IHSI Diversity Committee Monthly Resources
Each month, the IHSI Diversity Committee shares recommended reading and resources with the rest of IHSI staff. Curating and sharing these resources gives our team an opportunity to educate ourselves on various topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. As an institute devoted to promoting all forms of health, we want to share these resources more broadly with our campus and community stakeholders. We hope that you will find them as useful as we have.
Resources for fostering belonging in the workplace
Amy Clay, communications manager, shares resources to help teams build inclusive spaces that celebrate the myriad dimensions of diversity that make up our campus community.
Creating a workplace where everyone feels a true sense of belonging and inclusion is more important now than ever. As an interdisciplinary health research institute where health equity and collaboration are foundational to our mission to address personal, public, and planetary health challenges, we are committed to creating an environment that celebrates diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
The following resources offer ways to reflect on and build inclusion and belonging in the workplace. We are especially excited for the opportunity to highlight the work of IHSI Affiliate Nidia Ruedas-Gracia, an educational psychology professor whose expertise lies in understanding how diverse populations feel a sense of belonging in various contexts, like schools or the workforce, and how this feeling of "fitting in" or being "left out" impacts their performance and well-being. Prof. Ruedas-Gracia and her team published, “10 simple rules for creating a sense of belonging in your research group” in PLOS Computational Biology to offer principal investigators some concrete guidance on increasing a sense of belonging and well-being among diverse lab members.
In addition to Prof. Ruedas-Gracia's team's "10 Simple Rules...," we offer resources to help you think about how storytelling and understanding the many dimensions of diversity in the workplace—including the less visible aspects—can build trust and improve communication and collaboration. Finally, we want to invite you to step outside of your comfort zone just a little bit to connect with a new colleague. These small connections add up to make a major impact.
If you have four minutes: Learn about how storytelling can improve collaboration and strengthen teams. Research shows that sharing stories enables people to find commonalities, build trust, and develop greater empathy toward one another. This is particularly important for developing an inclusive and collaborative workplace.
If you have five minutes: Learn more about the types of diversity in the workplace. While we may consider some of the visible differences that our colleagues bring into the workplace, it is easy to overlook or forget about the invisible differences that may impact the way our colleagues communicate, work, process information, and collaborate.
If you have 15 minutes: Learn 10 simple rules for creating a sense of belonging in your research group. While the article is geared toward PIs and research groups, this guidance holds true any group or team working together toward common goals. Don’t have fifteen minutes? They also have a concise infographic!
If you have an hour: Join the 100K Conversations Campaign and strike up a conversation with a colleague to create a more inclusive workplace! Visit the campaign page to view resources for reflection, education, and getting started with those conversations. Don’t forget to join the campaign so that they can track how many people are participating!