Together We Can Do So Much - Working Better Together

Hello and welcome to the Work Better Together newsletter from Watch This Sp_ce. No need to adjust your screens, this is a new version of our previous newsletter. With a focus on helping everyone to understand different types of people, and how we can learn how to listen to each other and find ways to include people and work better together. Plus we share interesting news about things we can learn on to create more diverse, inclusive working environments. And we share some inclusion fails too. If you have been forwarded this newsletter, you can join our community and subscribe here.

In this week's newsletter, we will be covering:

???? The focus on People in Inclusion Journey Mapping

?? US Black History Month

?? Building Supportive Working Environments

???? Inclusion Fails of the week

Focus on People in your Inclusion Journey Mapping

Our Inclusion Journey Mapping has 6 pillars to focus on to look at where to focus on actions and attention. When you consider your people, there's some things to consider so that your work has impact:

• Data - do you know who works for you, who you are missing and who you might not even have thought about? Do some simple analysis on your people to understand this.
• Engagement - are the people who do work with you engaged? Are they happy and performing well? This is an area to look at to see where you can do better.
• Creativity - a good combination of a mix of people and engaged, happy people means that people can be creative and think of new ways to do things. If you're struggling with this, it may be an indicator of areas to look at.

Getting started with all of this is about understanding where you are now. If you are not sure about where to start, try our FREE Level One Inclusion Journey Mapping. Answer some questions and then we will send you a report with some suggested actions. Try it out here - Inclusion Journey Level One.

US Black History Month

This month Kaia Allen-Bevan, asks us to consider US Black History Month. How do we widen our view on Black History and how do we celebrate sustainably? As an annual celebration, the Black experience is overlooked and has failed to be included in our Eurocentric “history”. There is little done to highlight Black history beyond slavery, which is disempowering not only to the Black community to whom it creates a greater sense of not belonging, but also to those who do not identify as Black, who are not taught the broader picture of their country's background.

Kaia asks us to think beyond a month, Black history is every month. How can we continue to learn and move away from performative actions. For more on this, there's a great post on our instagram channel and a blog from the UK Black History month here.

Kaia leads on our anti-racism training. She has worked with a variety of different organisations on this. If you want to talk to Kaia about how she can work with you, enquire here.

Building Supportive Working Environments

So much of the focus on your people is about the support you all can give each other. This is not about buzzwords, or free fruit bowls and bean bags. How can you take practical steps to create a supportive environment where everyone can thrive?

• Embrace diversity, inclusion and our differences
• Implement inclusive policies and practices
• Foster a Culture of Respect and Empathy
• Promote Work-Life Balance
• Provide Training on Unconscious Bias
• Establish Employee Resource Groups
• Offer Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities
• Organisational Benefits of Supportive Working Environments

For more information on all of this - head to the blog.

Inclusion Fails of the week

This started as a Slack channel for us, then we felt we had to share with you all, and now we can't stop seeing stories that make us cringe, have our heads in our hands, or make us angry. Here's the stories that caught our eyes this week in the news:

• Barbie Oscars fail - whether you loved the movie or hated it, did this story catch your attention? It's a film about the impact of patriarchy, but the bulk of recognition is going to the men. (America Ferreira being nominated for Best Supporting Actress, though, is wonderful and well-deserved.) We couldn't love Ryan Gosling more for his take on the situation, 'But there is no Ken without Barbie'

Read more about this here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68077563

• Lack of diversity in fashion - the top jobs in the British fashion industry are still overwhelmingly held by white men as reported in a new report. Sigh. The Fashion Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) report, finds that only 9% of executive and 11% of so-called power roles, which include chief executive, chief financial officer, chair and creative director positions, are held by people of colour. 39% of executive teams and 24% of power posts are occupied by women

Read more about this report here - https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2024/jan/23/fashion-industry-diversity-lack

• EY Employee monitoring fail - huge facepalm at this one. EY are monitoring staff attendance through data from their turnstiles. They are tracking when employees are coming to and from the office, and cracking down on hybrid employees who aren’t hitting their quota for time spent in office. Hmm, does attendance in the office mean you're working harder than people working from home? What about choices and trust?

Read more about this story here - https://www.hrgrapevine.com/content/article/2024-01-30-eys-tracking-of-staff-office-attendance-not-surprising-for-hr-professionals-expert-says

That's it for this week. Do you have an inclusion fail story to share? What has caught your attention? Email [email protected] and we will include it in this newsletter!

And if you want to know more about how we can help you with your Inclusion Journey, email [email protected]