We can do better, can't we?

A message in my LinkedIn mail, 'Danielle, get in touch with this woman, she's truly remarkable'.

I see a name, Dr Julie McElroy, and I'm already impressed.

I read the article that she's written for The Scotsman and I wonder if she will be willing to meet with me or how on earth I will handle the conversation - what do I have to offer here? I write anyway - offer a single coaching session in return for her thoughts on her specific area of expertise. She writes back and says she is more than happy to share, but she already knows I can't help her. Too many have tried.

And this is where the story begins...

Dr McElroy has Cerebral Palsy and is profoundly deaf. 

She has a Masters in Knowledge Exchange, a Doctorate in Assistive Technologies and is currently completing her Masters in Law. She contributes regularly to the BBC and The Scotsman. She has awards and accolades coming out of her ears. She is astoundingly smart.

Employable? Well, that's another matter it seems.

In a subsequent email exchange, she sends me an excel spreadsheet with over 300 applications on it.

Less than 10% resulted in interview, in part at least because of that common recruitment practice, telephone screening. Doesn't work so well for the profoundly deaf. 

I'm shocked. I was an HR Director at some point in my career. Good grief, switching to video conferencing is not so hard. Surely this isn't a thing?

And then I check my judgement. 

Because in my various HR roles, I remember the conversations on how hard it was to make adjustments for certain people with certain physical challenges. I remember the decisions I personally made.

My mood turns quickly to shame. This is a game I have actively participated in.

We meet for coffee.

Truth? I'm pretty nervous. Can I coach a profoundly deaf person? Am I going to say ridiculously stupid things? Am I going to get this horribly, horribly wrong?

I needn't have worried. Dr McElroy (I'm going to keep calling her that, although obviously we are on first name terms) is a lip reading genius. She's also a complete joy to have a conversation with. I'm energised immediately by being in her presence. I lean in and listen. I've obviously got a lot to learn.

One of the problems is clear immediately - academically she has more knowledge and experience than almost anyone I know. Practically, she hasn't experienced corporate life. She doesn't know the ins and outs of the working world (although clearly she's smart enough to learn). Her extensive experience in journalism (check her out on YouTube for some brilliant stories) must count for something though? 

Another challenge is that people are going to have to learn to behave differently around her.

Not that she needs special attention, but this interrupting thing we do in meetings? That's going to need to change for someone who needs to lip read. We'll need to practice listening, waiting for an appropriate pause. Revolutionary I know.

Plus, we'll need to leave more than 30 seconds break between meetings, you know, so she can actually get to them on time...Be nice for the rest of us to have a moment to go for a wee...

And those torturous conference calls that everyone hates and no-one's listening anyway? We'll need to think through a smarter alternative, you know, where we can see each other maybe.

I don't know about you, but I quite like the sound of that world...

I'm not wasting my time career coaching. I know my work here is simple - open doors for her that she can't open for herself. Use my influence to persuade people to help her. 

I get onto it immediately. Leveraging my best contacts. People step up, big names arrange meetings, get things going. They see the problem too. I'm hopeful we can finally make something happen.

Months later, we are, well, pretty much nowhere. Meetings happened and faded, we wantto help, but we don't have an opening, there isn't quite the right thing, right now. I get it, this is business. There are plenty of people struggling to get work out there.

Also this. if I can't help Julie with all of my contacts and influence (and believe me, I'm well connected and well respected), what on earth chance did she ever have on her own? And what about all the others?

She is not a unique case, although she is for sure a remarkable woman. 

Nor is she a charity case. 

She's a smart woman who wants to make a difference in the world. And she'd like to be paid fairly for it please, like the rest of us. She wants to use the brilliant brain she has been gifted to participate in society. 

This diversity thing is interesting in this scenario.

As a woman, I got dealt less cards in the pack than some (especially growing up in the construction industry), but compared to Julie, I pretty much won the lottery. 

Because there's a hierarchy when it comes to Diversity and Inclusion too. Women at the top of the list (although probably white, straight, middle class women like me first in that queue). Disabled people at the bottom. They're a bit harder you see...I mean, we want to help, but where's the business case?

We seem to have missed the point that disabled people are also our customers...

And perhaps even, the radical idea that the best people to build our products for disabled people, might be, er, the people who actually have experience of using them?

I get you're busy making a difference in your unique way. Thank you for that. Truly.

But I'm also wondering how many leaders out there are a little like I was in my corporate days - out of the picture, not giving it much attention, maybe even believing someone else will get it sorted.

Because of Dr McElroy and my own increasing curiosity, I realised this:

No-one's getting it sorted. It's not on the political agenda and as far as I can see it's not on the corporate agenda either.

We're not going to fix that in one go and yet, surely, we can get started. Right here, right now.

So today I'm asking, can we do better? And for the love of all things brilliant in the world, can we use the power of social media to find this remarkable woman an opportunity to make an impact in the world?

We can do better, I just know it.

#standonmyshoulders

Danielle

PS It would be super easy to read this and then wonder how on earth to comment, especially if you haven't got an obvious way to help. Take this one simple action, share this article and say it got you thinking. Hashtag it #standonmyshoulders. That might be all it takes to get it in front of someone who can do something. And you can easily do that, right?

Thank you. You rock. All of you.

PPS In case you're wondering, this article is published with Dr McElroy's permission and not at her request. I simply asked if we could try a new way. Everything is figureoutable...