Driving Diversity and Inclusion

Developing More Inclusive Organisations

Firstly, from myself and all of the Voice Project team, we would like to thank those who attended our November Breakfasts. We hope you enjoyed it and that you found the presentations both inspiring and informative. Our speakers Dr Jennifer Whelan (psynapse), Dr Louise Parkes (Voice Project) and Cecelia Herbert (Google Asia Pacific) all delivered excellent presentations on this highly topical and tricky issue. Despite the different backgrounds and expertise of our speakers, they were all in agreement: we need to change how we approach it to get the most of our organisations and people. For organisations to reap the multiple benefits of diversity, which include innovation, team effectiveness, risk management, turnover, wellbeing and staff satisfaction to name a few, we need to support diverse employees by fostering more inclusive cultures, and think beyond how we can hire them to how we can ensure they thrive.

The Presentations

We encourage you to listen below to the presentations by Dr Louise Parkes and Dr Jennifer Whelan.

Dr Louise Parkes presented some of Voice Project's own data on diversity and its impact on organisational Outcomes. Download Louise's presentation here.

Dr Jennifer Whelan spoke about her experiences as an academic and director of a consultancy that specialises in diversity and innovation. She also explained why organisations find diversity challenging, and outlined evidence based approaches to developing more inclusive cultures. 

Finally, Cecelia Herbert Spoke in Melbourne and Sydney about how Google has approached diversity, and why they see it as being so central to what they do. She also spoke about some internal research google has done on the topic, and how this research caught the attention of senior leadership and shifted their thinking on diversity and inclusion within the organisation. Fostering a psychologically safe culture where all people feel free to contribute ideas and having a diverse mix of people is not just important for the wellbeing of Google's staff, but is also key to innovation and performance. Google also ensured that it remained accountable for diversity by being open and transparent with their diversity data, which also encouraged other organisations to follow suit. Click here to explore the re:work website that Cecelia referred to in her presentation.

The Voice Project Breakfasts

Voice Project runs various events throughout the year.