Want to be Inclusive By Design? Do These 6 Things

Ultranauts is on a mission to demonstrate that neurodiversity is a competitive advantage for business. To achieve our mission, we’re building a world-class quality engineering firm that consistently delivers superior value, and designing a Universal Workplace that embraces diversity and serves as a replicable blueprint for other employers.

To drive value, high performing cognitively diverse teams need to be able to tap into each other's unique strengths by working collaboratively. Doing so requires a work environment that recognizes and leverages the power of our differences, treating them as assets rather than liabilities. This includes policies and practices that create the conditions for us to thrive together, and individual and collective intentions to do better together.

But achieving this vision is easier said than done, especially in large and complex environments. In any workplace, healthy boundaries and compromises are necessary for this work environment to function, and it’s rare for everyone to be perfectly content all the time. What feels inclusive to one person might fall short for another, and this feeling can even change over time. Inclusion isn’t a blissful utopia, but a functional society where people are not artificially blocked from meaningful participation.

As a result, in building a replicable blueprint for inclusion by design, it’s important to focus on the things an organization can control or influence: 1) establishing values, policies, and work practices that encourage inclusion, 2) providing training to help both leaders and followers use them, and 3) reinforcing and continually improving the structures that support inclusion.

After a decade with this as an intention, what has emerged at Ultranauts is a workplace that is intentionally designed to be inclusive of everyone. Values, policies, and work practices are in place, and reinforced, to ensure that each employee can function as an employee in the organization, and function as a full participant in their teams and workgroups. 

To be inclusive by design, address these 6 access requirements:

• Access to places, materials, and resources that are needed to carry out the general requirements of their role and their role in a team or workgroup
• Access to work processes and information flows that are relevant to people in their workforce segment and their day-to-day activities
• Access to people and interactions to help them navigate their role and remain an employee in good standing and learn and continually improve with their teams and workgroups

This will help you establish values, identify policies, and institute practices. Because building an inclusive environment is a never ending job, be sure to provide regular training, and reinforce and continually improve the whole system through regular feedback.

When each of us can leverage our unique strengths and collaborate effectively with colleagues who are different than us, we achieve different and greater results than any of us could on our own.

Ultranauts is on a mission to demonstrate that neurodiversity is a competitive advantage for business. In the Inclusive Enterprise^TM program, Ultranauts provides high-impact guidance to help companies achieve inclusion at scale - by customizing, monitoring, and continually improving Inclusive Practices to enhance performance. Join the waitlist to schedule a meeting and find out about remaining openings this year. By cultivating a Universal Workplace, everyone can thrive. The company also provides software quality assurance services, data ecosystem integration and data quality services, and accessibility testing, training, and developer support.