by r mahalakshmiwhile many organisational leaders acknowledge workforce diversity as an imperative my suspicion is that the concept is mostly understood in terms of ensuring a certain percentage representation of diverse segments without fully understanding the why the core need for diversity is not about getting a statistical representation of visible aspects such as race gender generational and physical ability alone that is just a surrogate which is diversity of thought this enables deriving value from different perspectives on problems and different ways to address solutions this helps organisations see value and be conscious of the risk associated with homogeneity especially in senior decision makers in most places diversity is not a choice anymore in a global workplace we are surrounded with diversity all the time cultural regional gender generational the best leaders leverage thought diversity to create growth attract talent and generate new marketplace opportunities yet so many organisations get this all wrong i still remember one of the large consulting firms i was exposed to early in my career with the best of intents they had gender and generational diversity but the culture demanded a certain style a clear dress code and guess what reports you wrote had to be in a specific font type and sizemaximising the benefitsthe full benefits of having diverse groups are leveraged only if coupled with a conscious effort to welcome and embrace divergence of view little wonder that companies like mondelez india are working to build not just a diverse workforce but inclusive workspaces that allow diverse views beliefs and styles to be selfexpressed thereby enabling diversity programmes to shift from a compliance obligation to a business strategybeing intentional about inclusionhere are six steps that i have seen truly make a difference in enabling organisations to move towards being truly inclusivestarts with me and at the top intentional inclusion is first and foremost on an individual journey this journey needs us to introspect on stereotypes and unconscious biases we might hold at mondelez india we use theatre style storytelling to help educate colleagues especially people managers about unconscious biases and covering behaviours we celebrate leaders who honour other peoples opinions and promote constructive debate leadership drives inclusion the process always starts at the top if i could have my wish every leader would say where is the diversity in this conversation looking forward and back take a close look at your talent and succession pipeline is the succession pipeline diverse does it indicate any unconscious biases we need to correct are your development programmes focused on engendering inclusion as a key skill at mondelez our efforts to embed diversity and inclusion in leadership pipelines and programmes have held us honest to the agenda today diversity and inclusion is an integral red thread that runs across our programmes on leadership development new manager and talent acquisitionlooking wider is your marketing talking to the diverse consumer base we target take a close look at multicultural marketing and how we interact