"What's One More?"

"What's one more?" my mom would say every Thanksgiving while my brother and I were in college. My family home was a refuge for our friends and classmates that couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving - either because they had no loving home life to go to, or because they lived too far away.

In high school, my best friend was Korean, as was my freshman year college roommate. Sophomore year, my roommate was African American and I dated a Marine from Puerto Rico. I'll spare you the other friends, boyfriends, and experiences that made up my Model United Nations (UN) committee, to which the only qualifier to joining was, "are you a good, fun person?"

The all-American holiday of Thanksgiving can be a wonderful opportunity for everyone to practice inclusion in the workplace, too.

Desiree Adaway unpacks diversity, equity, and inclusion in such a beautiful way, it's worth listening to at least the first 10 minutes of our latest podcast episode of Inevitable: Future of Work. She shares:

• Diversity - is countable things, population by the numbers; the bare minimum. What diversity fails to address is power dynamics and how to navigate challenging situations.
• Equity - can be defined as the elimination of systemic and institutional barriers that prevent full participation from all parties. Racial equity is not eliminating the gaps, but rather increasing the likelihood of success for all people.
• Inclusion - authentically looking at individuals and groups and how we are included in our decisions, policy making and processes; shared power.

It made me wonder: what decisions do I make that unintentionally alienate or exclude others? Am I constantly seeking to partner with teammates who's perspectives differ from my own to ensure the best end product?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!