Inclusivity

TeamOps encourages and supports a culture of respect.

Decisions and results are better informed when they include a maximally diverse array of perspectives. While team members should always be empowered to work autonomously, they should still remain included as a collaborator, informed as a colleague, and valued as a critical component of success.

In TeamOps, a bias for asynchronous communication fosters inclusion of many diverse personas, including underrepresented groups, people from different cultural or geographical locations, and neurodiverse individuals. By defaulting to written, asynchronous sharing, everyone contributes in the same way, which standardizes and equalizes the weight of each written message. People of all backgrounds, abilities, and work styles are invited to participate in a way that serves their needs. The best idea—not the loudest voice in the meeting—wins.

TeamOps frees contributors from the conventional bounds of time zones and meetings, and invites a wider audience to participate in a shared reality. This generates more informed contributions from more parties, more thoughtful conversation, and more archived context for retrospectives and evaluations.

Examples and resources for inclusivity

Example: Changing a company operating principle

Samantha L., a leader in GitLab's Learning & Development team, hosted Crucial Conversations cohorts for six months. She noticed a common theme: people consistently struggled to say "no" at work. Rather than hosting a closed-door meeting to change an operating principle to address this, Samantha proposed a change in a public forum (a GitLab merge request).

Additionally, she posted a Slack message in the public #values channel asking for feedback and suggestions from anyone who felt compelled to contribute. Ultimately, the DRI of the impacted handbook page — GitLab Values — came to a decision that was more informed, as it included a more diverse range of perspectives. The feedback is also well-documented for future reference and iterations.

Resource: Reimagining the virtual workplace around inclusion and engagement (article)

{{% details summary="Change management support for inclusivity" %}} Quick Start Tips: - Individual: Commit to spending 1 hour per week to building professional relationships with your team members. Prioritize team members that work in independent roles, have quiet personalities, or you suspect are at risk for feeling underappreciated. - Team: Connect with your company’s diversity and inclusion director to ask for ideas on how to support your company’s current goals. To help measure your status, specifically request scores, resources, events, or trainings that might be available. - Company: Confirm that all engagement and employee satisfaction surveys are measuring feelings of connection, belonging, and trust.

Recommended TeamOps Partner: Flourish (consultant) {{% /details %}}