Inclusive Excellence
Realizing our vision of a healthy and thriving community for everyone means facing a world of disruption and complex system challenges. There are no single, easy, or quick solutions. Complex systems problems require solutions produced from many perspectives, ways of thinking that generate new ideas, and new knowledge.
Our differences can make us better, stronger, and more innovative in a complex world of disruptive change. But the benefits of our diversity can only be realized when people have equitable and equal opportunity to develop and advance and when talented people who bring the most prominent differences have a sense of belonging, access to information, and influence. We believe that MCW can raise the bar and close the gaps in health across our community by striving for inclusive excellence inside MCW and our communities.
Inclusive Excellence occurs when an institution intentionally engages and incorporates social and human differences into its functioning, strategies, and culture to achieve mission success and thrive with its community.
Elements of Inclusive Excellence
Learn and Grow to Innovate
Making a personal commitment to learning and growing leads to new ways of engaging with our missions, strategies, people, and partnerships. As MCW's people learn to engage constructively around differences and grow in their ability to adapt to change and embrace diversity, MCW will achieve new levels of excellence in all it pursues.
Inclusive Leadership at all Levels
People need opportunities to apply learning, build communities of practice, and access ways to influence and lead. Top leadership can set forth, resource, and reinforce the vision, but inclusive excellence cannot be attained through formal authority alone. Leaders at all levels must be cultivated within departments and through broader inclusion leadership groups.
Attract and Build a 21st Century Knowledge-Force
MCW will need to cultivate talent from different backgrounds, skill sets, and potential to build an inclusive, diverse, and thriving knowledge-force. We will need to foster a climate and culture in which all can bring their best and achieve their potential.
Be an Anchor for and with Our Community
The human, intellectual and economic capital of MCW brings unique responsibility and opportunity to invest in the health and vitality of our community. As an anchor for our region, we can achieve a positive impact through direct investments in neighborhoods, known as place-based investments, buying locally, and building talent in our community.
For MCW, inclusive excellence begins within. It starts as our people learn how to engage constructively around differences and grow in their ability to adapt to change and embrace diversity. It advances when people are cultivated, can act, and be recognized as inclusive leaders at all levels. Inclusive excellence gives us the ability to attract, build, and retain a 21st-century knowledge force that reflects diverse identities, backgrounds, abilities and recognizes people's potential. MCW's rooted position in our community allows us to invest in and partner with our community today as an anchor institution and enable access to the outstanding talent and strong community partnerships that cultivate a healthy and thriving community for decades to come.
1"Handbook of Diversity Management: Inclusive Strategies for Driving Organizational Excellence" – Overview of the Field of Diversity Management pp 32.