Worth noting before getting stuck in, Amrit introduced our podcast under a new name!
It is no longer the ‘Engaging People, Powering Companies’ podcast by The Engagement Coach. Whilst the podcast name hasn’t changed, we have evolved our brand with a new and very apt company name. Drum roll please….we are now known as ‘&Evolve’! This feels right for us because everything we do, alongside every company we work with, is with the purpose of evolving. And this week’s podcast topic is no exception, and dare I say a rather emotive one, because it stems from something that feels so far removed from helping the world evolve!
Amrit draws our attention this week to the speech given by our Home Secretary, Suella Braverman to the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington DC last Tuesday (26th September 2023), where she stated that “uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination for Europe over the last few decades.” She drew on the words of former German Chancellor Angela Markel back in 2010, speaking at Congress of Youth Wing of the Christian Democratic Union, who said within her speech, that ‘this multicultural approach has failed, utterly failed’ and Braverman stated that she is not sure much has changed since.
I say she is clutching there!
What a fearful, miserable message. Blogs are allowed personality I’m hoping! We have bags of it here, and one thing we hold very dear indeed, is that people are people, despite their differences, humans are humans, all just here trying to ‘be’ - human ‘being’. We work with organisations full of people, leaders, who really care and want to make a difference to the world. What does this say to all those trying so hard with their DEI&B programmes and initiatives? Don’t bother?
Obviously, we have something to say about that! In the main, the organisations that reach out to us are committed to working hard to create diverse, equal, inclusive environments where people do feel a sense of belonging. They are doing their best to live it and want it not to be and/or feel like a tick box exercise. We talk about belonging all the time in our workshops and leadership development programmes, because well, how can you give your all and be authentic when you don’t feel like you belong?
As well as feeling like we belong individually, we also need a healthy sense of curiosity to be able to ask questions and learn from each other which requires psychologically safe environments. I do appreciate that not everyone is going to feel that the environments in which they live, and work, offer that opportunity. It is a work in progress, and plenty has been done already that is changing our world. We are evolving. We have not failed, and it is not pointless to continue to do our best to build a multicultural society. In fact, it is necessary.
Necessary for innovation and better products and services that suits the needs of all that occupy this space. Humanity is diverse, and we need everyone to have a voice. I think that as people feel able to speak up more and more, we may actually find that while we may look different, or need different things, we actually have an awful lot more in common than we think.
I came across a February 2023 study by philosophers and linguists at Cardiff University and psychologists at Bath University on human values which referenced further research by the same team at Bath in 2019, finding that people are in fact much more united in their beliefs and values than media reporting often suggests. Shock, horror! It certainly feels like fearmongering and polarity building whenever I turn on the news!
Amrit shares (and I agree), that the UK is a great example of multiculturalism gone right. We are in this together and better to spend our time continuing to learn how to love and respect one another rather than fighting to prove our differences (there goes the hippy in me!). Organisations have a huge part to play in this. There are missions, purpose, and values statements on the walls, and regardless of what a business does for its bread and butter, you can guarantee that part of what really matters underneath it all, is helping create a better world, building up our society, sustaining our futures and not just for some, but for all.
Those EDI&B programmes you have up and running, keep investing in them. A report by WebMD Health Services in February this year, showed that despite the effort, these programmes have their challenges. The data collected was via an online survey in America, of 2000 adults working full time for organisations of 2500 employees plus. Some of the insights shared are as follows:
- 89% work for companies with DEI&B programmes
- 62% believe the programmes are not doing what they are designed to do
- 46% believe that the programmes have failed them personally
- 64% believe they would benefit if their company were truly committed to EDI&B
- 57% cited ‘belonging’ as needing improvement
- 1 in 3 reported their opinions are not valued
- 1 in 5 feel like an outsider, isolated, and unfairly excluded from role and tasks that would lead to advancement
- 20% said they are treated differently due to how they look
Sounds a tad bleak but is not an invitation to give up. Instead let’s take even more action. Considered, thoughtful action. Let’s measure the impact of our efforts in our organisations, not just rely on a survey somewhere else, but with metrics that mean something and relate to what we are doing. What are our people telling us? Ask, listen, and then act. And while we do this let’s create a wonderfully safe environment for our people to speak up in, reinforcing the message that we are listening, that we want to hear the experiences of those in our care.
As leaders let’s take care of all our people and keep working on it until the environments we are working and living in, are so inclusive, that it matters not what is being said in the news. We will know deep down that we have done everything in our power to create a more inclusive society within the reach that we have, and in turn it will create the ripples out that will help change the world. Dream big.
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