Keynote: 8th June - Success Through Diversity with Ade Adepitan, MBE

Working in the wake of Covid-19 has shone a spotlight on the need to really know and understand the people in our organisations. With the sudden disruption to teams and departments, knowing how people operate became just as important to business continuity as the systems they manage. For some people, home environments became work environments for the first time, so being sympathetic to differences within our teams became crucial. At the P2P Transformation Summit on 8th June, we’re delighted to talk about this with our opening keynote from Ade Adepetan MBE, sponsored by Tradeshift who will be talking about his live experiences and the importance of diversity to a successful team.

The pandemic has shown that companies which were more diverse were able to demonstrate more innovative decision making, higher levels of employee satisfaction and different ways of thinking. Too often companies end up with employees and an executive team from surprisingly similar backgrounds. Although it may seem like a good idea to have everyone on board with a project, united in their approach, it can mean that a better alternative hasn’t had the opportunity to be considered, or raised.

An Inclusive Environment Drives Innovation

An inclusive environment can drive innovation, reduce staff turnover and limit the chance of disgruntled employees taking the company to court. A recent McKinsey report shows a correlation between gender, ethnic and cultural diversity and financial performance. Despite this, the report also highlighted that achieving diversity was a “challenging goal.”

Setting a specific strategy to address the issue can help provide focus for related training, so that instances of workplace bullying, unlawful harassment or discrimination are all avoided. But building this within the business requires a shift in mindset and needs the buy-in of senior leaders who can play an important role in driving behaviour for the rest of the business.

Guard Against Unconscious Bias

Unconscious bias is something that hides within many organisations and can be difficult to detect. Organisations can create training programs to root out ingrained stereotypes that may play into promotion and project management choices. Such sessions can challenge leaders and the executive team on how they select people, who they recruit for what purpose, and where they recruit from.

As our daily business lives become more fluid, leaders need to make sure that the systems support and encourage a diverse team and that the visibility of individuals within them, particularly junior staff, are not obscured by remote working. Leaders need to look at the opportunities to progress within the department and across the organisation and ultimately take responsibility for growing a diverse workforce fit for the future.

Join our session and the rest of the day’s activities on 8th June and find out how building a diverse team, not only generates a successful business, but a happier, more representative and innovative environment.