Closing the Image Gap: Align your organization’s image choices with your stated commitments to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Image choices communicate a lot about real organizational values and behaviors
Each day at work, we see or create countless PowerPoint decks, sales presentations, social media posts, articles, learning content, ads, and videos that convey organizational culture and values. If an image “tells 1000 words,” each conveys meaning about who is valued or not valued, about whether we each “fit” or belong, whether we are seen as a “leader” or not.
Too often, we choose images to help tell our stories that reinforce the status quo and which have had the effect of excluding far too many for too long from the organizational plot line.
As one Shutterstock article notes, “Image galleries today offer a broad range of subjects, spanning every age, race and gender. But many of these images only scratch the surface when it comes to true diversity and inclusion. They often fail to tell the whole story, even unintentionally reinforcing our misplaced notions of how the world looks or acts.”
Why does this matter? You risk undermining stated goals and values, losing business and alienating employees and customers, and reinforcing a painful “invisibility”
Organizations that are conscious of the power of imagery to advance their commitments and values increasingly expect business partners to join them in reflecting the world as it actually is.
A case in point: Someone in my network told me that her company scrambled to respond to this buyer feedback during a recent new client engagement: The images included in the presentation decks didn’t align with the organization’s expectations for diverse representation. This can take many forms. In this case, the client asked: “Why are there no people wearing eyeglasses in any of these images? No people over 50?” and “What about showing someone who wears hearing aids?” The client’s point was not to emphasize a person’s age or disability, but for imagery to represent the actual composition of their workforce and the company’s commitment to cultivating belonging.
2020 or 1950? “Leader” images still reinforce this role as exclusively white and male
I’m surprised by how often I still see this. It’s well past time to choose gender-balanced images of leadership. One example: Just this week on LinkedIn I saw a Leadership article by an organizational consulting firm that, among its services, develops women’s leadership pipeline roadmaps. Yet the article image portrayed leaders as male. It makes me question their actual values, commitment, and credibility.
Three Take-Aways
1. Hold yourself and your communication teams accountable. Do an “image audit.” How well do images align with your organization’s stated goals and values around inclusive culture? What can you do to broaden who’s “seen” in your content, no matter the business context?
2. Invest in, develop, and distribute images that underscore your goals and values. Guide your organization’s people in understanding how important this is.
3. Influence your external partners. They extend and reinforce your culture and values. As a buyer of products and services, state your organization’s expectations for greater imagery inclusiveness with anyone who does business with you.
Diane Bailey-Boulet is President of Scale Excellence, a leadership development consulting company helping organizations progress on their diversity-equity-inclusion journeys, increase engagement, reduce turnover, expand markets, and reach and keep clients and customers.
