We’ve spent 2024 navigating some of the most pressing challenges facing our organizations today:

• Communication breakdowns between teams due to socioeconomic or geopolitical events

• The tug-of-war between return-to-office and remote work

• The politicization of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) itself

…all of which directly affects the teams that leaders claim they’re supporting.

While organizations are feeling pressure to cut budgets or scale back their efforts — at Inclusion in Progress, we believe that this shift actually presents an opportunity. An opportunity to align inclusion, distributed work, and people-focused strategies more directly with an organization's objectives in 2025 and beyond — and continue to build freer, fairer workplaces that work for us all.

As we wrap up the year, we’re sharing the lessons we’ve learned from 2024, the challenges and opportunities for 2025, and what’s next for us at Inclusion in Progress.

Finally, we’ll continue to share our resources, insights, and conversations with you here on this podcast as a resource for globally-minded leaders like you. It’s our hope that we can continue to shine a light on the benefits of flexible work — and enable you to continue to lead conversations about how to create your own inclusive distributed workplace.

Grab your copy of our Distributed Work Models playbook launching in January 2025.

Or email us at info@inclusioninprogress.com to learn how we’re continuing to support organizations with our Inclusive Distributed Work™ framework in the new year.

#inclusionatwork #hybridworkplace #futureofwork #inclusioninprogresspodcast

LINKS:

info@inclusioninprogress.com

www.inclusioninprogress.com/podcast

www.linkedin.com/company/inclusion-in-progress

Download our Distributed Work Models playbook to learn how to find the distributed work model that enables your teams to perform at their best.

Download our 2024 Whitepaper: "How Cybersecurity Companies Can Retain, Promote & Advance Women to Minimize the Gender Gap"

Listen to how the return-to-office debate has been politicized in our previous episode, IIP128: Why In-Office Mandates Hinder Innovation & Inclusion

Want us to partner with you on building more inclusive distributed work? Get in touch to learn how we can tailor our services to your company’s DEI and remote work initiatives.

Read our Forbes features on Ways to Support Employee Mental Wellbeing, What Self Care Looks Like For Us, and How to Create Effective Online Diversity Training.

Subscribe to the Inclusion in Progress Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to get notified when new episodes come out!

Learn how to leave a review for the podcast.

A principle at the core of our Inclusive Distributed Work™ framework is compassionate collision — bringing different perspectives to the table and creating psychological safety for everyone to contribute their ideas and views to an organization.

The goal of compassionate collision isn’t to “fix” or “solve” complex issues overnight, but to create an environment where people can express themselves without fear of retaliation.

Our CEO, Kay Fabella, has been having difficult conversations with leaders recently, and a common theme is emerging: How can we maintain unity within our teams when global events are so divisive? Especially as we the world realizes that geopolitical and socio-economic stressors of the past few years are here to stay?

While it’s impossible to have one perfect solution, we at Inclusion in Progress have found that the following recommendations for creating safe spaces for difficult conversations is crucial:

• Foster spaces for respectful discussion that model compassion and encourage diverse perspectives.

• Set communication norms, encourage constructive debates, and create space for emotional support.

• Offer training on inclusive leadership, provide mental health resources, and schedule 1:1 check-ins.

If you want to learn more about our Inclusive Distributed Work™ framework and how it’s enhancing performance and connectivity for distributed teams, book a call with us by emailing info@inclusioninprogress.com.

#psychologicalsafety #compassionatecollision #culturaladaptability #inclusivedistributedwork #futureofwork #inclusioninprogresspodcast

LINKS:

info@inclusioninprogress.com

www.inclusioninprogress.com/podcast

www.linkedin.com/company/inclusion-in-progress

Download our 2024 Whitepaper: "How Cybersecurity Companies Can Retain, Promote & Advance Women to Minimize the Gender Gap"

Learn more from our previous episode about how to Create Psychological Safety on Remote Teams

Listen to how we covered Psychological Safety for DEI Practitioners: Top Tips from IIP

Want us to partner with you on building more inclusive distributed work? Get in touch to learn how we can tailor our services to your company’s DEI and remote work initiatives.

Read our Forbes features on Ways to Support Employee Mental Wellbeing, What Self Care Looks Like For Us, and How to Create Effective Online Diversity Training.

Learn how to leave a review for the podcast.

The company on everyone’s mind in the ongoing return-to-office debates is none other than Amazon. The global company’s decision to roll back hybrid work models and reinstate in-office mandates in January 2025 has raised eyebrows — and not in a good way.

While Amazon (and companies like them) may view this in-office mandate as a way to "restore" collaboration, will it instead stifle the very innovation it wants to improve?

In this episode of the Inclusion in Progress podcast, we talk about:

• Why in-office mandates hinder flexibility, which is a non-negotiable for employees today;

• The ways that innovation and creativity can thrive outside a shared physical workspace;

• How forward-thinking leaders like you can move beyond return-to-office or RTO mandates to embrace a version of distributed work that helps your teams thrive.

At Inclusion in Progress, we have utilized our three-step Inclusive Distributed Work™ framework to support companies with aligning their people-focused initiates with business critical objectives, to deepen their capacity to understand and address specific issues facing their globally distributed teams.

If you’d like to collaborate with us to implement our framework in your organization, email us at info@inclusioninprogress.com to book your free consultation call.

#returntooffice #leadership #inclusivedistributedwork #futureofwork

LINKS:

info@inclusioninprogress.com

www.inclusioninprogress.com/podcast

www.linkedin.com/company/inclusion-in-progress

Download our 2024 Whitepaper: "How Cybersecurity Companies Can Retain, Promote & Advance Women to Minimize the Gender Gap"

Read the full Amazon Message from CEO Andy Jassy: Strengthening our culture and teams.

Learn more about WFH Research’s findings on hybrid and remote work models.

Review the University of Pittsburgh - Katz Graduate School of Business’ study on Return-to-Office Mandates.

Want us to partner with you on building more inclusive distributed work? Get in touch to learn how we can tailor our services to your company’s DEI and remote work initiatives.

Read our Forbes features on Ways to Support Employee Mental Wellbeing, What Self Care Looks Like For Us, and How to Create Effective Online Diversity Training.

Learn how to leave a review for the podcast.