This is for you if you've just been handed a team for the first time and want it to be somewhere people with different backgrounds and working styles can do their best work. By the end you'll have a plan for your first ninety days: how to listen, how to set up meetings and decisions so quieter people get heard, and how to tell whether any of it is landing. An inclusive team culture comes mostly from small, repeated habits, not from a poster on the wall or a one-off training day.
1. Hold one-to-ones before you change anything
Book a thirty-minute conversation with each person in your first fortnight. Ask what's working, what irritates them, and how they like to get feedback. Then stop talking.
You can try wording like: "I'm not here to reorganise anything yet. I want to understand how you work best, and what I might do without realising that gets in your way."
How you'll know it's worked: someone tells you something they clearly hadn't told your predecessor. If every answer is "all fine, thanks", they don't trust you yet. That's normal, and it just means you ask again in a month.
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2. Look at who speaks in your meetings
For two weeks, simply notice. Who talks first, who gets interrupted, who never says a word, who emails you afterwards with the point they didn't make in the room. Jot it down after each meeting. It's tedious. Do it anyway.
If you're a manager who was promoted from inside the team, this is harder, because you're used to the old dynamics and they feel like personalities rather than patterns. If you've joined from outside, you've got fresher eyes but less context, so ask a trusted colleague what you're missing.
3. Change the format, not the people
Send the agenda a day ahead. Ask for written input before the discussion, not just during it. Rotate who chairs. Try going round the table for the key decision, so the person who thinks before they speak isn't beaten by the person who thinks out loud.
Someone who's quiet in meetings is rarely lacking opinions. Most of the time the format has been built around whoever's fastest.
4. Be explicit about the unwritten rules
When is it fine to log off? Do people need to be on camera? Who can challenge a decision, and how? New starters, people from different cultures and people who are first in their family to work in an office often pick these up last, if at all. Write them down in a short team doc.
How you'll know it's worked: a new joiner asks fewer "is it okay if..." questions in their first month than you'd expect.
5. Check your own habits on work allocation
Look at who gets the visible projects, the stretch assignments and the client-facing work. The CIPD publishes guidance on inclusive people management, and opportunities tend to drift towards people who remind us of ourselves. Review the split every quarter and ask whether anyone's been overlooked.
Know your legal baseline too. The Equality Act 2010 covers protected characteristics, and reasonable adjustments are your responsibility as a line manager, not something to refer upwards and forget.
6. Ask for feedback on you
At your thirty, sixty and ninety day marks, ask the team: "What should I start, stop or keep doing?" Anonymous works better early on. A shared form is fine.
If you want more ideas on bringing varied talent into your team, OHUB's diversity resources are worth a look when you're hiring, and the insights section covers wider recruitment trends.
When a step goes wrong
Someone dominates every meeting and your new format doesn't stop them. Speak to them privately, name the pattern, and ask for their help in making room for others. Most people respond well to being asked.
Someone raises a concern about bias or a colleague's behaviour. Listen, don't debate it, and don't promise confidentiality you can't keep. Tell them what you'll do next, then do it, and involve HR early.
You get something wrong, say a clumsy comment or an assumption. Apologise briefly, without a speech, and change the behaviour. Teams usually forgive mistakes more readily than defensiveness.
Nothing seems to change after a month. That's usual. Culture shifts slowly, and your job right now is to be consistent.
One thing to do this week
Book your first round of one-to-ones, and put the same three questions at the top of each invite. Send them today.
