There are always trade-offs. Nothing is perfect.

I woke up during the early hours of Sunday morning. It was 3am which is the time the clubs and bars near where I live close, and the streets become noisy with people and cars heading home.?

I’m not sure if that’s what woke me, because I’m often awake at that hour but I started thinking about, the trade-offs we make in our lives.

The first house my husband and I bought together was in inner-city Sydney. It was a Victorian terrace house, a deceased estate, and it needed work. So, we could afford it.?

The day we moved in, the floor was still being replaced, a new damp course was being installed, there was no kitchen, and we lived in our bedroom for the first 6 weeks.

Luckily, we were 2 doors up from a neighbourhood pub that had great food.?

Unfortunately, we were 2 doors up from a neighbourhood pub that closed late.

During summer, when we had to have the bedroom windows open to the street, we were often woken by noisy pub revelry as the inebriated patrons headed home. One evening I jumped out of bed to yell at someone walking arcoss our roof, to our neighbours roof, to drop down into the pub beer garden. The police were called.

But it was a trade-off. We loved the location and being able to walk everywhere. We put up with the noise and the local characters because it was part of the “charm” of the neighbourhood.

When we first moved to Auckland, we rented a beautiful timber villa in a gentrified part of the city. When I woke at 3am in that house I was struck by how quiet it was. The silence was deafening, and surprising given how many people lived around us.??

We could walk to a few cafes, bars and restaurants but we missed being amongst it.?

12 months ago, we purchased our current place, and we love how close we are to everything, we have enough bedrooms and my home office is amongst the rooftops and the Auckland sky.?

The trade-offs? It’s a bit smaller, the kitchen is tiny, and the bathrooms need replacing. It’s noisy on Friday and Saturday nights and we sometimes find red and blue lights flashing on the street at 2am.?

Before heading to bed Saturday night I thought there was a drug deal happening in our driveway. Turns out a person sharing some sort of tile or building samples with another person. 10pm is late for this people!?

We are definitely amongst it.

It got me thinking about Diversity & Inclusion work, and the trade-offs inherent in this work in organisations. Things like:

• Some leaders being on board with this work, and others being detractors
• Organisations being very “busy” meaning you can’t do everything you want to do. Focus becomes important if you want to make progress.
• Having a?very?healthy budget that you can only spend with a strong business case for your actions (yes this was me).?

This is why I’m running a?masterclass on how to build a business case for Diversity & Inclusion work. I’ll be sharing the process I have used throughout my career to get leadership support (and money) for what I wanted to achieve.?

This process can be used for anything, but during this webinar I’ll be sharing how I built a business case for a global D&I Strategy.

If this would be something useful for you, come along. It’s free and on 12th?March.

All the details?here.

Lisa xx