What makes a great workplace? A successful equality, diversity and inclusion strategy can transform an organisation into a great place to work. In this episode our host and CEO Nick Atkin was joined by Lucy Malarkey, managing director at WISH and Akin Thomas, CEO, and founder of AKD Solutions, for a deep dive into everything ED&I.
People have been talking about ED&I a lot over last few decades. So, what’s going to stop us from having the same conversations in 40 years’ time? Lucy says, “Leaders need to have the confidence and the vulnerability to be able to put their hands up to not knowing everything about ED&I, and not let it stop them from engaging in a conversation about it.”
One of the ways we can create a successful ED&I strategy is through lived experiences. Lived experiences give people a new perspective, leading to positive changes that benefit colleagues and customers. Akin says “Lived experiences are crucial because it creates a culture of truth.”
Akin believes the context of lives experiences is really important. He says “people must be allowed to tell their stories unapologetically and people must listen without filters. What often happens is people try to filter it [the story] through our lens as opposed to simply hearing somebody else’s experience.”
It might sound easy, but organisations face some pretty big challenges when trying to implement a successful ED&I strategy. One of those challenges is unconscious bias.
Akin says unconscious bias can sometimes be used as a ‘smoke-screen’ for conscious bias. “I think that conscious bias is not being talked about [enough].” Akin questions whether unconscious bias training has actually changed anything. He says we should actually be talking about entitlement. “I think one of the big issues we’re not talking about is entitlement. There are certain sections of our society that think they are entitled to certain positions.” It’s an interesting point that we unpick alongside many others in this action-packed episode.
To hear the full conversation head over to Spotify or Apple Podcasts and follow our channel so you don’t miss the next one. Thanks to our guests Lucy and Akin for joining us on Raising the Roof.