A Diverse Perspective for a Thriving World: Our “Why”
By Claire Quigley
About a year ago, a team of us at Neu21 started having active conversations about diversity within work teams. We realised it was a huge space, with many questions, such as:
What is needed to support diverse people within a work environment?
How can we amplify the voices of the diverse, to make sure their needs are understood?
How do you best integrate, connect, and motivate a team full of diverse people to make a vibrant, thriving team?
How can we empower leaders with the capabilities and confidence they need to crack open the potential of true diversity in the workplace?
We decided to lean into this space and explore what it means in the world of work. We quickly saw a strong connection to innovation, culture, ways of working, change programs and leadership. But from a human perspective we also saw the opportunities to improving the human system (aka relationships), the glue that holds us all together. When we seek to understand each other without judgement (of ourselves or others) we create systems of work that we all want to be a part of.
For our purposes, we are describing “diverse” as including gender, neurodiversity, sexuality, cultural/ethnic heritage, different levels of ableness and beyond. What’s clear is there is no average/normal human – we all have diversity of some level (a novel thought for some!).
Diving deeper we discovered that many leaders and people want to be inclusive, yet they hover on the ledge of ‘not wanting to insult someone’, or ‘being afraid of saying something wrong’ and so, do the bare minimum if anything. On the other hand, people who identify as diverse also hold back and struggle to find a voice that empowers them and their teams to understand and harness diversity.
So, we have started to bring people around the table who can educate us, inspire us, and expand our awareness around how to identify, create and harness diversity in teams, organisations, and individuals. If you relate to any of this, join us. Let’s change the narrative so that in 5-10 years’ time we actively seek out and support diversity in our organisations as leaders, and as team players.
Here is the first talk we had to get the ball rolling; unpacking how and why we came to this point and our hopes around this work. Listen here (American and Irish accent warnings!):
or read the transcript here A Diverse Perspective podcast 1 transcript.pdf
Luli Adeyemo: A woman on a mission to shift the technology landscape
We were incredibly fortunate to have as our first official guest the vibrant Luli Adeyemo. Luli is the Director & Founder of Best Case Scenario, a technology-focused marketing agency. She is an electedd council member of Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), Director of TechDiversity Academy and Awards, an active member of WEConnect International and an Activator for SheEO… Phew!
We asked Luli about how she ended up in the diversity space, what the Tech Diversity movement means to her, and what she sees as critical issues in the space.
Some fascinating ideas emerged:
There’s been a 71% increase in diversity manager hires in the last five years globally BUT these practitioners are leaving now on average between 18 months and two years in.
One of the main causes of those departures is that these managers aren’t supported within the business; instead, they’re often in a constant battle with the executive teams to understand what needs to shift and change, to truly become a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce.
In Australia there’s a massive digital skills gap, with a significant climb to reach our goal of 1.2 million tech workers by 2030. Diversifying the workforce AND creating the right environments for them to thrive is critical.
Why it’s important to talk about equity as opposed to equality
The need to talk about diversity beyond what's being talked about in DE&I if we want to become more representative of society and all our communities.
To hear more about the amazing work Luli is doing and learn more about the TechDiversity Awards, list to our chat with her or read the full transcript here A Diverse Perspective Podcast 2 transcript.pdf