What if The Equality Act wasn't your starting point for inclusion
A couple of weeks ago I was accused of avoiding answering a question...
"What about our legal obligation to the Equalities Act"
And in some senses, I was.
You see, they are right. There is a legal obligation in the UK for us to remove unlawful discrimination, harrassment and victimisation.
That shouldn't be your driver for inclusion.
Many (many) years ago I had a job as an Equalities Manager for a public body. I was able to support them to meet all of their public duties. We systematically worked through the agreed action plan. Nationally they became a top performer. Seriously, we got recognised for it!
Woo hoo! you might think.
Taking an organisation which is regularly lambasted for not being inclusive to being able to evidence the journey they had travelled. In some senses this was a real win!
Yet, there was still something missing.
We were focused on the targets.
We weren't developing a culture of designing the business around the needs of the people.
That may seem to be one in the same, but they are different.
If you set targets- you will hit them... after all, what gets monitored, get's managed, right?
In doing that you become myopic. You get so focused on the 'what' you are not supporting people to consider the 'why'.
When you embed the 'why' you are naturally supporting people to design business systems and processes that natually meet the needs of the humans in them.
You become inclusive by design.
You meet your Equality Act duties as a consequence of having an organisation designed around and for your people.
You bake in a culture of people thinking about how they work and how this impacts on people.
And that, my friends is how you become truly inclusive.
I intentionally didn't answer the question directly.
Because this is not how I work.
I won't train businesses to meet a legal duty.
I work with businesses who want to become more than performative- doing what you *have* to do.
My clients bring me in to actually make a difference to the people in their businesses, and for the people they serve.
