Transforming stereotypes : creating safe & inclusive workplaces with Jodie Jarvis

"The more cognitive diversity we have in the workplace, the better we will be as organisations if we can manage it effectively" Jodie and I discuss the shifts that need to happen to create safer and more inlcusive workplaces. Leaders play a pivotal role in nurturing a culture of empathy, understanding, and genuine care. Over and above all, leaders need to know their people and reflect on their behaviours and what they are enabling and hindering in the workplace. Understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by neurodivergent individuals in the workplace, as well as coming from a place of curiosity and care is necessary to cultivate environments where everyone feels safe and valued. Inclusivity isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a catalyst for creativity, performance and innovation. When organisations embrace diverse ways of thinking, and interact with the reality of the 5 generations who work in there, they can unlock new levels of performance and problem-solving capabilities. It is important to clearly define cultural narratives and what behaviours are required, to own our mistakes and fix them to restore relationships, and to call out bad behaviour. If you are looking for simple and actionable things that you can do to encourage and create the conditions for a safer and more inclusive workplace, listen to this episode as Jodie generously shares her perspectives, stories and thoughts on this important topic. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -A culture of safety and inclusion are essential for performance: from a neurodiversity perspective, improvements made for neurodivergent people benefit everyone, e.g. clearer communication and more flexibility. - Diversity too improves organisational performance, but people are often overwhelmed by the subject so that no real action is taken. Unfortunately, direction, guidance and outcomes tend to supersede interpersonal connections. - Conscious conversations are required to delve into what people need, and then resource the skills required to react and respond to needs: ‘fix, deliver, advise’ should give way to space to listen, be heard and be comfortable with discomfort. - The post-covid backlash against the dialogue around mental health leaves us asking how we equip people to talk about it - this is based on empathy as well as cultures of care, which mean different things to different people. - Leaders must know their people in order to support them and help them thrive; they must reflect, have an adaptable mindset for inclusivity and role model a different approach, connecting with people 1:1 and building a relationship. - Team away days provide the opportunity to talk about something other than work, build trust on an individual level and thereby create more psychological safety at a team level. - Flexible working (post-covid) reinforces the narrative that women can have/do it all – yet nothing can increase the amount of time available and only a strong support network can facilitate this. - The only option to flexible working is often not working at all, and people will seek out flexibility because getting the right balance at home has an impact on professional relationships too (ripple/cascade effect). - Five generations in the workplace now is very beneficial in terms of cognitive diversity, cross-mentoring, etc. - progress depends on a growth mindset and a willingness to see others’ point of view. - Humble leaders with strong people skills who are up to date with the latest thinking, work on their own unconscious bias and build a strong foundation of understanding the well-being of their people can be transformational. - Trying to get people to ‘fit in’ is better replaced by a recruitment strategy that is aligned around