Rethinking Inclusion in a Shifting Business Climate

In today’s U.S. business landscape, the conversation has shifted. Leaders know inclusion matters — but the real question is how to make it a lever for performance. We’re in a market where shareholder pressure is relentless, competition for talent is fierce, and innovation cycles are shorter than ever. Under those conditions, inclusion can’t sit in a silo or be treated as a compliance exercise. It has to live in the core of how work gets done.

That’s where my recent conversation with Mariana Fagnilli author of Inclusion-Driven Performance™, offered real clarity. Mariana has navigated multinational corporate environments across global companies like J&J, Amgen, and Liberty Mutual, among others, in complex market dynamics, and all with shifting employee expectations. She’s seen what happens when inclusion moves from a set of activities to a driver of growth, agility, and resilience.

I’m a lawyer by training but my journey into inclusion began when I saw how it could drive business performance — not just culture, not just engagement, but measurable business outcomes.

Mariana’s perspective is rooted in experience. She stepped into inclusion leadership after working across legal, government affairs, and cross-cultural business roles, which gave her a unique lens: inclusion as a performance engine. She first saw its power at Johnson & Johnson, where a mentor helped her connect inclusive practices with innovation, team performance, and product impact.

From my standpoint, this is exactly where many U.S. companies get stuck. They’ve invested in programs, training, and dashboards, but the metrics are still centered on representation or activity. Mariana calls this the “maturity gap” — a gap between intention and business integration.

Too many companies are still quoting the same McKinsey stats from years ago. If you haven’t proven the value of inclusion in your own P&L by now, you’re missing the point.

In my own work with senior HR leaders, I’ve seen this gap show up as stalled momentum. Inclusion isn’t being measured in decision speed, innovation output, or customer impact. That’s why Mariana’s model — building diverse-by-design teams and linking inclusion directly to business KPIs — is so relevant. It reframes the conversation from “the right thing to do” to the smart thing to do for the business.

From Activities to Outcomes

When I asked Mariana why so many companies stall out, she didn’t hesitate:

We’ve made inclusion visible, but not valuable in business terms. Too much focus on activities — not enough on outcomes leaders actually care about.

Her approach centers on diverse-by-design teams — groups intentionally built to solve real business problems, not just to meet representation goals. She’s turned employee networks into innovation hubs that tackle product development, market entry strategies, and process improvements.

The talent is already inside your organization. You just have to connect it to purpose.

From my perspective, this is where U.S. companies can make the fastest shift. If ERGs and inclusion councils are given defined business challenges, they can become high-value engines for insight and innovation — not just community groups.

What High-Performing Inclusion Looks Like

Mariana broke it down into markers any executive can recognize:

• Psychological Safety — Modeled and reinforced from the top so leaders can take smart risks and model inclusive behavior.
• Metrics That Matter — Replace “% trained” or “% diverse hires” with decision-making speed, innovation emergence, and customer satisfaction by team mix.
• Aligned KPIs — Connect inclusion measures directly to business priorities and P&L outcomes.

Instead of tracking % women hired, track % of innovations coming from mixed-gender teams. That’s a performance story, not just a diversity story.

Inclusion Beyond Borders — Lessons for U.S. Leaders

Mariana’s work at the World Economic Forum gave her a front-row view of how global leaders wrestle with collaboration:

We all recognized the same challenges — climate, AI, inequality. But we couldn’t move forward because we couldn’t work past our differences. That’s the same friction that slows companies down every day.

Her takeaway for U.S. leaders: cultural fluency isn’t a “soft skill.” It’s a competitive advantage. The leaders who can navigate generational divides, cross-functional silos, and regional mindsets will unlock speed, adaptability, and innovation.

Overcoming Resistance in the U.S. Context

In today’s polarized environment, some executives hesitate to push inclusion, fearing political backlash or “initiative fatigue.” Mariana reframes this entirely:

This isn’t about ideology. It’s about building resilient, high-performing teams that can deliver under pressure. Empathy is a two-way street — we don’t have to agree on everything to work well together.

From what I see, the most effective U.S. leaders are those who can keep inclusion anchored in business results — making it impossible to dismiss as “optional.”

Future-Proofing Through Inclusion

We closed our conversation looking ahead:

You can’t future-proof your workforce without inclusion. The problems ahead will require perspectives you haven’t heard yet.

Her advice for U.S. HR and business leaders:

• Bake inclusion into decision-making processes and performance measurement now.
• Use it to accelerate innovation, not just lift engagement scores.
• Keep it in board-level strategy conversations, not buried in HR reports.

Final Takeaway

If there’s one thing Mariana made clear, it’s this: Don’t block inclusion. Fear, fatigue, or politics can dilute opportunity. But when inclusion is tied directly to performance, it becomes one of the most reliable engines for innovation, adaptability, and long-term value.

As I see it, the leaders who internalize this now will have the advantage when the next disruption hits. And it will.