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.