The Teacup in the Corner
In the corner of my office sits a chipped porcelain teacup. It belonged to my mother. No one drinks from it. It’s just there, visible, silent, and part of the room. Years ago, a colleague asked, “Why keep something no one uses?” I told her: because the cup is part of the table, even if it’s not in your hand.
That’s inclusion in a nutshell. Not about constant use, but constant presence. Not a slogan, but a seat, reserved, acknowledged, respected, whether occupied or not.
THE WHY: Relevance for Dutch Microbusinesses
In a team of four, every voice shapes the business DNA. There’s no “department to handle diversity” and no HR policy binder thick enough to hide behind. If someone feels excluded, subtly, repeatedly, you don’t just lose their ideas, you dilute trust. In the Netherlands, where flat hierarchies are common and cultural directness is valued, a lack of inclusion isn’t a silent issue. It erodes decision-making speed, customer service, and compliance with employment law.
When your team is the business, exclusion is not a personal drama. It’s an operational risk.
THE NUMBERS: The Cost of Blind Spots
In a microbusiness:
- One disengaged team member can reduce productivity by up to 25%, that’s a quarter of your operational capacity.
- A single resignation can cost €8,000–€15,000 in recruitment, onboarding, and lost momentum.
- Communication breakdowns can lead to missed invoices, forgotten client commitments, and tax filing errors, each carrying fines between €385 and €5,514 in the Dutch system.
These aren’t “soft” consequences. They’re measurable.
WHAT NO ONE TELLS YOU
In small teams, exclusion rarely looks like discrimination training manuals. It’s often invisible choreography:
- Conversations held only between two people because “it’s faster”.
- Decisions made in WhatsApp side-chats.
- Private jokes that signal who’s “in” and who’s “out”.
- Using someone’s skills but not involving them in planning.
The danger? In a big company, these behaviors dilute across dozens of relationships. In a team of four, they define the culture, and once set, they’re almost impossible to reverse without a rupture.
DECISION COMPASS: Questions for Today
- Does every team member have the same access to client information and decisions?
- Are we discussing strategic shifts with everyone affected before acting?
- Have we asked each member how they prefer to be involved?
- Are inside jokes, language, or rituals building unity, or drawing lines?
- If one person left tomorrow, would they feel they had been valued?
FINAL REFLECTION
Inclusion isn’t about being endlessly agreeable or manufacturing consensus. It’s about making sure no one is the forgotten teacup in the corner, present but unused, visible but untouched. In a team of four, inclusion is not a luxury or a trend. It is the silent architecture of trust, and without it, your business will lean until it falls.
Co-Creator of Xtroverso | Head of Global GRC @ ZENTRIQ™
Paolo Maria Pavan builds systems that balance rules with freedom, clarity with transformation. In his third life, he writes and speaks openly about markets, governance, and risk, not as a trader chasing price, but as a reader of patterns, behaviors, and distortions. A serial entrepreneur shaped by failure and reinvention, he sees governance as a living force for trust and progress, and refuses to avoid the hard conversations that make it real.
