Inclusion starts now

Inclusion and exclusion happens right now right here in each and every conversation. When we think about inclusion in this way, it becomes easier to see what is obvious - that inclusion comes, not from symbols and ceremonies, but from the sum of inclusive interactions, based on a special kind of listening that we can call 'inclusive listening', that fosters mutual understanding and recognition, plus the organisational settings that encourage these kinds of interactions.

Practically speaking, inclusive listening is trying to objectively understand the perspective of the other person in any given situation so that we can have inclusive interactions. 

The problem is that most of us often fail to really understand the perspective of the other person in any given interaction because we non-consciously reinterpret what the other person is saying and doing through our own personal, cultural and social perspective.

 The even bigger problem is that the dominant social forces operating in fields of practice like social work, education and health, encourage us to believe that the dominant cultural re-interpretation is the right one in the best interest of those we serve and then rewards us for imposing this reinterpretation. E.g. we get paid to believe that trauma-based theory is a universal, non-arbitrary, objective lens. Or we get paid to act within mainstream organisations as if 'we are all individuals - some advantaged, and some disadvantaged’.

The upshot is that what we think is an accurate understanding of where the other person is coming from, is often, in reality, a highly biased understanding of where they are coming from. This is because we have little mastery of how to objectively interpret where the other person is coming from within any given interaction.

But the benefits of gaining a better understanding are profound. The question then is, how do we gain more conscious mastery of the way we interpret what other people are saying and doing? How can we escape the non-conscious push and pull of our own egos and escape our own non-conscious cultural and social perspectives to see the world more objectively and clearly?

 What we need is some kind of more objective standard for interpretation.  Something that sits outside of our heads – a more objective standard that shows us when we are listening for real understanding and when we are not. This is the space where inclusive listening can really take place, and therefore inclusion take place, and ultimately, where our collective emancipation lies.