Nina's Notes

I’m moving from New Year Resolutions to New Year Goals for 2024. Wonder if I could tempt you to join me?

Day 10 of 2024. Does the New Year already seem like a distant memory? It's never too late to be thinking about goal setting. As I was discussing with DEI champion Simranjeet Kaur Mann on the eighth day of 2024, goals are something I feel we should all be reviewing regularly and course correcting often.

The Reason. As I posted at the end of 2023, I’m definitely one of the estimated 80% who usually fail their resolutions by February! In that post I thought it useful to think about the difference between resolutions and goals. According to the Cambridge Dictionary:

• A resolution is “a promise to yourself to do or to not do something”
• A goal is “a purpose, or something that you want to achieve”

With these definitions in mind, goals remove the absolute nature of a resolution and the need for immediate action. Goals allow us to be specific and measure our incremental improvements. Goals allow us to be specific with what you want to achieve, realistic in how you’re going to get there and celebrate the small successes along the way. Most importantly goals will allow you to have setbacks on the way. After all, failing is just another form as learning. As I say, it's always good to #HappyFail.

If you're up for reviewing your goals, perhaps this first Nina's Notes of the year will give you some food for thought. And if you have any suggestions then please drop me a line.

Inclusion IS a business imperative

“We ask our law firms for their diversity data. We have stopped working with firms that do not provide it.” - Tanya Etheridge from PGIM Real Estate

Tanya's words continue to stay with me. It is a simple and strong message around how seriously organisations continue to take DEI (though some quarters proclaim there is a backlash).

Tanya was sharing PGIM Real Estate's approach as a panelist at Clifford Chance’s event - Disability Inclusion in the legal sector: Are you in? As outlined in this post, the mini-conference that marked International Day of People with Disabilities – and was open to all in the legal sector – clearly outlined the case as it why inclusion is a business imperative. The half day, of course, focused on disability inclusion and the participants pooled their knowledge to share great research and best practice including:

• The disability inclusion imperative - a report from Accenture and Disability:IN
• Legally Disabled? Research from Cardiff Business School and The Law Society
• Disabled Solicitors Network’s action points for disability inclusion and their Reasonable Adjustment best practice

I just want to take a moment to note how the event was a fantastic collaboration from across the legal sector including: HSBC, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, The Law Society, Linklaters, Stephenson Harwood LLP, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Morgan Stanley and Channel 4! I'm looking forward to seeing more of the same in 2024.

To which, Legal CORE continues to drive great collaboration across the legal sector to celebrate its second anniversary of Legal CORE, as this post from ?Slaughter and May spotlights.

Clifford Chance hosted a second Think Tank event for member law firms bringing together individuals to brainstorm on what actions could be taken by managers to support high performing diverse teams.?As I'd outlined in this post after the event, there were a lot of takeaways:

• Create peer-to-peer support networks so managers have others to ask for advice.
• Help managers “capacity build” so managers have the time and space to give their teams they support they need.
• Give new managers foundational knowledge of what being a good manager is AND THEN continue supporting all managers through continuous development (coaching, mentoring, frequent training)

More on the themes – that apply to any organisation, no matter your industry – to follow soon!

Priority setting

These types of "Brain Trust" events are brilliant to help us all deepen our knowledge and consider what actions may be needed. But how to do we know what to prioritise for 2024?

In this post, Mark Baker from d&i Leaders flagged their top 5 D&I priorities for 2024, which you can read in more detail here. Their top priority is ensuring inclusion is part of the conversation as we see the rapid growth of generative AI. It's something I've posted a bit about so thought it might be useful to share one of those posts again here. With every innovation there is risk, but also great opportunity.

Risk vs Opportunity

To put the AI risk into context. Everyday we take risks. Claire Lomas MBE recently shared this post on why her girls ride horses when it is the reason she is in a wheelchair with a spinal cord injury.

"Obviously with what happened to me, I could think I never want them to go near a horse. Some reasons I don’t feel that way: ?? I learnt discipline ?? I learnt to bounce back ?? I learnt that being nervous can be fun ?? I learnt perseverance ?? I learnt patience ?? I learnt to control my feelings ??I learnt to lose (and win sometimes!) ?? I learnt to problem solve."

And there are many role models using setbacks to drive change, including those I've previously featured from In/Fertility in the City. ?

“Make sure that you have the right support network… Make sure that you air your feelings, because you need to be able to tell people.”

Eraldo d'Atri sharing advice from his surrogacy journey above. His advice is relevant no matter what your fertility or parenthood journey – and frankly at whatever point of your life you’re in. He was sharing his advice during the latest episode of the Infertility in the City podcast, which was recorded live at Clifford Chance during National Fertility Awareness Week.

That episode – which is the final in the latest series – is now live! You can check it out here or on Apple Podcasts here.

Please note the trigger warning. Some of what was shared was extremely powerful.

Podcast hosts Natalie Sutherland, Somaya Ouazzani and Emma Menzies shared their stories as they interviewed:

• Taylor Rose MW partner Keeley Lengthorn shared how her losses led to her campaign for George’s Law.
• Clifford Chance senior associate Eraldo d'Atri shared his and his husband’s surrogacy journey.
• Barrister Sophie Wellings from Chambers of Katie Cowton KC & James Ewins KC, Queen Elizabeth Building told of how her and her partner’s infertility – along with life-threatening birth experiences – was overcome to produce two children.

As for me, I shared Clifford Chance’s policies around support before, during and after fertility treatment.I also had the opportunity to share the story that led to my husband and I adopted our wonderful daughter. As I said in a post soon after the event, I hope that through sharing our collective lives-experiences those who listen feel more equipped to deal with whatever in/fertility throws at them.

What Can We Do?

As I mentioned earlier, having a deep understanding of why you're setting a goal or certain action can help you prioritise. There's not short fix to building up that knowledge – so I would invite you to join me in setting yourself a target (regularly reviewed target) to see if you're able to read, listen and watch more to build your diversity, equity and inclusion knowledge base.

Here's some recent recommendations via LinkedIn that I've read, watched, listened (or am about to!) Hope they give you some start points:

Read

• No Horn Unicorn by Dr Shani Dhanda. Yes it's a kids book, but as Shani describes in this post, the book fills a void for her that she felt as a child. We can learn a lot by taking a kid's perspective of DEI. I'd also through into the mix Cerrie Burnell's books like Fairy Magic that help children to understand the lived-experience of others.
• DEI Deconstructed by Lily Cheng. This book is easy to digest and full of lots of thought-provoking practical steps those seeking to drive DEI change can take. Here's a thought from Lily in a recent post: "A strategy is not a plan or a commitment; a strategy is a bet."
• Caitlin Moran's "What about Men?" is a pick from Kat Parsons to get the view of men on gender parity. You can read more of Kat's thoughts on that book here.
• Beyond Discomfort from Nadia Nagamootoo is available to pre-order now. As Nadia outlined in this post, it has backing of some notable DEI faces, including Dr. Asif Sadiq MBE.

Listen

If listening is more your thing, then in the last month these two podcasts popped up on my LinkedIn :

• The chaplains at the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy have a weekly podcast with each episode just a few minutes long on topical subjects. Find out more in this recent post.
• From my former BBC colleague Rachel Schofield comes a new LinkedIn Live series called Breaking Barriers with a focus on gender equity and STEM. Find out more here.

Watch

And finally, Dr. Amrita Sen Mukherjee explained in this post how she hit a milestone by becoming a #TedxSpeaker. You can see her talk on how to challenge bias to enable change in relation to non-apparent disability here.

Hints and Tips

I may not have kept up my LinkedIn contributions to collaborative articles to keep my Top Community Voice badges, but congratulations to Dana Denis-Smith on becoming a Top Entrepreneurship Voice! I did contribute a little, so here's my hints and tips from a couple of those:

#Tip 1

How can you develop adaptability to lead a diverse team?

With diverse teams comes diversity of opinion and hopefully those ideas are being shared. However, it’s not always the easiest to hear something you’re not keen on hearing - especially if it challenges your perspective on something. That’s when we all need to manage our emotions. It will allow us to hear ideas/ areas to improve objectively and to the betterment of the team.

Short-term tips to manage emotions:

• Give yourself time by saying you’ll reflect on the idea and make sure to come back with evidence their option has been considered.
• Get others to input to the idea and understand if there’s consensus.
• Remind yourself that diversity of voice leads to better outcomes for you, your team and your organisation.

#Tip 2

How can you brainstorm innovative ideas in group work?

What do you mean by brainstorming? Traditionally, it would be something spontaneous with rapid quick-fire ideas about a future activity - so not something that’s been planned for. To get the most engagement, providing different formats that allow for inclusion in the brainstorming session.

It doesn’t have to be formal: speaking up in the meeting, using the message function on a virtual call, someone taking notes, emailing ideas to the moderator. Whichever way you seek to facilitate this the end result should be a lot of ideas. Often these will fall into themes. Through these trends you can understand the true areas of future activity that are needed.

#Tip 3

How can you use problem solving skills to expand your professional network?

Together We Can! It’s something I sign most of my LinkedIn posts with. By it I seek to learn from others, share best practice and offer to connect to see how we may collaborate to drive change.

My point - sharing on LinkedIn your own knowledge and asking others for their thoughts is a great way to build networks. We all find strength in knowing others face the challenges and opportunities we do.

Beyond this platform, finding opportunities to showcase and celebrate others and their best practice is a great way to help them grow their networks as well as you own. That could be through hosting collaborative events or giving them a shout out in a blog. Celebrate others and they’ll be there for you too. Together We Can!

Upcoming Events and Opportunities

Just quick rundown of events and opportunities I've posted about or reacted to over the last month:

• My former BBC Creative Diversity colleagues have posted a great job opportunity worth flagging. Nichola Garde is looking for a project manager to run the highly successful Elevate scheme. Deadline is midnight on 14 January.
• Lisa Nugent is offering a FREE Goals masterclass on Tuesday 16th January at 8.00pm. You can find out more and register here.
• d&i leaders has an online conference - Empowering Employee Networks 2024 on 26 March. I'll be there with Carlos Conceicao and Emily Hier. For more see the full agenda.
• Remember the Why Women Leave research? Now Joy Burnford with the team at Encompass Equality are looking into Why Men Leave. If you're eligible, you can take part in the study here and it's open until 19 January.

Final Thought

"I am of the opinion of my life belongs to the whole community, and while I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can."

I loved this Bernard Shaw thought as recited by Jeff Goldblum as posted by Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE (thanks to Theresa Shearer FRSE for flagging). If we think of goal setting then a life of dedication is one that will definitely need reviewing and reiterating along the way. But as a community – and through collaboration, with us all being ambassadors for change, I'm sure it can happen.

Together We Can!

?Thank you for reading this month's Nina's Notes. I hope it’s been useful. Please do drop me a line with any thoughts and you can follow me on LinkedIn.