Beyond “Good”: The Real Work of Building Inclusive Culture

What if your “good culture” is the very thing stopping your organisation from becoming truly inclusive?

In many workplaces I go to, leaders will tell you the culture is good: people are friendly, they get along and are engaged, safety is taken seriously, most days run without drama, the work gets done and we meet our targets. 

But a good culture isn’t the same as an inclusive culture and the gap between the two is where performance, innovation, and retention can get lost.

An inclusive culture goes beyond being nice and getting along. It’s the discipline of making sure every person is respected, connected, progressing and contributing, not just the loudest, longest-tenured, or most similar to the majority. 

That shift isn’t cosmetic; it’s commercial. Australian data shows inclusive teams are 9.5× more likely to be innovative, 8.5× more likely to work effectively together, and 4× more likely to deliver excellent customer service than non-inclusive teams. (Diversity Council Australia)

Inclusion is not just a feeling, it's an outcome of a consistent set of behaviours.  It’s about making space for people to bring their full selves and feel like they matter.

What makes people feel included is their experience of our behaviours.

So how do we make the shift from good culture and start to transform that into inclusive culture?   

This is what that can actually look like:

Belonging:
Good culture says “we get along.”
Inclusive culture asks “who still feels outside the circle and what are we doing about it?” (Think contractors, women on night shift, Indigenous team members, neurodiverse talent.)

Voice:
Good culture invites input.
Inclusive culture uses input, ideas are heard, tracked, and acted on (with credit given).

Fairness:
We all have a strong sense of what is fair at work.  Traditionally good culture treats people the same.
Inclusive culture recognises different needs and removes barriers so people can contribute at their best.

Psychological Safety:
Good culture can tell us to avoid open conflict or disagreeing with someone who may be a role above us.
Inclusive culture builds psychological safety, where it is an expectation that people can question, raise concerns, and disagree without interpersonal risk. That’s how teams learn faster and make better decisions. 

Accountability:
Good culture relies on goodwill, or good people doing the right thing.
Inclusive culture holds everyone (especially leaders) to clear behavioural standards.

So how do we know where we are on our journey from good to inclusive?  Here’s a quick in the moment test to help you get started or track progress (evidence is key):

1. Who speaks twice in your meetings and who never speaks once?
2. Whose ideas get immediately accepted and implemented, and whose get politely listened to and never trialled?
3. When a mistake happens, do people explain or defend?
4. Which roles get development opportunities and which are “always too busy”?
5. If you asked your quietest team member, “Do you feel respected and heard here?” What would they say?

If your answers are uneven, you don’t have a people problem, you have an inclusion opportunity.

Why the distinction between good and inclusive matters

Across all workplaces, the expectation of leaders has shifted.  We expect workplaces that are safe, respectful and inclusive, not just functional. Industry bodies now frame equity, diversity and inclusion as core to safe, high-performing operations, not a side project. Evidence continues to show inclusion links to wellbeing, performance and lower misconduct, whilst workers in inclusive teams report markedly higher satisfaction and lower discrimination/harassment (Diversity Council Australia).

As a frontline leader here’s what you can do this week:

1) Make respect visible, not just verbal.
Don’t rely on slogans. Model in micro-moments how you listen, who you greet first, what you challenge, and what you don’t walk past.  People will notice.

2) Design for every voice.
Rotate who speaks first. Ask for a second answer before you comment. Close the loop  “Here’s what we heard; here’s what we’ll trial; here’s how we’ll review.” Inclusion is measured in follow-through.

3) Turn safety conversations into learning conversations.
Swap “Who stuffed up?” for “What made the right thing hard?” Normalise surfacing risks and near misses without fear. That’s psychological safety in action (Harvard Business Review).

4) Audit opportunity, not attitude.
Gather the evidence on who’s getting acting roles, high-visibility tasks, mentoring and training. If it skews to the usual suspects, fix the system (nomination criteria, rostering, relief coverage), not the people.

5) Build “inclusion routines.”
Two simple ones:

• The Two-Up: for every decision, consider two perspectives not in the room (e.g., contractors; night shift).
• Close the Loop: circle back with someone whose idea you used (or didn’t) and tell them what happened next.

One of the biggest indicators of inclusion is the language we use every day.  Choose one of these and keep it in your back pocket to start using. 

• “Before we decide, whose perspective are we missing?”

• “What would make it easier for you to contribute here?”
• “If we trial this, how will we know it worked for everyone affected?”

Gather the evidence.  Start measuring and listen to the story it tells you about your culture.  

• Voice: % of team members who say “My ideas are acted on or I’m told why not.”
• Fairness: spread of development opportunities by role, gender, contract type, shift.
• Respect:  “I feel respected here”  tracked by crew.
• Outcomes: rework, near misses, communication flow trends after inclusion routines start.

A good culture is where everyone might get along. An inclusive culture performs because it harnesses every person’s contribution, especially the ones you’ve been missing. If you want safer, smarter, more resilient teams, don’t settle for good. 

Build inclusion on purpose.