National Inclusion Week: can we build trust without agreeing?
For many years, organisations have focused on diversifying their workforce and helping people feel that they belong at work. Organisations have encouraged colleagues to speak up, to be open about their identities, lived experiences and perspectives, and to bring their whole and authentic selves to work. These have been important advances, particularly for groups that have historically felt excluded or marginalised.
But in an increasingly diverse, fragmented and polarised world, a different question is now emerging: Can organisations build trust and collaboration among people who do not share the same beliefs and values?
As we mark National Inclusion Week, this question feels particularly relevant. This year’s theme, ‘Build Trust. Navigate Change.’ recognises that organisations are operating in an environment of increasing uncertainty and complexity. Yet perhaps one of the biggest changes facing employers is that diversity increasingly means navigating difference not just in identity, but also in outlook, experiences, beliefs and values.
Inclusion efforts have rightly focused on giving people the confidence and psychological safety to express who they are. However, an unintended consequence is the assumption or expectation that successful inclusion requires people to think alike or feel comfortable with every perspective they encounter. There has been a tendency to see inclusion through the lens of alignment. The implicit expectation is that people should not only work together but also share broadly similar values and perspectives. Yet this sets an impossible standard. Diversity inevitably brings difference, and difference sometimes brings friction.
When difference becomes difficult
Today’s workplace brings together people from different generations, cultures, faiths, political perspectives and life experiences. Alongside this diversity come differing views on a range of social, cultural and workplace issues.
A genuinely diverse workforce will inevitably contain differing viewpoints, disagreement, even a dynamic tension. Far from concluding that inclusion has failed, this disagreement suggests diversity is flourishing and needs operational guardrails to support organisational performance.
The challenge for organisations, therefore, is not how to avoid disagreement. It is how to ensure that disagreement does not undermine trust, collaboration and organisational effectiveness. It is how to help people work effectively with those with whom they fundamentally disagree. Organisations cannot eliminate disagreement, nor should they try to. Instead, they need to create the conditions in which people can disagree respectfully while continuing to work productively together.
When trust becomes critical
Trust is often discussed as though it emerges from harmony and consensus. But organisational trust is something different. It is the confidence that colleagues will treat one another with respect, listen professionally, uphold agreed standards of behaviour, and remain committed to shared objectives even when they see things differently. As my colleague Dan Lucy argues, “HR practices that build trust, collaboration, purpose, continuous learning and growth, and wellbeing are central to any meaningful debate on productivity at work.”
Inclusion, therefore, is not about agreement. It is about creating the conditions for coexistence and collaboration, across and despite differences. Facilitated conversations for “Disagreeing Well” are an effort to help organisations navigate difference more effectively.
I would argue that in addition to navigating and negotiating differences, we also need to pay greater attention to behaviour, not just identity, beliefs or values. This distinction matters because too much of the contemporary conversation about inclusion focuses on attitudes, values and beliefs, while paying less attention to behaviour. To be clear, concepts such as belonging, authenticity and psychological safety remain critically important. Yet organisations also need clear behavioural expectations and operational standards to help people work together despite differences.
Employees should not be expected to abandon their convictions when they come to work. Nor should they be required to agree with every colleague’s perspective. But they can reasonably be expected to engage professionally, treat others with dignity and respect, and contribute towards shared organisational goals.
Organisations may not be able to align everyone around the same personal beliefs, values or ideologies. What they can do is align people around common standards of behaviour and a shared commitment to organisational purpose.
For leaders, this requires moving beyond a simplistic view of inclusion as interpersonal harmony. Instead, inclusion should be understood as an organisational capability: the ability to harness difference without allowing it to erode trust, collaboration or collective purpose. This capability is likely to become increasingly important in the years ahead. As organisations navigate technological disruption, workforce change, economic uncertainty and rising societal polarisation, the ability to work across and despite disagreement may become as important as any technical or professional skill.
The next frontier for inclusion
Organisations cannot, and should not, seek consensus on every worldview, value or belief represented within their workforce. Diversity inevitably brings difference, and difference will sometimes bring disagreement.
What organisations can do is foster a shared commitment to professionalism, mutual respect and common organisational goals. Trust is built not on agreement, but on confidence that, despite our differences, we can continue to work together in pursuit of something larger than ourselves.
Perhaps that is the next frontier for inclusion. Not helping people work with those who are different from them, but creating behavioural norms that help people work together constructively with those with whom they disagree.
If you are an employer navigating an increasingly complex and contested workplace, ask yourself: Are we spending enough time helping people understand one another, and enough time helping them work together when they do not?
At IES, we increasingly see employers grappling with questions about trust, fairness, cohesion and difference in the workplace. Through our diversity, equality and inclusion research and consultancy work, we support organisations to navigate these complex and often contested issues using evidence, employee voice and practical action. You can learn more about our approach in our Building Inclusive Workplaces brochure.
Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.