On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Jacqui Barrett about diversity and inclusion. Jacqui is MD of Wider Thinking, an equity, diversity and learning platform that delivers insights to understand behaviour and also delivers the data to help inspire future actions.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• I worked at the BBC for 15 years, right up until the week before my baby was due to be born, planning the financial side of BBC 3 as well as the schedule. On my last day I cried because I knew I wasn’t going to go back there after maternity leave. At the same time my mum, who was living in Leeds, was diagnosed with young onset Alzheimer’s in her late 50s. .I knew that I wouldn’t be able to balance a career as well as a young family and I had to make the call of what was important for me at that moment in my life with a lot of trips to Leeds with a newborn baby to help mum with her struggles and managing her care. It was something I wanted to do, so I took a career break for 6-7 years.
• I co-founded a company that made explainer videos for all the things we were passionate about, including sustainability, financial inclusion, female empowerment, we took things that were complex or dry and made beautifully crafted animations. One of the topics we worked on was unconscious bias, which we were developing a toolkit for an organisation for. The more we developed it and the more we learned about the subject the more we realised unconscious bias was about equity, diversity and inclusion. Rather than make the content for one client we decided to make a platform about it that we could licence out to as many companies as we liked. That’s how Wider Thinking was born.
• We all experience unconscious bias and we all have it, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s human nature. We don’t want to reprimand people for something that’s innate, we want to build awareness that you have it. Awareness and acknowledgement is the first step, then you need to build an infrastructure around you so you can offset each other’s blind spots and biases. 
• The statement: “This is who your people really are '' is really interesting. What we’ve found with a few organisations are two interesting things. One, they’re a lot more diverse than they think they are, because they don’t realise there are a lot of people that work there that are code-switching or masking (people who don’t feel included, don’t have a sense of belonging and therefore mask certain characteristics or traits – dyslexia, ADHD, being trans/gay). Two, Our data doesn’t often mirror their own data from internal surveys. What happens here is that people still feel a little nervous of stating the truth even though it’s anonymous in case it goes to HR and could affect their appraisal or job application.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I faced a lot of judgement from other women for choosing not to go back to work for a few years after having my daughters. Either support my choices or mind your own bloody business!’
‘There are all different versions of being a woman, being a career person, being a parent. It’s about choice.’
‘Everything we’ve lived and experienced gives us a bias towards certain things, partnering with someone who has different experiences means you compliment each other. That’s the point of diversity.’
‘The data gives companies statistical evidence on how to drive policy change, a concept of where their strengths and weaknesses are, and it also demonstrates change by giving employees the power to have a voice, that’s one of my driving passions.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Jacqui Barret is managing director of Wider Thinking: Our award-nominated interactive programme helps you easily scale comprehensive understanding of Equity, Diversity, Belonging & Inclusion to all employees via desktop or mobile. 

We also create bespoke workshops giving you full control of content and schedule.

We provide awareness, strategy and measurement so everyone in your organisation benefits. Not just senior management: everyone. We give everyone in your organisation a voice, an opportunity to be heard so you can find out who your people really are.

Our data-driven approach pinpoints how and where you need to make progress because business-as-usual without a structured programme won't get you there. Evidence and metrics will. 

We’d like to be your longer term partner because one-off training doesn’t change your culture; it's more likely some systems and processes need to change, alongside an enriched understanding of human behaviour and how we all impact others. 

Our key objective is to make company culture safer, happier and more prosperous

Website: https://widerthinking.com/ 

Email: [email protected] 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquibarrettwiderthinking/ 

ABOUT THE HOST

Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing and home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.

In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools and colleges. 

Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed, through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring and digital marketing company. 

Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people and planet.

CONTACT DETAILS

Tze Ching’s website: https://wedisruptagency.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wedisruptagency 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wedisruptagency/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wedisruptagency 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzechingyeung/