We’ve all been there, right? You walk into an hour long meeting, dreading what is to come. Whilst this is meant to be a ‘team’ meeting, 90% of the session is dominated by the chair, with very little input from anyone else.
Sadly, this is a fairly common occurrence in the world of work, which is unfortunate due to its soul sapping and morale-destroying nature.
So how can we avoid making our meetings a one-person-band and instead one that is inclusive to the whole team? Here are some of my top tips.
Before the meeting
In reality, the key to an inclusive meeting is usually the preparation. After all, if you are sticking this in a time which does not actually work for most people (or indeed you’ve forgotten to even invite them) you are unlikely to get the full engagement you desire.
Things to consider:
Is your invite list correct?
Have an agenda, and ensure people can add points to an agenda
Is the date/time of the meeting one that is inclusive. E.g. avoiding school run times
Have papers been sent ahead of time?
During the meeting
Within the meeting, as the chair it is your role to effectively facilitate the discussion. It is important to avoid abusing your chairing privileges which allow you to come in whenever you want, as this quickly leads to you dominating the conversation. Rather, if you do want to comment, perhaps open up the floor for discussion first before giving your comment.
As the chair is often the most senior person in the room, if they speak first they are likely to stifle any discussion as more junior members of the team are less likely to want to disagree with what you say.
Things to consider:
Try and make space for introductions – it makes any meeting far more human!!
Steer away from one / two people dominating the conversation (and avoid being one of those people yourself!). Agendas help with this.
Use your ability as chair to ask others whether they would like to come in.
Give moments of pause to allow people to think within presentations etc.
Keep to time! If possible, invite reflections on the meeting at the end.
After the meeting
Whilst the meeting may be over, your job may not necessarily be done. Following up after the meeting can ensure everyone is clear with the tasks agreed, as well as a great opportunity to pick more informal feedback from colleagues about how the meeting went.
Things to consider
•Send up follow-ups, actions, read-outs etc. Invite individuals to comment / dispute the write-up
•Check-in with individuals on how they found your chairing style and whether they got what they wanted for in the meeting
Finally, other things you may want to think about is having a rotating chair system, as well as a standing agenda point to review the meeting at the end. These both help increase engagement and give the team a greater sense of ownership over the meeting.
Let’s face it. Diversity and Inclusion are complex. Cookie-cutter solutions rarely work to ‘fix’ the issues, whether it be representation of diverse groups at senior levels or creating a more inclusive environment.
Whilst there are schemes you may have heard of that might help such as introducing a talent track, reverse mentoring or a sponsorship programme, these are not the silver bullet to create the utopian organisations that our lofty Diversity and Inclusion Strategies envision.
So take the responsibility into your own hands. No external person will know your own organisation better than you do. You understand what the aims and objective are, the products it makes, and most importantly the way it works. So rather than introducing more schemes or doing another call out for diversity volunteers, find ways for you to solve the problem. In other words, it’s an opportunity for you to get creative.
Creative solutions do not need to be creating the next COVID vaccine, it can be as simple or effective as tweaking the staff rota; have staff that have childcare responsibilities? Ask to see if someone else might prefer early morning starts, and see if the parents can clock in later. Do people perhaps get turned off by the idea of a pub social every week? Why not take a meeting room and host a boardgame evening, or do breakfast/lunch socials instead?
These small acts can actually be very powerful in fostering better inclusion and wellbeing within staff, particularly those from diverse groups (or indeed anyone who isn’t a fan of noisy pubs, including some of the introverts!).
Whilst this may not sound like much, you are playing your part in creating that inclusive culture in practice. Your Diversity and Inclusion Strategy may talk of grand shifts in recruitment practices or hard-set targets, but it is your actions on the ground that will genuinely shift the culture which is so vital for success in this area.
Inclusive environments also tend to perform better. So whilst you may feel like you are not doing much, you may be role modelling positive behaviour, and sooner or later you will be looked at with envy by other teams and departments. Your staff will laud the positive practices you initiate, and often others can quickly copy and follow suit. This grassroots, more spontaneous style of improving workplace culture will trump any boardroom approved strategy mandating people to do so.
So embrace your creative side to solving some of the Diversity issues you face, and there is no need to feel intimidated by the word ‘creative’! I’ve recently reflected that I am far more creative than I previously believed; I always thought of ‘creatives’ as alternative-dressed artists with a pencil and notebook in hand all the time. I never thought of creativity as a skill, rather than choosing a creative profession such as a musician, artist or writer. It turns out I have a natural knack for creative problem-solving, which as an office worker I never even thought of as something I was good at.
So after reading this, take some time to think about the issues you’re facing within your workplace on Diversity and Inclusion. Come with afresh pair of eyes and perhaps ask yourself – ‘what have I not yet considered?’
Last week, I posted about my ambition to write a book. I’ve made some progress – 12,000 words – but hope to make some more when I have some time off work next week!
November is often a time of lower energy, but particularly so this year. Usually, it is the last month of ‘serious work’ before the interruptions of December and Christmas. This is also tied in with the change of season and clocks changing which suddenly makes our evenings feel very long.
On top of that, we have the current lockdown and ongoing pandemic which has long past the novelty factor it had during the first lockdown. I have felt a sense of tiredness, and a generally lower mood of people. There is also general pent up frustration, which has certainly been the case for me. I have had to remind myself that I am allowed to feel and express what I am going through.
But November is also a time for reflection. We are approaching the New Year and whatever the future may bring in 2021; we also have more time to spend time alone to think for ourselves.
For me, I have been looking at the changes I have made since Summer. I have started blogging, videos, coaching and now writing a book. I also started a new job with it’s own set of particular challenges.
I have really enjoyed writing, and I’ve learnt that there are many things I want to say and do in the world. Whilst the exploration has been revelatory, it has also been overwhelming in seeing the different options of things I can do in the time I have available around my other commitments.
It is no secret that I am passionate about championing diversity, and am building my own coaching practice. I am now looking to focus more in these areas – in particular supporting Diversity and Inclusion practitioners with the many difficulties they face in the workplace through coaching and mentoring. I believe this is the place where I can have most impact in something that I believe in, and something I can sustain in the long run.
Whilst there are still many things I want to say around personal development, the plight of young professionals and organisational development, I will likely focus on these less, at least for now.
So I hope you will find my future blogs interesting (and I hope this one wasn’t too bad either !). By sharing my thoughts, I also hope it might prompt you to reflect about how you are feeling and doing too.
November has been a pretty interesting month so far. We’ve had lockdowns, elections and new budgets. And we’re only a week in!
The month of November is also an interesting time for challenges – we have numerous charity and abstinence goals that have been going around social media, including my own personal favourite of Movember (which for me started about four months ago!).
I recently came across about NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. The goal is writing a 50,000 word manuscript, approx 1,500 words every day. The main encouragement of this is to simply write – not get bogged down by doubting your own writing, nor being too worried about editing until you get to the end.
I’ve had the idea of writing an e-book on my mind since the beginning of the year, so what better time than now when we’re all locked down?
I’ve taken some creative liberties, in that it won’t be a novel, rather a non-fiction book. I’ve been in the field Diversity and Inclusion for some time, along with working as a coach. Using my experience, I am really keen to build a new way of understanding Diversity and Inclusion through a new coaching framework.
As I’m sure you are all aware, 2020 has been a seismic year for racial awareness and wider diversity activity. We’ve seen many managers and leaders suddenly becoming far more aware of these issues, but not necessarily having the understanding or competence to deal with these issues in the measured way it deserves.
As such, I have created the ‘CUBE’ model. I invite individuals to look at their Culture, Upbringing, Bias and (lived) experience. Essentially, by asking yourself more about your own understanding about these elements that make up your background, it helps you recognise more effectively the particular experience you have had, and how much this has shaped you. So when you are dealing with an experience that is different than your own, it is easier to understand the effect this might have on those individuals.
I’m currently about 7000 words in, with heavy editorial input required! So as a disclaimer I probably won’t have a completely finalised product by the end of the month, but I do want to push myeslf to get as far ahead with it as I can – so do wish me luck!
I will let you all know how it goes – and if you’d like to read an early draft do let me know!
*This blog was originally intended to be published for Civil Service Blogs*
My name is Tahmid. I work in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on Regulated Professions Policy. I also spend 50% of my time working on Diversity and Inclusion for the Trade, Europe and Analysis Group. I am currently the Secretariat Lead for the Civil Service Race Forum and previously chaired the Faith and Minority Ethnic Network for two years in BEIS.
So you’ll be unsurprised to know that I’m passionate about Diversity and Inclusion. I also have a particular interest in race. I am British-Bangladeshi by heritage, and as a second-generation migrant I have experienced the difficult tensions of being split between two cultures.
When entering the workplace, I quickly learnt that as a BAME individual I had a very different life experience, and therefore it made sense to come together and look at solutions to address inequalities as part of the BAME umbrella. Throughout my time, I have absolutely loved learning more about different cultures and experiences. I learnt Unity is Strength. I also learnt that each of us has particular experiences and heritages which can be different from one another.
My first experience of large-scale Black History Month celebrations was in BEIS, where I saw the power of bringing inspirational black leaders together along with allies together to better understand the history that brings us to our modern day. It’s why I’m really excited to see Black History month this year, (even if we have to do it all virtually!), it is such a fantastic time to get together to celebrate our black colleagues. It’s a moment to understand our history, and in particular black history – something that we don’t often get the opportunity to do.
But what of the fact that I’m not actually black? Whilst I had some disadvantages as a South Asian, my experience has been quite different to black colleagues. Indeed, I’m far less likely to get stopped and searched compared to a black colleague, and in certain areas my life experiences are not negatively affected in the same way. So why do I believe it is so important to support and get involved?
We are strengthened by being unified. I support the organisation of Black History Month events to empower my black colleagues and celebrate the work they have done, whilst also learning about our country’s colonial past. I gain fabulous insights into the lives of others, enriching my own cultural and emotional intelligence. I also learnt to see how I can support others and bring together people from different backgrounds in my own working life.
I also understand that these events don’t come easy. A lot of blood, sweat and tears goes into putting these together, and there’s always a need for support in the background. In our working context, these efforts are mostly done voluntarily, and with limited financial and resourcing support. So I do what I can to help with the less fun side of organisation – replying to emails, supporting logistics and helping grease the wheels in the background to ensure we can be as effective, open and inclusive as we can be. That’s more important than ever when we’re doing this all online!
So I invite you to take the time out to attend the hundreds of Black History Month events going on around you! This is a great time to learn more from our black colleagues, and learn more about our collective history, told from different perspectives.
I would also invite you to get involved and support the organisation of these events, and events to come in the future. There is always a space for volunteers, and events on black history aren’t confined to this month alone. So do get involved, either through your own departmental staff network, local diversity and inclusion groups and your local community organisations.
Have a great Black History Month, and I hope to see you at some events soon!
In my previous team, we spent every morning listing three things we were grateful for. We would go around in a circle (which turned virtual as the Pandemic hit) listing one thing each, patiently waiting until someone had something to say. Originally we wanted to do this once a week, but we found that we would often forget, and the exercise lost value as we simply were not doing it often enough.
So we moved to saying the three things we were grateful for every morning in our team standup. At first this was really tough. We sat there, often grasping at straws at what possibly could be something positive in what felt a stressful job in the midst of a post-apocalyptic world. After all, it was rather tough to think about the positive when work pressures were high and there was so much negativity being bombarded at us every day through the news.
Over time though, we stuck at it. And like most things in life, we slowly got better at the exercise, and our examples also did too. We would note things that would happen throughout our lives and make a mental note of it for our morning round, which naturally made us remember these moments far more. Whether it was having a nice coffee break, relaxing in the evening to a nice meal, catching up with a long-lost friend, spending time with the kids or simply the sun coming out in the morning, we started verbalising these positive moments far more than we ever would have done otherwise.
For me personally, I found it a good way to bond with my team and open up about my own personal experiences. I could talk about the nice things I did outside my job (which can sometimes be a ‘taboo’), and make it far easier to build a positive spirit when facing upcoming challenges – something I had a particular vested interest in as the team lead. Like everyone else, I got much better at it over time, and I believe doing this over a good 6-9 months has had a lasting impression on me in making me realise I did little to appreciate the ‘good’ moments, instead mostly focusing on the bad.
There is science behind this: in a nutshell the brain is pretty good at focusing in on the negative. When we worry about something, our brain often looks to correlate other negative events that are similar. This often leads us spiralling downwards, and no matter how intelligent we may be, simply go more and more negative; and we are unable to think our way of this rabbit hole. So unless we do something to think about the positive in a deliberate way, we are more than likely to fall into this trap of descending into negativity.
Now gratitude is not saying that everything is perfect; it’s okay to be upset, disappointed and angry at the situation: what we are not talking about is some level of toxic positivity where everything must be good. The point of building exercise though, is to appreciate the positive moments more in our lives. And by doing so, we are more likely to be positive in our outlook. And whilst it may seem tough to find the time to constantly talk about the reasons you are grateful every day, it will lead you to be a happier, more fulfilled human being. And if that’s not incentive enough, remember that happier, more fulfilled human beings are also more successful ones.
So if you’re reading this and are looking for a way to be more grateful, perhaps try and list the things you are grateful currently in your life. You can either journal this, or say it to your partner or colleagues at work every day. It might take a little while, but it can help build appreciation of the nice things in life even when things are stressful or a bit tough going!
Over the last few months I’ve been more active on social media to give my personal views, both through regular posts and these blogs. I really believe in the importance of helping others and supporting individuals on their own journey. This led me first into working in Government, then into Diversity and Inclusion work, and most recently into coaching.
One of my initial blockers was whether I would come across cheesy, or insincere. There are after all many people who reshare inspirational quotes which we gloss by as we often find scattered through our Instagram and Linkedin feeds.
The answer for me was bringing a higher level of authenticity into what I say. I post things that I think will be genuinely helpful for people, and that I actually believe. After all, how can I give advice to anyone if I don’t believe it myself?
As humans, we are far more likely to be attuned to and be interested in genuine authenticity. In a world where we’re often given half-truths or obfuscated information, we crave someone who is willing to be honest and open with what they say. Genuine honesty is a rare commodity. And like any rare commodity, it is valued highly.
So bringing this to you. Understanding your genuine authentic self and being willing to share your message is far more likely to get you where you want to go, whatever situation you may be in. Let’s say you’ve been pushing for a promotion and your manager is aware you’re keen to progress. Have you stated the reason why you want that next job? Perhaps it’s to increase your salary to provide for your own family, which is something you may not have mentioned outwardly. Try actually saying this out loud. If not to anyone else, to yourself.
If you were to say this out loud to any neutral person, I would be hard pressed to find anyone who would not support you with your goal. By being authentic and open, we are creating our own set of cheerleaders which will only serve to help us in the long run. Furthermore, we’re more likely to be in tune with ourselves when we are verbalizing our own desires.
Naturally there are times you will not want to tell the truth all of the time. I have already previously written about the difficulties of a toxic workplace in a previous blog. Your own self-preservation is absolutely critical before being able to open up authentically. It is why I believe so ardently in Diversity and Inclusion, as it enables people to be their more authentic selves in the workplace and beyond.
To give a more concrete example, I’m going to write about something on my mind below. I want you to notice how you feel:
I am really enjoying writing on social media about self development, coaching and Diversity and Inclusion. My aspiration is that I can do this as a career and leave my full-time job in the next few years. I am worried about leaving the safety of my job (which I must say is a good job that I am fortunate to have!), but I also know that I will not find the level of fulfillment I desire if I stay long-term. This is something I am currently battling with, so I am looking to find new avenues of work to see if I can truly make it by going it alone.
How did reading this make you feel?
Being authentic will benefit you in the long run. It will also deepen your relationship with the people that matter. So take a moment to think how you can be more authentic in your interactions, perhaps ‘unlocking’ certain off-limit conversations that you never have with workplace colleagues or friends. I would love to hear how you go with this, so do let me know in the comments!
Think of someone you know well and have seen a lot of over a long period of time. Take a few moments to think about what their relative qualities are. What skills do they have, and what are their personal qualities that are their greatest strengths?
What are they?
This may be something you have not actively stop to consider for the people close to you. Nonetheless, you probably have some idea of what they are quite good at and aspects of their temperament that mean they would be well suited in certain situations compared to others. We’re probably not going to be completely accurate, but we’ll at least have a fairly good idea.
But what if we’re not talking about someone else – what if we are talking about you? Do you know what your own strengths are?
It is a quirk of human nature that we tend to be more observant of others than we are of ourselves. But whilst we may spend a lot of time with others, we will spend 100% of our time with ourselves. And yet, when we are asked questions about ourselves we find the question uncomfortable and bizarre. A normal response is a cloak of false modesty followed by ‘I don’t know’. People also often talk about what they do in their job, and therefore what they are good at through that. But being good at a skill is different to understanding your own personal strengths. Is it not strange that we know so little about ourselves?
We know people who have worked in certain jobs all their lives, and yet we know that does not define them as an individual nor what the qualities they bring to that job are – they may be detail-oriented, hard-working, innovative, creative, adaptable or many other characteristics. This is a different mix to the next person doing the exact same job.
Most of us as individual’s don’t actually knowmuch about ourselves. And whilst we can take the advice of our nearest and dearest to observe us, they are not the ones joining us in our job interviews, nor deciding what we want to do in life. Instead, we are making our own life decisions. But we are missing critical information.
So take a bit of time out of your day today to genuinely ask yourself what your strengths are. Try to think about specific character traits that you bring into the different facets of your life. You are of course welcome to ask other people for their perspective as well, but they will only have a limited view so don’t follow the advice of others religiously.
You will not gain a full understanding of yourself overnight, but by understanding what your strengths are, you will have an easier time navigating what you might want to do in the future. And remember, strengths are not set in stone; you can build new ones and some strengths can shift as your priorities change.
Black History Month takes place annually during the month of October in the UK. The month is an opportunity for us to understand more about our collective history from the perspective of black people. It is also an opportunity to commemorate the struggles as well as the achievements of black people across the UK, past and present.
Black History Month is incredibly vital. The events of this year through the Black Lives Matter movement have demonstrated the need for greater understanding of race relations, now more than ever before. Black History Month has been taking place for many years, and we should not pretend that this has only been an issue recently. Stephen Lawrence Day takes place on 22 April, in commemoration of the death of a black teenage boy who was killed in a racially motivated attack in 1993. It took until 2002 for a murder conviction.
By putting a spotlight onto the issue of black people across the UK, we can build our wider understanding of issues black people face in their lives, and the burden placed by a history of oppressions and slavery. It is incredibly powerful to see how these play out on individuals in modern day; black staff being told that they are aggressive, do not have leadership potential and being addressed as the assistant next to their white counterparts.
I attended the Civil Service Black History Month Launch event yesterday, where all of these issues were starkly highlighted. It is tough to hear, especially when these same complaints come from those who have made it towards the ‘top’, and yet are still facing the exact same issues that black colleagues all around us face on a day-to-day basis.
One complaint about such set-piece months is that it can create a sub-culture of sorts: black history month tends to be dominated by black and BAME individuals in attendance, with few outside of these groups attending. In some senses this is natural, white people may feel that black history does not relate to them.
However, this fundamentally undermines the point – black history is all of our history, it is simply looking at it from a different lens. Like many issues around Diversity and Inclusion, this needs to be seen as a societal event, not just one for those in the relevant diversity group. So we need to take this as a collective responsibility no matter what our background if we are to learn and grow as a society.
Indeed, someone like myself who is not black has most to learn by attending these events – I have gained so much valuable experience and knowledge from my black colleagues that I simply would not have otherwise. This has helped me understand the perspective of black people much better, as well as the issues that modern Britain still faces. I would rarely get the chance to do so otherwise.
So I would greatly encourage you to get involved with black history – especially if you are not black. There is so much to learn and celebrate, and this information is lost if you do not take the time to listen to it for yourself.
This week in the UK is National Inclusion Week, an opportunity to champion everyday inclusion and a chance to bring a spotlight to Diversity and Inclusion.
Last week I wrote an article about why diversity and inclusion matters, where I highlighted both the moral and business case for more emphasis on making Diversity and Inclusion a priority as part of our modern day workplace.
The tricky part of Diversity and Inclusion is figuring out how to start. After all, the subject is quite a thorny one, and everyone will have their own opinions on what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. This fear of doing something accidentally wrong, or previous experiences of being burnt when trying to broach the topic often leads senior leaders to avoid the subject as much as possible.
Unfortunately, simply avoiding the issue is not a viable solution in 2020 – the Black Lives Matter movement demonstrates how critical it is for businesses to be able to have difficult conversations on these issues in a confident manner. Customers and Employees are expecting businesses to have genuine strategies to improve the situation in their own workplaces and for the wider public they serve.
This leads many organisations to develop their own Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Naturally this is a difficult topic to avoid criticisms for tokenism, so how can organisations look at this in a holistic manner? Here are some areas to look at:
Recruitment
Organisations often start with a relatively homogenous workforce. Statistically they may find that they have an underrepresentation of women, ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBT+ staff. A natural starting point is looking at the talent coming through the doors. How many staff from diverse backgrounds are making it into interview? Are they even applying in the first place? Understanding the pipeline will help understand where the blockages are. It is then possible to take remedial measures.
For example, if there is a lack of BAME applicants applying, more outreach can be done to areas with a high BAME population. If you are then finding many are not making it to interview, look at your job adverts and see whether your requirements are genuinely open to people with different experiences or have been written in a way that has a certain type of person already in mind.
Inclusive Culture
You may have improved your recruitment practices, what happens then? Getting staff from different backgrounds through the door in of itself is not the solution – if your organisation does not make any shift to the culture or hold one that is inclusive, what you often find ensuing shortly after is some level of disharmony within the workplace.
Often where there is only one BAME or woman staff in the team with little efforts to integrate them, it can be very easy for these individuals to feel the odd one out. And whilst we would love to simply expect people to adapt to the people around others from whatever background, the reality is that we naturally gravitate to those who are similar to us.
So we need to build genuine efforts to make our workplaces inclusive, where it is open as possible for anyone from any background to come in and thrive. Culture takes time to change, and requires senior leaders to genuinely bring these conversations and hear people’s stories to start the conversation.
Some smaller wins include making team socials more inclusive (e.g. having breakfasts as well as the usual pub visits to include more people); build staff networks within your organisation to allow groups to come together and share their experiences; make your working practices as flexible as possible in terms of working hours and being output focussed in performance management rather than hours spent at the desk.
Retention and Progression
One area to be wary of is diverse staff joining then quickly leaving the organisation. This can be very frustrating when a lot of effort has been put into bringing these people in. Without genuine inclusion, people will often feel excluded and will look to the door rather than staying in the organisation.
Similarly, what often happens in an organisation is women and staff from BAME backgrounds tend to get stuck at the bottom. Often there are issues relating to pidgeon-holing and unconscious bias at play, where individuals are type-cast as unable to progress due to not having ‘leadership traits’ which are often built in the mold of its founders, rather than allowing different styles of leadership in.
Lack of opportunities is often cited as an issue, particularly for BAME staff. It would be a good idea to monitor how such staff are feeling about their prospects to get a good litmus test on how your D&I strategy is working.
Other areas to consider
Whilst not specifically on the subject of what should be in a D&I strategy, I did want to highlight a few more areas to consider:
Data
Data is absolutely paramount to understanding what is happening within our organisations. If you cannot understand why people are leaving within a year, it is vital you understand why. To successfully monitor a D&I strategy, you may need to overhaul your current HR systems with an ability to properly monitor application rates from different backgrounds. Exit interviews are also a vital way to understand why employees are leaving and an opportunity for genuinely honest feedback.
Engagement
Let’s face it. We’ve all seen dozens of strategies pass through our inboxes. Most of them are simply glanced over and little due regard is paid to them after a week or two.
So getting staff genuinely engaged in what you are trying to do is really critical. Building your support structures within the organisation through volunteers that are enthusiastic to the cause is really vital. Also remember that much of this strategy will be delivered by managers across the organisation, so if you have done little to tell them what they need to do, the chances of it actually happening are pretty slim.
One final reflection is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to a good Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Each organisation will have its different strengths and challenges; some may find a high proportion of women and low proportion of BAME staff, others may find the reverse. So it is critical for firms to look at their own situation and build a realistic amibition of where they would like to further improve.
Those are my tips for creating a holistic Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Are there any additional things that you would add?
