Inclusion Doesn’t Work in Straight Lines. And That’s the Problem.
For years, we’ve argued about whether inclusive leadership works.
The research has quietly moved on.
The real question now is whether leaders understand how inclusion actually works, over time, under pressure, and through people.
Because inclusion doesn’t jump straight from good intentions to great outcomes.
It moves in chains.
And if you can’t see the chain, you keep pulling the wrong lever.
What the Research Changed in 2025 (Whether Practice Has or Not)
Most leadership advice still assumes a straight line:
Do inclusive things → get engagement, innovation, performance.
That model is basically gone from the serious research.
The 2025 literature is dominated by serial mediation models, studies that trace inclusion step by step as it moves through psychological states, behaviours, and outcomes.
The message is consistent:
Inclusion works sequentially, not instantly. Miss a step, and the whole thing stalls.
Let me show you what that actually looks like in real life.
Chain #1: Voice → Learning → Innovation
A hospital unit under constant strain. Short staffing. High stakes. No time for nonsense.
Leadership rolls out an “open feedback” initiative. Posters go up. Meetings end with: “Any thoughts before we move on?”
Silence.
Not because people have nothing to say. Because they know what happens when you speak up at the wrong moment.
Then something shifts.
A senior leader starts responding differently when issues are raised. No defensiveness. No public correction. No quiet payback later.
Slowly, psychological safety appears.
A nurse flags a near-miss. The team dissects it, not to blame, but to learn. A workaround becomes a new protocol. That protocol spreads.
Innovation didn’t start with creativity. It started with safety. Safety enabled voice. Voice enabled learning. Learning produced better outcomes.
That’s the chain.
Break it anywhere, and you get silence dressed up as compliance.
Chain #2: Thriving → Adaptive Performance
A fast-growing organisation hires a young, diverse team into hybrid roles.
On paper, everything looks right.
But under change, new tools, shifting goals, constant ambiguity, performance wobbles.
Leadership responds with pressure: clearer KPIs, tighter deadlines, more monitoring.
Performance drops further.
Why?
Because adaptability doesn’t come from pressure. It comes from thriving, a combination of energy and learning momentum.
In teams where leaders made it safe to ask questions, admit confusion, and experiment early, people stayed curious instead of defensive.
They adjusted faster. Recovered quicker. Learned in real time.
Adaptive performance wasn’t a personality trait.
It was the downstream effect of inclusion done in the right order.
Chain #3: Relationships → Identity → Performance
In a traditional manufacturing setting, inclusion doesn’t look like workshops or slogans.
It looks like whether the supervisor actually knows your name, and whether it matters.
Inclusive leaders invest in the relationship first. They listen. They follow through. They treat people as insiders, not replaceable labour.
That shifts something subtle but powerful: identity.
People stop thinking, “I work here.” They start thinking, “This is my place.”
And when that happens, effort changes.
Not because of bonuses. Because performance becomes personal.
Again: no shortcuts. No straight lines. Just a chain leaders either build or accidentally break.
The Disruptive Bit Most Leaders Miss
Here’s the uncomfortable truth the research keeps pointing to:
Most inclusion efforts fail not because leaders don’t care but because they don’t see the system they’re operating in.
They act without awareness of which psychological condition must exist first.
They push for outcomes before foundations. They reward results before safety. They demand behaviour before belief.
That’s not a motivation problem. It’s a systems awareness problem.
Why This Is Bigger Than One Newsletter
I’ve shared three chains here.
The 2025 research maps many more including how inclusion drives:
Green innovation
Citizenship behaviour
Knowledge sharing
Sustainability outcomes
And crucially, where those chains snap depending on context, power, identity, and time.
That’s why Inclusive Leadership Trends for 2026 exists.
Not to convince leaders inclusion matters but to show how to make it work on purpose, in sequence, over time.
The Takeaway
Inclusion isn’t a single behaviour. It isn’t a checklist. And it definitely isn’t instant.
It’s a system.
And once you see the chains, you can finally stop guessing where things went wrong.
P.S. If you’ve ever thought “we’re doing the right things, so why isn’t this landing?” the answer is probably hiding in a broken link.
The full report maps the chains. This article just shows you why they matter.
