissions decisions. Now we’re seeing some U.S. companies backing off from their prior DEI commitments, with year-over-year declines reported in DEI-related job postings since their 2020 highs.

Part of it is symptomatic of the polarized times we live in, where identity politics and culture wars are weaponized in debates to score points against political opponents. Addressing the needs of one group threatens another group who may feel, rightly or wrongly, their needs aren’t receiving the same recognition. It implies, as some fear, a hierarchy of attention, social engineering or reverse discrimination.

Some of it has to do with language, particularly the difference between “equity” and “equality.” Giving everyone the same thing is “equality” whereas “equity” contends that, to achieve true equality, some disadvantaged groups may need to be given different things according to their needs (see the graphic frequently used to depict this). People disagree over which concept is fairest in practice.

“Inclusion” is another term that triggers debate. At its worst, “inclusion” could be interpreted as just “fitting in,” which TravelPerk’s Williams describes like this: “Essentially, you expend energy saying or acting like you have things in common with people around you when you actually don’t, but you feel like you have to pretend to be something you’re not because it’s the only way of connecting to the group.”

As such, a growing number of companies are switching to “belonging.” For Williams, “belonging” is the opposite of “fitting in.” “It means I don’t need to pretend to like something I don’t or be someone I’m not. I can show up with my own interests and my own identity, because there is something else that connects me to you and allows us to work together successfully.”

Elaborating on this trend, The New York Times explained that “belonging” is seen as helping to bring more people into the conversation rather than alienating some because of the political baggage associated with DEI. After all, the end goal is to build bridges rather than drive wedges between people.

The Times article cites the experience of a software company that swapped “inclusion” for “belonging,” partly to get away from the defensiveness that arose when employees discussed DEI. In time, the CEO noticed a positive cultural shift: “The threat level goes down when you create a sense of ‘we can all rise together.’”

And that’s the whole point: “It’s not a zero-sum game,” stressed Boston Consulting Group’s Ashley Dartnell, speaking at the IESE Women in Business Conference in January 2024. It’s not about “one group gets it and another doesn’t. It’s about raising the boats for everyone,” she insisted. And the bonus for traditionally discriminated-against groups is that “they thrive and produce at even higher levels.”

Dartnell shared a personal story of how, growing up, her family moved around a lot, so she didn’t make many friends. She said it wasn’t until high school that she felt respected and, for the first time in her life, part of a group — that she belonged. After that, “I did better in school. I joined sports teams. I got a part-time job. That lesson has lasted my whole life: the power of feeling included. It unlocks some magical thing within us that allows us to thrive.”

“And if people feel happy and motivated, they’re more likely to stay with you. It’s a very powerful outcome dynamic,” she said.

A positive vision

Maria Puig (pictured), director of the Office of Dignity, Diversity & Belonging at IESE, explains the school’s choice of name as “rooted in important truths. First, we have dignity, which is innate to every human being and is the feature that makes us all equal. This is followed by diversity, which is a reference to everyone’s uniqueness and is always worthy of respect. And lastly, belonging, which goes beyond mere inclusion or fitting in.”

In an organizational context, this means “every person contributes in a collaborative and positive way, creating an environment where everyone can thrive and see their talents flourish, where everyone is engaged and feels a sense of belonging to their teams and to the institution.”

Moreover, Puig believes the DDB Office name hints at profound truths, rooted in IESE’s founding Christian humanistic principles: “IESE has always been a mission-driven school, trying to make the world a better place through responsible business leaders. And part of having a positive impact on people, companies and society is treating every single person with the respect and dignity they deserve — this is something everyone can wholeheartedly support.”

“We take it a step further,” she says, “not just respecting others but being united in our differences, welcoming everyone and being a force for good in society. This should be our attitude — one of open dialogue, in which people are heard and solutions are thoughtfully offered.”

This philosophy has resulted in an original DDB framework (pictured). Christian humanism informs IESE’s mission and underpins the dignity accorded to each person, allied with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes as its starting point “the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

Both the corporate mission and those universal values, principles and practices related to human dignity provide an enriching context for diversity to flourish. “We believe that conscious management of diversity leads to better ideas and the best impact in society,” says Puig, reiterating the previously mentioned research findings that, without conscious management or devoid of any larger informing purpose, undirected diversity can sometimes lead to unintended consequences.

Through mutual understanding and a willingness to cooperate toward the common good, a genuine sense of belonging emerges. This provides the basis for a dynamic learning environment — “the where” piece to complete “the what” and “what for” pieces mentioned earlier. This framework captures the essence of IESE’s vision.

Real-world application

TravelPerk followed these cues in developing its own framework. “There are lots of different approaches out there,” notes Williams. “Seeing how IESE had created its approach — starting with the mission, vision and values — was really valuable. It starts with first principles. That’s one of the keys to getting it right. Because if you build something that doesn’t represent your culture or resonate with your leadership, then you will spend a long time trying to convince people, rather than building something that feels authentically you. So we kept our values at the center, using them as the common thread to unite people, regardless of our differences, and building out from there, like a flywheel.”

Beyond acknowledging the functional diversity present in the workforce (the what), TravelPerk seeks to facilitate diversity in context. It does this by encouraging employee resource groups, or what it calls “belonging communities.”

“All these groups exist organically,” says Williams (pictured). People self-organize, finding natural ways and meaningful moments to form connections with each other in the company. This fosters contributive diversity, whereby “belonging communities” take part in “belonging activities,” ranging from volunteering to mentoring others to participating in community events.

TravelPerk’s belonging communities fall into two categories: those that are core to people’s identities (specifically, Pride, Women, Parents and Disability) and those that are non-core (padel, cycling, soccer, pets, and whatever other interests and hobbies might come and go). The core groups receive executive-level support, including financial sponsorship, leadership time and network resources. “We check in with them to make sure they align with our overall strategy, to deliver bi-directional value.”

By taking this holistic, three-pronged approach to diversity — functional, in context and contributive — “we embrace diversity as more than just representation,” says Williams. “We enable authentic connections. Through this, we continue to build a diverse and inclusive organization where every individual feels valued, supported and able to reach their full potential, contributing to the shared success of all.”

Measuring because it matters

Having top-level support is cited by everyone — from TravelPerk’s Williams to BCG’s Dartnell — as fundamental for making sure these programs work. A common mistake is enlisting people who are passionate about the subject but they have no leadership support. “If it doesn’t sound like the business and the leader doesn’t champion it, then it’s never going to land with the employees,” says Williams. “The leadership team helps define why you are doing this, what language to use, where the boundaries are. The worst is creating something that only HR talks about, a statement you’re supposed to have on the company website, but you never hear about it from the rest of the leadership. That just smacks of being disingenuous.”

Laura Fernandez, CEO of Be(in) Mindset, echoed this point when she spoke on measuring diversity and inclusion in organizations — what her consultancy specializes in — as part of a panel at IESE’s Doing Good Doing Well (DGDW) conference. “If diversity is solely the responsibility of the HR department, then we have a problem. If inclusion arises as the result of diversity being handled well throughout the organization, it’s because it has been integrated into every business function, beyond the HR function.”

Equally important is that your diversity goals go beyond mere representations: “We must talk about more than the number of women or the number of people with disabilities. It’s far more than that,” Fernandez added.

“We don’t want this to be an exercise in meeting a certain quota,” agrees Williams. “We’re here to find and retain the best talent. So we will do things to increase the talent pool, such as working with an all-women engineering bootcamp, but then those candidates go through the same interview process as anyone else. We wouldn’t want anybody to feel they’ve been chosen just for a specific diversity reason. That can end up putting people off. And that goes back to being disingenuous.”

Fernandez stressed that any diversity and inclusion effort must have measurable goals aligned with business metrics. That requires collecting reliable data in a standardized model, so you can track your evolution and progress over time. Doing so will enable you to learn, which is the aim, she said, in order to build more inclusive controls.

Admittedly, measuring diversity can be hard: “It’s not like measuring your environmental impact — like how much fuel you’re using per kilometer. When we’re talking about social impact, you can’t use the same math. Rather, you need to ask the right questions of everyone to find out how well you’re actually doing.”

Speaking on the same DGDW panel, Kevin Hawkins stressed the importance of asking. “If you want a program to exist in your company — let’s say you want equal paternity and maternity leaves — if you don’t even measure who’s had a baby, then how are you going to justify that program existing? It starts by actually asking, followed by self-reporting to gather the data and quantify the goals, targets or results of any program, in order to build the business case for it.”

Another panelist, Lotus Smits, made a key observation: “Although people say diversity, equity and inclusion is the right thing to do because there’s a strong business case for it, well, actually, there’s not if you don’t do all three things at the same time. You may have a diverse hire, but if they come into your organization and don’t feel included, they will quickly leave and go someplace else.”

This ends up being very expensive for the organization, not to mention the trust you’ve lost with that talent, which is hard to rebuild. As such, Smits insists, “It’s important for business leaders to take this into account: all three pillars have to be in place or else there won’t ever be a strong business case for diversity, equity and inclusion.”

A common problem with inclusion efforts is that the people you want to include don’t sit at the same table. As such, company efforts can feel forced, offering something to someone without actually knowing whether the other person wants it or needs it. The solution is to bring them into the conversation.

The other thing is to recognize the intersectional nature of people’s identities as belonging to multiple groups. In companies, there may be separate groups for each identity affiliation, but what about just letting people be their full selves at work, without relegating identities to an hour a week in a club? Maybe create panels to discuss the diversity inherent in everyone. And by openly discussing it and making it visible, the difference becomes normalized and less different. This prevents tokenism and helps form bonds of allyship across the organization.

Fellow panelist Fabrizio Acanfora, an advocate for neurodiversity, elaborated: “Every time I give a talk or do some company training, people come up to thank me afterward, because they finally see the company openly discussing these topics. Companies showing they really care about their employees being different is the only way to have a healthy community. How do people work better? If they’re happy. And you can be happy if you feel included in your environment, if you know that your company truly cares for you, not by giving you nice toys and a comfy sofa, but by caring about you being you.”

Toward common ground

IESE Deputy Dean Marc Badia, who oversees the school’s MBA and Master in Management (MiM) programs, told the U.K. Times that the U.S. politicization of DEI is not something he wanted to see exported to Europe. “We are a European campus and we have a different style and culture here. Especially when we are debating issues with so many nationalities present in our classrooms, I would much rather we have a conversation and teach people how to solve problems by having normal conversations. The ability to deal with different types of people and understand them” is central to business leadership today.

In the paper “Navigating between home, host and global: consequences of multicultural team members’ identity configurations” published in Academy of Management Discoveries, IESE professors Yih-Teen Lee and B. Sebastian Reiche studied multicultural teams. They wanted to explore how people’s identities affected their interactions. Increasingly, people hold multiple identities simultaneously, particularly when they work outside their home country. As implied by the title of their paper, people have to navigate their national identity, their host country identity as well as whether they view themselves as global citizens, on top of whatever pluralistic identities they may hold within themselves.

Interestingly, the authors found that those who only held a strong home country identity or a strong host country identity also scored lowest on cultural intelligence (CQ). Those who balanced both identities or who also sustained a high global identity, on the other hand, were able to switch and mediate between different perspectives. Not being tied to identity patterns at any one specific level made them more culturally intelligent and appear more leader-like.

“Helping individuals make sense of ‘who they are’ may be a fruitful new direction for leadership training and development,” says Reiche. “Building overarching, so-called superordinate identities that create common ground, without downplaying or undermining more proximate, specific identities, may serve as a buffer for more divisive identities.”

Lee writes more about this in his aptly titled “Seeking commonality while preserving difference.” He recommends people find common ground around universal values like love, caring and respect, which transcend proximate differences. Establishing relational connections and mutual understanding at this higher human level can serve as a resource for ironing out detailed differences in later interactions, he writes.

Lee adds, “Although we talk about diversity as a resource for better performance, that’s only one dimension. Diversity is also a principle: respecting and recognizing people in terms of who they are is something of value in itself. We ought to embrace that.”

Both Reiche and Lee want to see diversity become a source of personal growth and self-awareness. “This means that when we encounter differences, when we are challenged, when we are pushed out of our comfort zones, we grow. And that’s an opportunity for each of us to become stronger and flourish.”

The Diversity Wheel and the Taxonomy of Human Diversity mentioned at the beginning of this article are there “not just to help us see the existence of the diversity landscape,” says Lee, “but for giving us new eyes.”

“When we start to see diversity with new eyes, we begin to fight for a world in which we are not separated or divided by our differences, but connected, cherishing the uniqueness we all bring to the table.” And that’s a world where everyone can indeed belong.

What’s in your name?

Successfully piloted by IESE Prof. Yih-Teen Lee with the Global Executive MBA in April 2024, this icebreaker is a simple yet powerful way to foster empathic listening and cross-cultural exchange. Out of a person sharing their name arise deeply moving and surprising stories that touch on everything from spirituality and family aspirations to cultural narratives and colonial histories. A memorable kick-off exercise to build a foundation of mutual trust and respect among highly diverse team members.

Reina Sofia School of Music

This immersive session in Madrid, led by IESE professors Marta Elvira and Carlos Rodriguez-Lluesma, explores the intricacies of diversity through the lens of musical performance. A powerful reminder that diversity and collaboration are key to a group’s success.

When Claudia Tecglen was born with cerebral palsy, a doctor warned her parents not to get their hopes up, but they didn’t give up on her. She credits their unfailing support and education, as well as multiple medical treatments, with transforming her life. Today she is a psychologist, an adviser and a professional speaker. She leads two non-profits, Convives con Espasticidad and its Foundation, dedicated to promoting inclusion for people with disabilities. And she has pursued a management degree (PDD) at IESE.

Not all disabilities are as visible as Tecglen’s: Sebastian Boehmer (IESE Executive MBA) has a stutter, which is a speech disorder that he’s had since early childhood. Like Tecglen, he refused to let other people “set the limits of what I can and cannot do,” and has found ways to cope with his stutter so that “it doesn’t define me,” and his supposed limits “become my biggest motivation.” He is a founding member of the John Deere ABLEd Employee Resource Group and co-chair for the European chapter, supporting individuals touched by disabilities.

In a special session moderated by IESE Deputy Dean Marc Badia, as part of the MBA student-run D&I Conference held in March 2024, Tecglen and Boehmer discussed the practical ways that companies can remove barriers and support inclusion in their organizations, increasing opportunities for all.

Why is inclusion so important?

Claudia Tecglen: If we don’t achieve real and effective inclusion, it’s a huge loss, not just for people with disabilities and their families, but for the rest of society, because we are taking away talent from the world. Who has a disability? Just the two of us? No, all of us have different abilities. And no matter how able bodied you may be now, when you get older, disability will appear. So, we have to make sure to build a world where we are all developing our skills, finding our purpose and belonging to a group. That is the basis of humanity.

How does education help?

CT: One thing we need to talk about is how expensive having a disability is. It takes money, and having a disability makes it that much harder to earn money, which is why disability and poverty often go hand in hand. And poverty is a hard limitation to overcome. Another big problem for people with disabilities is that they don’t have as many opportunities to interact with others.

That is why education is key: It builds you up so you can make a living for yourself and live life on your own terms. You can connect with other people. It opens opportunities for you to find meaningful work and a life purpose. Personally, I love my work — it’s my passion! Education is the best weapon against exclusion. It’s how we change the world.

Sebastian Boehmer: When it comes to meaningful and purposeful work, our employee resource group, ABLEd, created a program where we partner with unemployment agencies in multiple countries to provide job-shadowing opportunities to people who can no longer work in their current profession due to medical reasons. We let them experience doing a job in departments like IT, Finance or Customer Service for a day or two, so they can assess if this is an option for them in the future. Those who embrace this opportunity are usually the ones who succeed in making the transition, despite their changed circumstances.

While life can be challenging at times, it’s important to keep a positive mindset. I’m a firm believer that a positive mindset attracts positive outcomes. Personally, this has helped me to challenge myself, overcoming the shame and fear I felt about stuttering in public and building the self-confidence I previously lacked. It’s worth noting that not everyone is born with strong self-confidence, but it’s certainly something you can build step by step. I’ve decided to stop letting my stutter dominate my professional and private life, and to start living a happier and more fulfilling life.

How can we create more inclusive workplaces?

CT: The first step, as Sebastian said, is to have a good attitude. Training is important to raise awareness about the reality of people who feel excluded. Give them opportunities and a voice. If you have a disability, don’t be shy about sharing your experience. Mutual support is also very important in building confidence and empathy.

SB: My professional life changed significantly when I decided to be open about my disability. Whenever I introduce myself, I let people know that I have a stutter and explain how I would like them to deal with it. This makes everything less awkward — both for me, so I can finish my sentences without another person trying to do it for me, and for them, because people know how to react in this situation, which removes their anxiety.

Besides me being more upfront about my stutter, it’s important that HR offers support, not just during the onboarding phase, but continuously throughout the time of employment. Can a person with a disability be as productive as a person without a disability? Yes, with the right support! Does this person need assistive technologies like screen-reader software? A height-adjustable desk? A special screen, keyboard or mouse? The employer must make sure to support employees in a way that they can reach their full potential.

It’s not good enough to care about accessibility or inclusion only when you are about to hire your first person with a disability — you should always be caring about it. After all, accessibility is beneficial for everyone. For example, a height-adjustable desk can prevent back pain for an employee without a disability, as well as being necessary for someone with a physical disability. Also, everyone benefits from flexible working hours, not just employees who need to see doctors more frequently. Focusing on work outcomes rather than the typical 9 to 5 hours is, where possible, one of the best improvements a company can make.

So this inclusive culture has ripple effects on others?

SB: Yes. Often, exclusion happens simply because we aren’t frequently exposed to people who are different from ourselves. The more awareness we can raise and the more openly we can talk about these issues, the less uncomfortable these topics become. We all need to challenge ourselves to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That will lead us toward creating more inclusive environments — and even more inclusive markets. As Claudia said, there are a lot of people in the world with disabilities or who will have a disability at some point in their lives. For companies not considering them as customers, this represents huge, untapped market potential.

What differences do you find between the European and U.S. approach to inclusion?

SB: In the U.S., there is an important focus on communication and considering any potential etiquette requirements. Also, many DEI programs are heavily supported by volunteers. The concept of employee resource groups (ERGs) is very well established, whereas we generally don’t see them so much in Europe. However, at John Deere, we’ve made great progress in creating European chapters for many of our global ERGs, and we continue to work with many stakeholders to foster engagement across the employee base in our European locations.

Tell us a bit more about ERGs: how do they work?

SB: ERGs are voluntary groups organized by employees based on a shared experience or shared identity, and they help to raise visibility within a company for a group of people and the unique challenges they might face.

In the case of disability, our ABLEd ERG is open to every employee — whether you have a disability yourself, you have a friend or family member with a disability, or you simply want to learn more about disabilities and support your colleagues. Furthermore, we don’t define what qualifies as a disability. For example, we support colleagues with diabetes, cancer, celiac disease or mental health issues.

How do you ensure these issues are prioritized in a company?

SB: A best practice is to ensure that each ERG has an executive sponsor, usually a senior leader within the organization. Their support is vital for visibility, financial support and ensuring these important topics make it to leadership meetings and the boardroom. So, even though these groups are employee-led, they require support from the top — not only during the startup phase, when a variety of legal and administrative matters regarding committee structures and bylaws have to be worked out, but also later on, when coaching and support can be provided on an ongoing basis.

In what ways do you think your disability has made you a better leader?

CT: When you have a disability, you get very good at time management. You’re good at managing yourself and asking for help. What company wouldn’t want people with these cross-functional skill sets? Moreover, we’re not just good workers; companies need to remember we’re also good customers, good alumni, good citizens and other good stakeholders in society.

SB: Having a disability definitely builds resilience. When you hire people with disabilities, you will also observe that they are very good at problem-solving. Because they usually have to solve problems in their day-to-day lives multiple times a day, they get very creative at overcoming obstacles.

CT: It can also foster an opportunity mindset. In life, we can either focus on the things we don’t have and complain, “It’s not fair.” Or we can say, “What can I do with this opportunity?” Having a disability is not a choice I made. But it has been a good teacher because it makes me see things from a different perspective and face things with a different attitude.

Disability doesn’t make us special. What makes us special are our values and our attitudes, and that we choose every day to do something positive with our lives.

One way leaders can help people overcome feelings of not belonging is by showing compassion. Here are four keys to practicing compassionate leadership with other people and when leading groups, according to Dr. Gina Eckert.

2. Understanding

Leadership isn’t only rational influencing. We lead human beings, and at the core of the human brain is the heart. Feelings need to be factored into leadership.

Think back to a situation where you felt you didn’t belong or weren’t respected. It takes a while to get over those feelings of frustration, anger, sadness or depression and get to a place where you can begin to have a constructive dialogue about it, because the brain clings on to threats.

Leaders need to help people move into those dialogues. In the animal kingdom, the alpha leader is not the aggressive one but the one who is the protector and the peacekeeper so that the rest of the pack feels safe.

How can we create those safe spaces? How do we arrive at shared understandings? Understanding the situation from both sides fosters connectedness and builds a common basis for implementing solutions.

4. Helping

Finally, we must take concrete action, which can take many forms:

• Remove practical barriers. If you’re in a position of power, are there any practical barriers you can remove? Having someone work fewer night shifts? Paying for modifications to a company car for someone who is disabled?
• Create visibility. Leaders can give recognition and empower an oppressed group without revealing an element of their identity they don’t feel comfortable disclosing. Yet you can still visibly support them.
• Call out obstructive behavior. Behavior that hurts or disrespects people because they belong to certain groups needs to be called out. And leaders must have the courage to do so.
• Raise accountability. Leaders can hold other people accountable for stopping unacceptable behavior and reinforcing desired behaviors across the organization in a purposeful way.
• Change organizational structures. In teams, you can orchestrate who works with whom. You can include new people, widening access to information and networks. You can open up professional networking events more widely, particularly to absent groups. And don’t assume people are absent voluntarily — there may be forces that make them feel excluded and which need to be addressed.
• Reach out intentionally. Who else could belong in your team, your organization, your professional network? What type of person are they? What age group? Which voices are missing? It’s noticing what’s absent — and then actually including them that makes the difference.

“Art is a bridge between people and cultures”

If there is one artist who interprets the great values of humanity for us, it is Jaume Plensa, the internationally renowned Spanish artist whose emblematic sculptures transform public spaces all over the world with their profound, spiritual aesthetic.

“His works reflect the grandeur of dignity, respect for diversity and care for the community,” says Maria Puig, director of the Office of Dignity, Diversity & Belonging at IESE.

In this interview, conducted in the artist’s studio near the IESE campus in Barcelona, Plensa explains how art aids us in our search for answers to the great questions of life, connecting us with our inner selves and bringing us closer to others.

He emphasizes the value of generosity, dialogue and beauty to strengthen bonds, broaden our horizons and ultimately become better people.

Maria Puig: I am still so impressed by your fantastic vision of the world through World Voices (2010), your installation inside the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, a crossroads of so many cultures. What do you want to convey through this work?

Jaume Plensa: I’ve always thought we all have much in common, and this piece represents the soul of each country and how small the differences are between us.

For this commission from the architects of the Burj Khalifa, I decided to represent the world’s countries — 196 at the time — with cymbals. Each one was handmade to give it a unique sound and coated in gold to reflect a particular light — the fascinating light of the desert. Drops of water fall from the ceiling onto each cymbal, expanding the sound. It’s as if each country has a voice and speaks.

I consider sound as the vibration of matter, and our voice is the musical expression of the body. Essentially, when we speak, we are making music.

MP: This reminds me of the tinkling sound of the curtain of letters that make up your work based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How does that work speak to us of values and dignity?

JP: I conceived that work as a curtain of letters to create a tinkling sound as people walk through it. The vibration of each letter is the vibration of the word, of the innermost memory. I was deeply moved when I read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as it seemed to me a beautiful poem that speaks more of what we want to be than what we are. It is a poem of intentions written right after World War II. It puts in writing the will to be better.

Yet sadly we keep repeating the same mistakes. For the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, I presented an exhibition titled Janus, the Roman god with two faces, looking both to the past and to the future. While the temples dedicated to Janus were closed in times of peace and only opened their doors in times of war, in our society, those doors never close. It is absolutely astonishing to me that we still think war can be a solution to anything. My work tends to search those big questions that every generation asks and struggles to resolve.

MP: Why did you title the piece on the Universal Declaration, Glückauf? (2004)?

JP: Glückauf is a “good luck” wish in German used by miners. It’s difficult to talk about “good luck” inside a mine. I learned this word in Germany without knowing that years later I would create a sculpture, Dream, in a mining region of England.

MP: I’d like to delve into the search for identity, based on an idea by the 19th century American philosopher William James, whom the academic Donna Hicks cites in her thought-provoking book Dignity. James spoke about how our deepest self (I) relates to the self we project to the world (Me). How do you approach this question of identity?

JP: I’m not familiar with this philosopher but I like what he says because it’s similar to the transition I talk about — from I to We. Art is a bridge between people, communities and cultures, when the work transforms I into We — my dreams into our dreams, my reality into our reality. This step, when a work I create enriches a community, is extraordinary.

Artwork in a public space should always attempt to generate a dialogue or exchange between the I (origin) and the We (destination). Museums, theaters, concert halls and galleries are public spaces where a dream is exchanged and a dialogue is created. When there is a stage and an audience, the energy exchanged is key.

Regarding this bridge between the I and the Me, maybe there is no answer. If I had it, I guess I wouldn’t have to come into the studio anymore!

MP: I suppose it’s a journey…

JP: I’ve often defended beauty as a path. Previously, beauty was talked about as something cute, when, in reality, beauty has a brutal, transformative, revolutionary force. It must be understood correctly and you have to be generous with it: you can’t think, “me, yes, and others, no.” Art must not only be brilliant; it must also be generous and help move people to a new place.

MP: This leads us to talk about creating spaces for bringing people together. In this respect, tell us about your iconic Crown Fountain (2004) in Chicago, which for me speaks beautifully of diversity.

JP: Several fundamental concepts come together here. I wanted to celebrate the individual who creates a city, which is the people. Chicago is a city known for its wonderful architecture, but it is wonderful because its people have made it so. I also wanted to celebrate the concept of the divine through my love of fountains with gargoyles and faces from which water flows. Life is words and also water. The fountain is a grand public space covered with water on which everyone can walk.

MP: Earlier you talked about your sculpture Dream (2009). What did it mean for the former mining community where it is located?

JP: This is one of the most emotional projects I’ve done. Saint Helens was one of the most important mining areas in the north of England until its dismantling during the Thatcher era. During the preparation of the project, one day a miner said to me, “Jaume, when you’re 300 meters deep inside the mine, the darkness is so profound that light becomes a dream.” That impacted me so much! As a Mediterranean, for me, light is so common that I’d never given it the value it surely has for a miner. That’s why the sculpture is titled Dream.

This piece gave the community a sense of belonging. A miner expressed it well, when asked if he thought it was a waste to spend money on a sculpture during the 2008 crisis: “Art is forever; the crisis is temporary,” he replied. That confirmed my theory that introducing beauty into the daily life of a society is extremely important. Just showing misery to those who already suffer leads to nothing. What you have to bring is hope, and beauty is a weapon loaded with hope.

Sometimes we misunderstand the function of art. Art cannot only be testimonial, a mere document of the age we live in. It must create the era and propose an alternative of hope. That’s what I try to do.

MP: In sculpting so many faces of women, what is it you want to express?

JP: After the Crown Fountain, for which I filmed a thousand faces of all sorts of people, I felt that I wanted to continue talking about diversity through the portrait. A portrait captures a fleeting moment. When you finish the portrait today, tomorrow that person no longer looks the same. It’s like trying to freeze a moment in a person’s life.

I want to reclaim the feminine, caressing instead of touching. It may seem contradictory that I, as a man, am doing this, but it’s not a matter of being a man or a woman; it’s an attitude. I think it’s good to bring the feminine perspective into public life, politics, business and society, to help all of us transform entrenched attitudes and behaviors.

MP: How do you combine being an artist with the business side of your work?

JP: It’s complex, but you end up getting used to being concentrated in the small chaos of working with so many different people around you, from technicians to gallery owners. Each team member has a different way of helping to resolve a problem. It requires keeping an open mind to understand and deal with a wide range of possibilities. My team is very generous — exceptional, I’d say — and together we achieve results that make us feel proud.

Despite the large scale of some of my pieces, I pay attention to the smallest detail. I’ve had the opportunity to meet extraordinary business people who do the same: they take care of the details and of each and every person.

Sculpture is based on scale. And if you really think about it, so is life. The scale of your thoughts, ideas and ambitions. How important it is to keep things in proportion!

By Carlos Rodriguez-Lluesma

Unity in diversity is a phenomenon we encounter in nature. In a natural ecosystem, the various elements work together, supporting and depending on each other for mutual sustenance. A healthy ecosystem strikes a delicate balance — between too much difference, which can be destabilizing, and too much unity, which would lead to sterility. This balance ensures the interactions among all the different elements remain harmonious and well-coordinated, forming a cohesive, integral whole.

Companies, too, need to achieve this unity in diversity, as appropriate to each organization, to avoid falling into disarray or stagnating from too much rigidity. But it’s no easy task.

Having analyzed numerous studies on diversity in top management teams, my IESE colleague Marta Elvira and I have found some that highlight the positive effects of diversity, particularly in relation to sex and multiple points of view.

Other studies, however, reveal some negative impacts of diversity on performance, namely communication difficulties and interpersonal conflict.

In considering the business case for diversity, we must not cherry-pick the results that suit our preconceived preferences. Managers would do well to understand the nuances of diversity.

Beyond the business case for diversity, there’s also the moral case to consider. Here, the focus is usually on it being wrong to discriminate against a person based on factors unrelated to their job suitability and performance.

Less discussed — but no less important — is the deep moral conviction that all people share the same inherent dignity and fundamental rights and worth, which obliges us to stand in solidarity with one another, for the simple reason of our shared humanity.

Seen this way, differences become, not a cause for division, but an invitation to enter into each other’s vulnerabilities, affording the chance to serve and care for each other.

For differences to serve as the basis of care, it’s the responsibility of leaders to foster unity in the service of the common good. This means cultivating conditions where individuals can thrive in community.

To achieve this, it’s crucial to recognize legitimate differences and address unjust inequalities, promoting policies and practices that ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute to and benefit from the common good.

In our companies, we might ask ourselves: whose performance might be affected by a circumstance of them being different that would make them vulnerable, marginalized or weak?

A full awareness and appreciation of this should motivate us to reach out to that person, providing the care owed to them. In this way, diversity will move us away from division and closer toward collective flourishing.

Carlos Rodriguez-Lluesma is Professor of Managing People in Organizations and Academic Director of the Dignity, Diversity & Belonging Office at IESE.

This Report forms part of the magazine IESE Business School Insight 168. See the full Table of Contents.

This content is exclusively for individual use. If you wish to use any of this material for academic or teaching purposes, please go to IESE Publishing where you can obtain a special PDF version of this report as well as the full magazine in which it appears.