How to change the world (in 3 simple steps)
Have
you ever wanted to make a difference and change something? But just found it
incredibly hard?
Often,
we think that we just need to build awareness and
that will do the trick, but is awareness really enough?
I'm
the Chair of the Women's Network at O2 and I want to play my part in
making O2 a more inclusive place, where people's talents and contribution are
recognised and celebrated, regardless of gender. Enabling people to progress
and succeed at work. Until now, much of my approach has focused
on raising awareness of the challenges facing women in the workplace
– in the hope that by highlighting the issues, we’d get closer to achieving
real change. But then I heard an analogy from Toby Mildon at the BBC
recently about how to make real change happen – either on a personal
level or more broadly and it got me thinking…
Sometimes
you can be aware that you are
overweight. You're aware why
you should lose weight. And you're aware how
to lose weight.
But... You
don't! (sound familiar?)
So
is awareness really the key?
What
really makes a difference are 3 simple things:
1. Motivation
2. Simple rules
3. Tools
Putting
this into the context of losing weight.
1. Motivation
Figure out your motivation. It's personal to you
and about what benefit you personally could see… for example; to feel more
confident in yourself, to look good for a certain occasion, to
improve your overall well-being or so that you live a long,
healthy and happy life.
2. Simple
rules
Next think of some simple rules that will really
make a difference! This could include drinking 2 litres of water
every day, deciding to have ‘healthy days’ during
the week, cutting down on sweets and chocolate - and only
have cocktails once a week!
3. Tools
Have some tools to help you, like a calorie
counting app, a Fitbit to encourage you to exercise, or join
a local gym.
If
you have these 3 things then it will be so much easier…
So
when I now think about the Women's Network and making a difference on inclusive leadership, I
need to think about…
1. Motivation
How can I motivate people? Is it that diverse
companies and teams are more profitable? Is it that inclusive
managers feel they get to better answers by having diverse teams who challenge
them? Is it that teams that are happy and engaged are more
productive? How do I hone in on what will personally motivate people?
2. Simple
rules
This could include setting an inclusive
leadership objective for all managers, providing mandatory
unconscious bias training for all hiring managers, and putting in
place a requirement for a 50:50 gender split in applicant CV's when
recruiting.
3. Tools
And finally putting tools in place to help
e.g. manager cascade packs, anonymous temperature
check surveys and publishing inclusion data to help us benchmark
and track our progress.
I
really like this model and think it can be practically applied to any situation
where you’re trying to make a change – either personally or
professionally. As you can see, I'm still working it through myself
and would welcome ideas so please share your thoughts and
comments below.
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