Language Tweak

A different way to talk about inclusion

Last week, I was invited to submit a proposal for an executive leadership workshop at a Midwestern university. I’ve delivered programs for their annual series four or five times over the past 10 years, but the speaker’s bureau that contacted me this time asked for extensive paperwork. I knew I wasn’t going to apply– the forms needed to be filed within two days and I always work on a schedule. But I decided to read through the specifications because I like to know what potential clients are looking for.

Right away I noticed that the two topics I’d spoken about in previous years, women’s leadership and inclusive leadership, were not on the list. Though these have been among the most popular in the series– heavily enrolled and well-received– I was not surprised. Today’s political environment is treacherous, especially for universities. So it made sense that the topics deemed acceptable this year were all studiously non-controversial: strategic planning, change management (which feels like a blast from the past), talent attraction/retention/engagement, organizational culture (can you get more generic?) and well-being.

Still, perusing the list was helpful. I am painfully aware that I need new ways to speak about inclusion. It’s a topic I pioneered back in 1995 and have been working with for the last 30 years. But while women’s leadership does remain popular in organizations around the world, using any language related to DEI now raises red flags, at least in the US.

Since I have no desire to expose my clients to risk, tweaking the language I use seems prudent if I intend to carry on with the work that has been my life’s mission. And I do.

Seeing attraction/retention/engagement on the list of potential topics gave me a sense of how I might move forward. Engagement, in particular, got me thinking. Engaged employees are motivated, invested, enthusiastic, and consequently more productive than those who lack energy and commitment.

Employee engagement has been a familiar topic since Gallup began measuring it in the late 1990s. Yet despite the interest and all the “engagement initiatives” leaders have introduced, engagement has mostly continued to decline. For example, Gallup’s 2025 survey shows only 31% of all US employees feel actively engaged with their work. Which means that nearly three quarters do not.

Why not?

The latest survey offers clues. For example, only 39% of employees report feeling that someone at work cares about them. And how can you care when you don’t think anyone else cares about you? In addition, only 30% agreed that someone in their organizations encouraged their development. Which very sensibly translates into the belief that your company is not invested in you.

There is really no way to engage people who perceive that their employer does not care about them and has little desire to help them develop to their full potential. They are always going to feel underrecognized and undervalued. They will show up to do their work, both out of self-respect and the need to earn a paycheck, but emotionally they’ve pretty much checked out. They view their "real life" as happening outside the office. Even if that real life is nothing more rewarding than going down rabbit holes online or zoning out in front of the tv.

Decades of experience suggest that the trend toward disengagement can be most effectively reversed by working to build more inclusive cultures. That is, cultures in which the largest possible percentage of people:

• Feel ownership in the organization and speak about it using we rather than they

• Believe they are seen and valued for their potential as well as their contributions

• Perceive that how they matter is not tied solely to their positional power

Such cultures organically address the issue of engagement. But using the i-word now can be problematic. This is a certainly a loss– there’s a reason the word became so popular- but “culture of engagement” seems a good enough way to talk about the same thing.

So for now, I’m thinking that it’s the best way to go.

But I want to hear from you.

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