Kaplan and Donovan Summary

In Chapter 3 of The Inclusion Dividend, authors Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan take a close look at the workday of a typical senior manager to discuss diversity and inclusion concepts and highlight key moments when changes to behavior can make a positive impact. With 20 years as consultants in leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and organizational change, the authors have witnessed the challenges to progress that can occur from mismatched intent and impact, unconscious bias, insider-outsider dynamics, and a failure to consider the different levels of systems in an organization. They argue that a typical manager’s day is so full of deadlines and distractions that important actions related to diversity and inclusion “can be easily lost in the noise of the daily office grind” (Kaplan and Donovan 1). The authors also claim that the leadership courses or webinars managers occasionally take are not enough. In other words, it is difficult if not impossible for the typical manager to invest the time that is really needed each day to make a difference. By using many examples, Kaplan and Donovan also show how the shortcuts managers take, such as when a manager gives everyone a stellar performance review, can harm diversity and inclusion efforts. In the end, the authors offer practical solutions for cutting through the “noise” to make diversity and inclusion a daily priority.