Nina's Notes

“We should always remember to celebrate the wins, alongside planning on what next.” - Tiernan Brady (see full post )

Time flies! It’s more than one year since I joined Clifford Chance as their first Head of Inclusion UK. As the little photo montage video in this post shows it has been a busy one.

During that time I've definitely upped my posts on LinkedIn and this led to one person asking if I could pull them together each month so they’re all in one place. And here I am...

It has taken me some time since the request to do it - partly because I've been asking myself will any of you read it? What impact could it have?

“You Said… I did…”

Then I thought about a section there is in an internal monthly newsletter I brought in early on in my time of joining Clifford Chance. It spotlights the fantastic work happening across firm to drive inclusive behaviours.

In there is a section called “You Said… We did…” where we share monthly actions the firm has taken, following suggestions and ideas from colleagues. The action could be the result of one person's idea. If it's enough for us to take action at work, then I think it's enough for me to do in personal time too...

So... “You Said… I did…” and am publishing this monthly round-up of my musings. They didn’t want me to tag them, but thank you for the idea.

#HappyFail

So for at least the next three months, I’ll share a round-up of what I posted or reacted to from the previous month.

If there’s not many sign-ups then I’ll chalk it down to a #HappyFail - something that didn’t work but I learnt from it. (This post has more on #HappyFail )

So thank you for reading and let’s see where this goes. Any suggestions then please drop me a line .

“Culture is not neutral”

You will have seen that I've given my boss Tiernan Brady the top spot as my monthly muse for this first newsletter, He inspires people everyday - as shown in my post introducing our new trainees .

He also believes in something I believe vehemently in - when is comes to driving change it needs to be tangible. People need to be able to understand, see and feel the impact they’re having.

"It's not me, it's you"

It’s why I’m proud that Clifford Chance sponsored Encompass Equality ’s research into ‘Why Women Leave ’. And there’s been stacks of research in the last year to draw on - as I posted about recently . And because it’s so useful I’m outlining again here (save you a click or two):

• Legal Services Board ’s Tackling EDI research
• Next 100 Years: Women In Law ’ latest survey
• The Law Society 's D&I framework
• extense ’s 1% Study into Black representation in the legal sector
• Legal Core’s first Think Tank findings on improving ethnic minority retention

?Beyond great research there are stories to tell.

Role models build foundations

I loved the LEGO Group ’s big news about braille bricks and it made me spend quite a bit of time looking into why… and the why was an inspirational story that I had to share .

Matthew Shifrin who drove Braille Bricks said a couple of years back: “If Lilya hadn’t bought me that binder, none of this would have happened. My goal has always been to make as many experiences accessible to the blind as possible, whatever they may be.”

That’s the importance of support, motivation and inspiration… and that’s driven by us all sharing our stories.

It’s why I was so pleased that Hilary Evenett shared her story . She talks to something I think a lot about - how our perspective changes with our experiences:

?“…(the) more senior (I became)… actually I began to realise that having a diverse firm and working in a diverse team was good for business, for client development and led to us performing better, giving better advice to clients.”

What can we do?

Of course, I would advocate everyone using opportunities to role model, but also do you have time to share your opinions?

My colleague Chris Fawcett FRSA posted recently how there’s been a lack of process in disability space from a UK perspective .

So if we’re going to drive change we need to input - after all “culture is not neutral”. To that point, the UK Government has a disability consultation on at the moment, you can see more on that in this post from Dr Shani Dhanda . As she states: "By participating, you're helping to shape a future where accessibility and inclusivity are at the forefront."?

Hints & Tips

?“Know who is in the room” - Elspeth Morrison

I believe that for us to get on as individuals, team and businesses, we need to understand ourselves and having empathy for others. At the beginning of August, we had some fabulous workshops and thought it was worth resharing my takeaways here.

After Elspeth's super engaging session to help us think about our presentation skills, I outlined in this post some of the top things we should have front of mind if we’re to raise awareness then we need to be able to connect with the widest of audiences.

And when we're thinking of how connection can drive business, change or inclusive cultures, we need also need to think about how we communicate outside of the room - and in the social media space.

“Your people are your channel to market” - Lisa Drake

Big tip from Lisa who delivered a One Earth masterclass on how our own personal brands and purpose can help drive business in the organisations we work. In this post , I outline some of the questions Lisa feels we should pose, including "what do you want to be known for?"

Coming Up...

Super quickly, here's some ?upcoming events and opportunities that I've posted about or reacted to in:

• The Westminster Forum Projects hold its conference called Next steps for equality, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession on 20 September .
• Applications for 10,000 Black Interns are NOW OPEN !
• The Institute of Directors (IoD) is holding the first in a new series of its ‘Better Director’ events on 17 October .
• Eliud Samuel Muturi will be talking about Reverse Mentoring and the impact it’s having at Clifford Chance on a DEI Club webinar on 3 October at 12:00-13:00 CET .

Final thought?

“It’s those tiny changes that can have a massive butterfly effect.”

One of my favourite thoughts that I shared with The Global Legal Post over a year ago now .

Thank you for reading and I hope it’s been useful. Please do drop me a line with any thoughts and ideas.

Together We Can!

Please do get in touch and follow me on LinkedIn.