Justine Boon, Head of Inclusion and People Operations at Blue State- Make Space and Take Space

Justine Boon is the Head of Inclusion and People Operations at Blue State, where she leads talent acquisition, operations, and the agency's diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategy at an institutional level. On Reimagining Company Culture, she joined us to talk about a phrase that has shaped her work, make space and take space.

Her argument is that inclusion is not a binary outcome. It is a practice with two halves. Leaders need to make space for underrepresented voices to show up. Employees need to be equipped, sponsored, and protected enough to take that space. Programs that do one half without the other usually drift into performance and stall.

Why Most Inclusion Programs Stall in the Same Place

Inclusion programs tend to fail at the same point. Leadership announces a commitment, runs training, publishes a goal, and then the work is supposed to take care of itself. Catalyst research found that 76 percent of employees, and 86 percent of Gen Z workers, are more likely to stay with a company that supports DEI. The retention case is clear. The execution is where things get hard.

Justine described the make-and-take dynamic as the missing piece. Making space is the leadership work, signaling that input from underrepresented voices is expected, valued, and acted on. Taking space is the employee work, showing up, contributing, and challenging when the moment calls for it. Programs that focus on one without the other end up either silent or performative.

Her framing pulls from Pew Research on workplace DEI, which found that a majority of employed U.S. adults still see focusing on increasing DEI at work as a positive thing. The mandate is real, but execution requires both halves of the equation working together over years, not quarters.

What separates the programs that hold from the ones that fade is whether leadership keeps making space when it is inconvenient. Layoffs, budget cuts, and new strategic directions are the moments where inclusion work either deepens or quietly disappears. The companies that hold the line in those moments build credibility that compounds for years afterward.

How Do You Build the Make-and-Take Practice on Your Team?

What does making space look like in a meeting?

Justine described it as the small choices leaders make in real time. Pausing before jumping to the next agenda item to ask if anyone has not had a chance to weigh in. Naming a contribution from a junior or newer voice and building on it. Pushing back when someone interrupts a teammate. Those moments add up to a culture where space is real, not theoretical.

How do you support employees in taking space without forcing it?

By giving people both the tools and the safety to use them. Mentoring programs help. Sponsorship, where senior leaders actively advocate for someone in rooms they are not in, helps more. The goal is to put people in positions where taking space is expected and supported, not a high-risk move that depends on individual courage.

What Actually Works in Inclusive Workplace Design

Build sponsorship into how leaders are evaluated

Sponsorship is the rare DEI move that pays back faster than its cost. Leaders who actively sponsor underrepresented teammates produce measurable mobility outcomes. Justine pushed for tying sponsorship behaviors to performance reviews so the practice is recognized, not just preached.

Move beyond representation to belonging

Hiring numbers matter, but they do not capture whether people stay. Inclusion programs that track promotion rates, voluntary attrition, and engagement by demographic group catch problems that headline numbers miss.

Make space for hard feedback without retaliation

Inclusive cultures need a way for employees to share what is not working without risk. That includes feedback about specific managers, leaders, or systems. Programs that punish that kind of feedback teach employees to stop offering it.

Where Employee Relations Fits

ER systems are where inclusion claims get tested. A complaint of bias, a report of harassment, or a concern about retaliation tests whether the company will follow its commitments through. AllVoices' DEI solution and our DEI hotline product give HR a clear, trusted way to surface and act on these reports.

How does ER tooling support inclusion outcomes?

It surfaces patterns that individual cases hide. A single complaint about a manager is one data point. Five complaints across a quarter, across teams, is a pattern. ER tooling that connects reports to broader trends helps HR move from reactive case work to proactive culture intervention.

Frequently Asked Questions About Inclusive Workplaces

What is the make-space and take-space framework?

It is the idea that inclusion requires two complementary moves. Leaders make space by inviting and protecting input from underrepresented voices. Employees take space by showing up, contributing, and pushing back when needed.

How do you measure inclusion at work?

Track representation, promotion rates, voluntary attrition, manager-level engagement scores, and the number of formal and informal concerns raised by demographic group. Pulse data on belonging is also useful.

What is the difference between diversity and inclusion?

Diversity is about who is on the team. Inclusion is about whether they have voice, agency, and access to opportunity once they are there. Diversity without inclusion produces high attrition. Inclusion without diversity produces a uniform group that thinks it is collaborative.

How do you handle backlash to inclusion programs?

By staying anchored to the business case and the data. Catalyst research on the risks of retreat makes the case that inclusive cultures outperform on retention, engagement, and innovation. Backlash usually fades when the data is clear and leadership stays steady.

What role do ERGs play in inclusion?

Employee resource groups are most useful as feedback channels and community spaces. They are less useful when they are expected to produce strategy without resources or leadership sponsorship. Strong programs fund and sponsor ERGs explicitly.

Who owns inclusion in an organization?

Everyone owns it, but the CEO sets the ceiling. HR convenes the work. Managers translate it into daily decisions. Employees make it real through how they show up. None of these alone is sufficient.

The Bottom Line for HR Leaders

Justine's view of inclusion is grounded in the practical work of running it. Make space and take space is not a slogan. It is a working agreement that leaders and employees both have to honor for the program to feel real on a Tuesday afternoon, not just on launch day.

The companies that get this right share a few habits. They tie sponsorship to performance. They measure belonging as carefully as representation. They protect dissent through hard moments. And they treat inclusion as a long-term capability that pays back over years, not quarters.

Inclusive cultures also build organizational resilience that becomes visible during change. Mergers, layoffs, and strategic pivots all test whether a company's stated values survive the pressure. The teams that have invested in real inclusion handle those moments with less attrition and more trust on the other side.

The throughline across Justine's framing is patience. Inclusion is the work of years, not announcements, and the leaders who treat it that way end up with cultures that hold under pressure and recruit the talent that is shaping the next generation of work.

See how AllVoices supports inclusive workplaces with thoughtful listening systems.