7. Why Good Intentions Aren’t Enough: The Hidden Barriers to Belonging

By Michele Manocchi

R&D Consultant | EDI Strategist | SDG + ESG Integration Advocate

Many organizations value inclusion, display land acknowledgments on their homepage, host cultural celebrations, and invest in research and training.

However, some employees — particularly those from equity-deserving communities — still feel excluded, undervalued, unsafe, or stuck.

So, what’s going on?

This may be difficult to accept if you're deeply involved in EDI work and your organization supports you, but what you see as achievements might actually be the result of unexamined systems, cultural defaults, and superficial efforts that only focus on appearances.

The issue is that genuine inclusion (also known as belonging) doesn't falter because of bad individuals — it fails due to unchallenged performative efforts.

To be more analytical, four common hidden barriers to belonging hinder well-meaning companies from creating truly inclusive environments. Let’s see them together.

1. Performative Inclusion

You’ve noticed it: the pride flag in June, the anti-racism post in February — then silence. These symbolic acts seem meaningful, but without broader systemic change, they ultimately feel hollow.

Genuine belonging involves more than just ticking a box. It calls for consistency, depth, and accountability.

2. Unconscious “Sameness” Standards

Many workplaces claim to value diversity, but they (often unconsciously) reward behaviours and communication styles that conform to the dominant culture (typically white, male, Western, neurotypical, etc.).

This results in “code-switching” fatigue — the pressure to adapt, conceal, or diminish aspects of one’s non-dominant identity to gain acceptance.

3. Bias in Systems and Structures

Bias isn’t just interpersonal. It’s built into hiring and promotion standards, performance reviews, meeting practices, conflict resolution processes, and mentorship or sponsorship programs.

If we don’t redesign the systems, we risk perpetuating the same inequities with a different face.

4. Fear of Getting It Wrong

Many leaders hesitate to engage in equity work. They worry about saying the wrong thing, offending someone, or being labelled. As a result, they stay silent, delegate the work to HR, or wait for a perfect plan.

But perfectionism and avoidance hinder growth. Continuous adaptation and improvement through discussion and co-creation, even with small steps, must replace performativity, and prioritizing courage over comfort is essential.

From Intention to Impact

If you have time for only one action, consider changing your leading question. Too often, the request is: “How can we look inclusive?” but the real question is: “How do people experience this workplace?”

Now, here’s the most important part of this proposal: If you rely on traditional methods to gauge how people feel and ask the usual HR person to run the typical end-of-year brief survey with five questions and emoticons from sad to happy, you'll get the same results and continue believing (or pretending) that everyone feels great.

This is the traditional approach of organizations that ignore employee feedback, resist change, and, most importantly, where the dominant leadership deliberately avoids any potential challenge to the status quo.

Results will continue to affirm your beliefs until you actually adopt an assessment strategy that empowers those who usually don’t speak out of fear or lack of trust.

This is why I often tell my clients that the first few questionnaires we administer will usually reflect the responses of the dominant group, because non-dominant individuals will wait to see if they can trust this new arrangement.

Alternative opinions will develop gradually, as many marginalized individuals prefer to watch how situations unfold, how leadership responds to the outcomes, whether anything truly changes, or if it was just another ineffective (and potentially harmful) performative gesture.

If you truly want to make an impact, listen to those most affected — not just by surveying them, but by co-creating change; be willing to re-imagine systems, not just rewrite policies; and cultivate a culture of humility, learning, transparency, and accountability.

Because belonging is not a deliverable — it’s a daily practice. One that must be embedded into leadership, operations, and organizational DNA.

The Broader Picture

Even when you're on the right path—driven to improve things for everyone, to listen and co-create, and prepared for systemic change—you must never forget that while you're conducting surveys, focus groups, roundtables, policy review sessions, and more, you need to remind people of the bigger picture, the map (see my post #5), so they can see how their efforts fit into the larger plan and understand that a well-defined path still lies ahead.

You must share the map before and after each action. This way, whenever someone asks where we are heading, about these activities, why we are asking questions, or what all this EDI stuff is about, you can show them the map. It helps illustrate the connections between individual actions and the overall plan, while also highlighting the final goals and the ROI of everything you're asking your team to do.

You will always face detractors and opponents along the way, even from non-dominant groups (we will discuss this point in another post), but with the co-created map, you can raise the debate from a personal, subjective level to a systemic one and counter their criticisms with data and plans rather than moralistic obligations.

Furthermore, if your organization implements ESG or SDG metrics, maintaining systemic barriers will affect the ESG Social Metrics by leading to lower trust, higher turnover, and reputational risk, while also negatively impacting SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).

Belonging is a strong force behind ESG and SDG progress — but only if we’re prepared to explore further.

Let’s Talk

What “good intention” efforts are falling short in your organization?

Where might systems — not people — be reinforcing exclusion?

What would you need to shift from performative gestures to meaningful change?

Comment below or send me a message. I’m here to help your team overcome barriers to belonging—with honesty, strategy, and care.

Book a free 30-minute meeting, and we can discuss your needs.