Workplace

Inclusion Is Not a Default Setting

The system was installed but nobody configured it for Everyone

created by the author

Let me ask you something.

Have you ever walked into a room — a meeting, a town hall, a team offsite — looked around, and quietly counted how many people looked like you?

If you have, you already know what this article is about.

If you haven’t — well, that’s kind of the point.

The System Doesn’t Fail Loudly

I spent years in IT. And if there’s one thing tech taught me, it’s this: a system doesn’t fail loudly. It doesn’t throw up an error message saying “Warning: not built for everyone.”

It just runs. Quietly. Efficiently. For the people it was designed for.

Everyone else? They spend their energy working around it.

That’s what diversity and inclusion in the workplace feels like from the inside.

Not a dramatic injustice. Just a thousand small moments where the system wasn’t built with you in mind — the meeting scheduled on your religious holiday, the “mandatory happy hour” at a bar when you don’t drink, the feedback that says “speak up more” when you’ve been trying to get a word in for months.

The system isn’t broken. It just wasn’t configured for you.

Diversity Is the Invite. Inclusion Is the Seat.

Here’s the distinction that matters.

Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance. Belonging is dancing like nobody’s judging.

Most organizations have gotten decent at the invite part — tracking numbers, running campaigns, publishing goals around inclusion and diversity in the workplace.

That matters. Representation is not nothing.

But then people show up, and the music is still playing the same songs. Conversations still default to the same voices. Promotions still go to whoever reminds leadership of themselves.

We hired diverse. We stayed the same.

That’s not inclusion. That’s decoration.

The Invisible Configuration File

Every system has a configuration file — set up years ago, running ever since, rarely questioned. Workplace culture is that file.

It was consciously or unconsciously created by the founders of the organization.

The default settings of the organization reflect their communication preferences, their understanding of professionalism, and their idea of leadership.

If you are a good match for this culture, then things will automatically go smoothly.

When you don’t? You spend enormous energy translating. Adapting. Masking.

Inclusion is the work of rewriting that file — not patching it, not working around it — so the system runs well for everyone, not just the default user.

And that includes rethinking diversity and inclusion training.

Not the annual checkbox session — death by PowerPoint, a quiz everyone passes, a certificate nobody remembers. One-time, compliance-driven Diversity Inclusion training doesn’t change culture. It might even backfire.

What works is ongoing, embedded learning tied to real situations.

I have come across a **diversity and inclusion in the workplace course** that seems to address the gap. The beauty of this course is that it does not just lecture; instead, it takes participants through actual workplace scenarios.

It’s the kind of structured learning that complements the cultural work, rather than replacing it. Managerial accountability. Psychological safety. But most importantly — Listening to those who have already told you that the system is not working for them.

The Default Is a Choice

If you’ve been quietly translating yourself — code-switching, shrinking yourself into something that would make you fit into a space never meant for you — I see you. That energy is very much real. And it is not yours to bear alone.

To everyone else: the ask isn’t guilt. Guilt doesn’t rewrite configuration files. Action does.

Notice who isn’t in the room. Ask why. Make the room bigger.

Every default setting was chosen by someone. Which means every default can be changed.

Inclusion and diversity in the workplace is not just a warm-and-fuzzy approach.

No, it’s a matter of engineering — something that requires thoughtful design and careful maintenance. Just like how we’d treat any system we actually cared about.

The question is: do we care enough to do the work?

Because for a lot of people, the system is still running on its original settings.

And “default” is just another word for the choice nobody questioned.

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By the EIC Susan Brearley with Ideogram