September 16: Belonging Should Not Depend On Being The Majority
Belonging Should Not Depend on Being the Majority
There can be a quiet assumption in workplaces that belonging comes most naturally when we have something in common with the people around us. When our experiences, backgrounds, interests, ways of communicating or approaches to work are similar to those of the majority, it can feel easier to find our place, understand the unwritten rules and feel confident that the way we are behaving will be accepted. But belonging should not depend on how closely we resemble the people around us, because if feeling at home requires us to be part of the majority, then by definition there will always be people who are left feeling as though they are guests in a space that should belong to them too.
Being in the minority can sometimes mean becoming very aware of the ways in which you are different. You may notice that you are the only person in the room with a particular perspective, the only one who communicates in a certain way, or one of very few people who share an experience that others have never had to consider. None of these differences should determine how much someone feels they belong, but when an environment has been shaped around the experiences of the majority, people who sit outside that majority can sometimes find themselves doing more of the adapting.
They may become accustomed to explaining themselves, adjusting how they speak, deciding which parts of their experience to share and which to keep private, or quietly working out how to navigate expectations that were never really designed with them in mind. Often, this adaptation happens so gradually that it becomes difficult to recognise, particularly when nobody is deliberately trying to exclude anyone. A workplace can be full of good intentions while still containing assumptions about what is considered normal, professional, comfortable or familiar.
This is why genuine inclusion asks us to look beyond the question of whether everyone is technically welcome and consider whether people can actually participate without feeling that they need to become more like the majority first.
A workplace where everyone feels they belong is not one where difference disappears. It is one where difference does not become a disadvantage.
That distinction matters because the majority is not always aware of the things that make an environment easier for them to navigate. When something feels familiar, it can be easy to assume that it is simply the natural or neutral way of doing things. We might not question the timing of meetings, the language used in conversations, the traditions that have developed within a team or the assumptions that are made about people's lives outside work, because those things happen to work well for us. But what feels completely ordinary to one person can create a barrier for another.
Creating belonging therefore requires a degree of curiosity. It means being willing to ask whether the way we have always done something is genuinely the only way it needs to be done, and whether there are people who might have valuable contributions to make but are having to work harder than others simply to feel comfortable enough to participate.
Inclusion is not about creating a world where nobody ever feels challenged or where everyone gets exactly what they want. It is about making sure that the foundations of participation are broad enough for different people to contribute, and that being different from the majority does not mean being less valued, less visible or less able to progress.
For leaders, this can involve paying attention to who is represented in decision-making, who receives opportunities and who is naturally included in informal networks and conversations. It can mean questioning whether the same voices are repeatedly relied upon because they are familiar, rather than actively creating opportunities for people with different perspectives to contribute. It can also mean listening when someone explains that their experience of the workplace is different from the majority experience, even when that difference is not immediately obvious to everyone else.
For colleagues, belonging can be strengthened through equally simple actions. We can resist the temptation to assume that our own experience is universal, become more interested in perspectives that differ from ours and notice when someone is being expected to do all the adapting. We can make room for different ways of communicating, avoid treating unfamiliarity as a problem and recognise that someone does not need to share our experiences in order for us to value what they bring to the workplace.
There is also an important distinction between being accepted and being included. Acceptance can sometimes carry the implication that someone is being allowed into an existing space, while inclusion suggests that the space itself belongs to all of the people within it and can be shaped by their contributions. When we think about belonging in this way, diversity is not something that sits around the edges of an organisation while the majority defines the centre. Different experiences and perspectives become part of the organisation's understanding of itself and that benefits everyone.
Creating belonging for people who are not part of the majority sends a message that inclusion is not conditional. You do not have to become more like the people around you before you earn your place. You do not have to hide the parts of yourself that feel different, constantly explain why your experience matters or wait until there are enough people like you in the room before your perspective becomes valuable.
Instead of asking whether people from different backgrounds can fit into our existing culture, we can ask whether our culture is spacious enough to be shaped by the people within it.
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