A Dog Called Diversity
A Dog Called Diversity
Changing male-dominated workplaces.. with Teagan Dowler
This week’s guest didn’t start out as a heavy industry expert in Diversity & Inclusion but you never know where life is going to take you. Teagan Dowler started studied psychology but a work placement at a mining company changed everything.
She started work in human resources and learning and development, and built a career and a business challenging detrimental stereotypes and culture present in traditionally male dominated businesses. These include aggression, fear driven, inflexible cultures resulting in broken relationships and families and physical and mental health issues.
Teagan still loves the industry and her business thebcw (the blue collar woman) consults back to heavy industry to make a difference.
You can get in touch with Teagan at LinkedIn, Instagram or at her website.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
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Welcome to A Dog Called Diversity, a podcast from the Culture Ministry where we explore the themes of diversity, equity and inclusion through sharing stories of personal and powerful lived experiences, including how people have found their feet and developed a career in diversity and inclusion. If you need some help or support with your diversity inclusion work, please email Lisa at lisamulligan at thecultureministrycom or go to wwwthecultureministrycom for more information. This week's guest didn't start out as a heavy industry expert in diversity and inclusion, but you never know where life is going to take you. Tegan Dala started out studying psychology, but a work placement at a mining company changed everything. She started work in human resources and learning and development and built a career and a business challenging the detrimental stereotypes and culture present in traditionally male-dominated businesses. These include aggression and fear-driven, inflexible cultures resulting in broken relationships and families and physical and mental health issues. Tegan still loves the industry and her business. The BCW, the Blue Collar Woman, consults back to Heavy Industry to make a difference. Here's your host, lisa Mulligan.
Speaker 2:Welcome, tegan, to A Dog Called Diversity. It's so great to have you here. We've had a number of attempts and I'm so pleased we're here now. The reason I invited you on is I get approached a lot about how can I work in diversity and inclusion Like how can I get that D&I job and I like to show people that there's different ways to do what you love and to work within your purpose and your passion, and so you're a really great example of that. But I wondered if you might just start by introducing yourself and maybe telling us a little bit about you and where you're from.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks, lisa, and thanks for having me on. I'm very excited to finally have the opportunity. As you said, took us a couple of turns. So I guess my origin story. I am from a very small country town two and a half hours southeast of Melbourne, australia. It was a really small town where I think we had 1500 people. Everyone knew each other, all the kids in my school. We grew up together. It was very much around. You could do what you wanted to do. There was sort of no definition around. The boys did this and the girls did this when I was growing up. So it was a rural town. Everyone just sort of got in and did things.
Speaker 3:And then I went to Melbourne to go to university and I went to the University of Melbourne there and studied a Bachelor of Science with a major in psychology and loved it. I thought I was going to be a psychologist. Until early in my, I think, my first year, one of our lecturers said don't do it unless you really truly want to become a psychologist, because it's a long, hard road. And I thought, oh well, a psychologist because it's a long, hard road. And I thought, oh well, I'm still a kid, I don't really know what I want and I don't know if I'm. You know, at the time when I was doing psych, it was very much about all the pathologies, all the things wrong with humans, none of this positive psychology. It never existed back when I was being taught and so I thought, oh, I don't want to be a mid 20 year old, no life experience, come out into the world and be dealing with some very heavy, heavy things and the heavy sides of human nature. So I thought maybe I'll do it later in life when I have something to offer in that space and then decided to head into human resources because it's still about people.
Speaker 3:But I also had a passion for business and I did my master's in human resource management at Melbourne Uni and at that time was also doing work placement. And I started to do work placement with a mining and construction company that was in Brisbane and loved it, loved the culture, loved the challenge and really resonated with that very can-do, hardworking attitude and that's sort of how I found I built relationships in that space. When I left uni I did my very first official job out of uni was with a superannuation company. But I was so bored company. But I was so bored, I laughed. I laughed for a year there before I noticed the company that I had done some vac work with, some vacation work had a major project in Victoria, rang up my old contacts and said are you looking for any staff? They said, yes, we're ramping up. Give us your CV and the rest is history. I jumped back in fantastic, fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 2:I think those kinds of businesses are so practical and all of that can do. You know, I feel like they're great businesses. You can really make a difference. And yeah, if you have the right attitude and if you have the right approach, I think. So tell me about working. I mean, how long did you work for that company, or did you work for a number of companies in that same industry? What was the work you were doing there?
Speaker 3:So I was working in human resources and learning and development at that time, so it was a very interesting project. I was early 20s, but some things occurred on the project that really accelerated my learning and my responsibility really accelerated my learning and my responsibility. So I was let's just say it was probably one of the best and steepest learning curves at the time. It was incredibly difficult, but, hindsight's, beautiful and really gave me a boost in terms of my capability and my exposure. So I worked in a number of different sites during that time, early in my career, and at the same time, though, there were some things that were sticking out to me in the industry that I was challenging and I was questioning, and it's interesting I'm starting to see those challenges and questions come full circle now.
Speaker 3:People are also now finally challenging and questioning the same things, and for me, it was very much around the existing culture. Certainly, working in major projects there's some wonderful things about it. The camaraderie is extraordinary, the sense of accomplishment is amazing, that you know completion, you start something, you finish something. It's tangible, you see it. But there were some aspects around the culture that I could see were very detrimental to the human in those industries. What kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:So the thing that sticks out to me now is the aggression and the often fear-driven nature and the often fear-driven nature, the inflexibility around work, which we now start seeing that being reviewed and questioned. You know smarter ways of working. Historically, there's a culture of being on the clock and a real badge of honour the fact I work 12, 14-hour days. There's a very big badge of honour there. You just sit there and go. Okay, you were here for that many hours, but how effective were you and what was your output? You know that outcomes focus rather than just bums on seats.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But, also that those long hours are not physically good for people, and they're not mentally good for people either if they are working hard.
Speaker 3:And I would see the senior leaders and often they have, you know, broken families, broken relationships. I saw how working six days a week in high pressure environment impacted on my relationship and my health and it was part of that decision that led me to go. I'm actually going to jump out and I'm going to start my own business and consult to the industry, because I still love the industry and the culture. There's aspects of it that just really align with who I am, but there was a few things that I just didn't sit right with me and I've always been someone that will change things and call things out if they don't and have the conversation if they don't sit well with me. Yeah, and I've always been someone that will change things and call things out if they don't and have the conversation if they don't sit well with me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think we've seen that change over the years. So I have always worked I haven't worked in mining industry, but I've worked in male dominated industrial type businesses and I think it's made me realize more recently, when I'm talking to young women in these businesses, how they're calling out these behaviours. Now they're saying it's not right, I won't put up with it, whereas when I was working in these businesses it was well. Firstly, I want a job, but I want a career and I want to do well. So a lot of those behaviours were kind of swept under the carpet. They were ignored to a point. Not if they were.
Speaker 2:You know, I can remember having stand-up aggressive arguments with some men, but you just kind of did it to get on. And I think it's brave to step out and say actually this is not right. And I'm seeing much younger women now just saying you know, while we're trying to get more women into these industries, they're stepping out and saying no, it's not good enough and I won't put up with it. Yeah, so tell me about the business that you stepped out and consulted back to, because I think that was a really unique move.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I at the time. So the experiences that I had and the perspectives I had gave me the ability to offer, to be able to offer something to other organizations, and I initially stepped out and started working for a company called STS Consulting Australia who works in the space of strategy change management, coaching, leadership development in heavy industry, management, coaching, leadership development in heavy industry. So I was consulting with them and working in different sites around Australia. But there was a little niggling thought in my head from my experience when I was in industry but also working in these different sites, and one of them in particular was an underground coal mine that I was coaching the supervisors in and I saw one other woman there the entire time that I was working on site. I knew there was a handful of other women around on this site because I was their overalls and their boots in the small little change room and that'd get moved around. So I knew they were there, but I never really saw them.
Speaker 3:And for anyone who's worked in underground coal, it's a very different culture than any other workplace I've ever worked in. So the culture is very, very masculine and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just very, very different and there were some things in that culture, in that experience, that was not good and it's it really spurred me on to go. Well, something needs to be said about this. And I also had experiences in my early career working on the construction sites and initially I thought it was me. I thought that something was wrong with me and I wasn't fitting in and I wasn't good enough or capable. And because I was of the role that I was in, I had a lot of other women coming and chatting with me and it turned out they were also experiencing similar things. Like you know, rumors around sexual relationships on site and one female engineer was frustrated because the supervisor let her male peers drive the site vehicle but she was never allowed to drive the site vehicle.
Speaker 3:Silly, just stupid things Indeed and these stupid, silly little things, these little moments just chip away at you, and I decided that I can never stay quiet when I see injustice. And I also realized and decided that if this was our experience in these localized situations, then other women must be having these experiences too. And so I wanted to create a connection where we could speak openly and honestly about our experiences and support each other to find strategies to overcome them. And so I decided to write a blog and it started. It's called the Blue Collar Woman and it was started 10 years ago this year, so a decade old. You still have it. No, it's well long gone. And it was about speaking openly and honestly about the experiences in heavy industry.
Speaker 3:And I distinctly remember the advice I was given when I told a couple of my mentors that I was going to do this, start this blog. Then they're both senior males in industry and they said don't do it. Don't do it, they said, you will ruin your career, you will become an outcast of the industry, no one will hire you, you'll be a troublemaker. And I remember sitting in the kitchen with my little laptop in front of me. And am I allowed to swear, lisa, go for it because I remember just thinking you know what, fuck it, if telling the truth is going to cost me my job in this industry, I, I'm young enough, I have enough confidence I'll find a job somewhere else. So I pressed, go live.
Speaker 3:And it grew. It started to be found by this little blog, started to be found by other women and the community grew and it started to morph into an actual business. I had universities and private organisations contacting me to speak and industry associations in it and over time it grew bigger and I stopped doing the blog and decided to write a book, because I had this crazy, crazy goal that I wanted to write a book and run a marathon by the time I was 30. Cool. So in my 29th year I was very busy writing and running and running.
Speaker 3:Yes. So the book essentially was to collate everything that had been on the blog and all the experiences, but I also did a very, very big literature review on all the research that had been conducted around women's experience in the workplace, um, and particularly, you know, from a gender lens. Yeah, that's sort of how the the blue colored woman, and now I abbreviate it to the BCW, and they even have a whole new rebrand and maybe a reading. Ooh yeah, potentially that's exciting. Yes, you know you talk about how do we get into D&I. That was kind of my pathway to becoming a voice in this space.
Speaker 2:I think some of this, like some of the work that you've done, is now fully in the public domain. Some of the work that you've done is now fully in the public domain. We've seen very public examples of some of these industries mining industries and other heavy industries where the behaviours are being uncovered and talked about. We have the Respect at Work report and we have Rio Tinto coming out and talking about their investigations. Has that, I guess, changed or accelerated the work that you're doing, Gosh?
Speaker 3:in some ways, it's a positive step forward, but what I hear is that still in the smaller companies and in the smaller sites and businesses, the culture is still challenging. There's still some of the behavior that we experienced 10, 20 years culture is still challenging. There's still some of the behavior that we experienced 10 20 years ago is still so. Whilst I think that it is, it's fantastic that this is happening and this is being spoken about, the change impact I have not seen yet. Yeah, right, yes.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, I had wondered whether not that the cultures had changed, but that organisations are realising that change has to happen and so that there's more demand for the kind of work that you do with organisations.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Look definitely. So you know the interest, the necessity, the need that organisations recognise and the value as well that organisations are cognisant of in terms of diversity and inclusion has certainly increased. I think for a lot of organisations, one of their greatest challenges, and an area that they have to be most careful of, is being very strategic around their initiatives in the D&I space, Not just looking over the fence at what did the company next door do or what is our competitors doing, but really considering okay, what's our overarching organizational strategy? How does creating more inclusion and diversity and equity in our business feed into that? And what's the maturity in the history of our organization? Because you need to consider around historical, cultural aspects when designing programs to be most effective.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I loved your point about we can't just be looking over the fence and seeing what the next company is doing, because I think there's so much of that going on and I've been involved in projects where I've researched other companies or what are they doing because we just want to do the same. We don't want to stick out, we don't want to be seen to be doing something different. But I think your point around looking at the history of the industry and what has to change to make it a more inclusive culture is a really good point. We have seen one company, I guess in the mining industry, a big Australian company come out and set very, very big gender targets and loved them for it. I thought they were amazing and they've invested millions and millions and millions of dollars in trying to fix the problem, only to realize that it's a really hard problem to change, particularly in the mining industry. But I think we need more companies doing that.
Speaker 3:I think yeah, really challenging the idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think what organizations also need to be conscious of is they're not just changing organizational culture. Organizations exist in a societal culture and australia particularly if we just think they're in my little localized space has a very particular culture and it's from the spectrum, it's on the masculine side of things and it's highly individualistic and it's very short-term focus. So you know, you know I'm referring to the Hofstede work there in terms of cultural understanding, but you've got to be very cognisant around your country or your region's culture when designing these programs.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I was thinking all the different regions I know that do mining in Australia and what they are like. But you also do some other work in diversity at the diversity practitioners association. Is that right? Can I talk a bit about that?
Speaker 3:yeah, certainly so. That was part of my journey, uh, in terms of my building my career in this space, and early. Golly, I can't remember how long DPA diversity practitioners association has been running for now, but I'm going to hedge a guess we're around eight years, seven or eight years old. So we, a group of us in Brisbane, decided that we wanted to really elevate the, the professionalism of diversity practitioners in our, in our city and with the intent for certainly our state. There's some associations that work in New South Wales and Victoria that are doing an excellent job to really lift that profile and provide professional development, and so we wanted to be able to offer that to practitioners in Queensland.
Speaker 3:And we started a not-for-profit called the Diversity Practitioner Association and I was a co-founder and the treasurer of that association for four years, from memory Okay, and then finished when I had my daughter. I just had to downsize my responsibilities to being a mother in that list of responsibilities and it's still going. So the dpa is going wonderfully. They've had to ride through covid, like everyone else, and really consider how do we, how do they provide value to members?
Speaker 3:but they've got an amazing membership portal that is online and they run fabulous virtual events and hopefully, some face-to-face events this year too, potentially so. Um, if anyone is interested, head to or google the diversity practitioners association to find out more. But it was a you know. You think you talked around earlier about careers. How do we find, how do you build a career in this space? And well, I can only reflect upon my own experience and I think it was never a deliberate set out goal. I didn't sit there in uni and go I'm going to become a diversity inclusion expert to mine but rather I built it. I created the opportunities for it, did the hard yards, I wrote that book. That was a very big part of my education, but also then positioning yourself in the topic and starting the DPA, so being part of the community, creating the community for that and creating the opportunities was what happened in my career.
Speaker 2:So what's your view then? A lot of people that want to work in diversity and inclusion have a real value around it. They sometimes, in organizations, are too much towards the maybe we have to look after our people that really social element, which is really important, but you've got to be able to talk the business element as well. So I'm assuming you know your career probably developed out of having a really social element, which is really important, but you've got to be able to talk the business element as well. So I'm assuming you know your career probably developed out of having a really strong value around this work. But you know, how do you see that balance between being value-driven and business-driven and business?
Speaker 3:acumen. It's such a great point. So if you are going to be a practitioner in an organisation, you need the business acumen to be taken seriously and also offer value, is my experience. So, certainly outside of an organisational context, the heart-driven, the value-driven aspect there's plenty of opportunity to express that In the organisational context. I think the value and heart-driven aspect is what keeps you going. That's the piece that's given me resilience and staying power and you know, when you come up against those brick walls and those really challenging times, having that real heart motivation is what kept me going.
Speaker 3:But in terms of being able to create sustainable cultural performance change for an organization, having a very good understanding around the value drivers of an organization, how to align strategy, how to implement change management practices because I truly see diversity and inclusion as a change management project Yep, nothing else. But You've got to follow those principles and having a good understanding of human behaviour and motivations. You know making sure that you've got a good business head will be very beneficial for you as much as you have the social heart-led drive. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree so much. I've actually sometimes when I've had HR students come and work with me and do work experience and you know I've had to say to them if you want to do social work, you should go do social work, because in organisations you need you just have to have the business head around what you're trying to achieve.
Speaker 3:I think that's yeah, yeah, such a good point, and sometimes gosh hr is not the space to go into if you want to be everyone's friend and you know creating the the fun things, because very, very often hr is doing the tough stuff the performance conversations and the behavioral yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Hr is not your friend in an organization. They're paid by the organization. They're not paid to be your friend. I, I always say yeah. So um, in the time, from, I guess, working first out of university through to the businesses that you're part of and run now, you know we've seen the awareness of, I guess, sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace much more recently, but have you seen other things change over that time?
Speaker 3:that's been really important yes, I would say that a recognition and this is a real umbrella recognition, I guess term of a recognition that homogeneity is not good, whatever that looks like under that umbrella concept. Um, I've seen it filtered down. So, for instance, we can look at the fact of how we perform our work now we can thank covid for that in terms of putting everything virtual and digital, but a recognition that we can actually do work differently. So you know, I referred to earlier around my curiosity 15 years ago when I started in industry about do we need to be here 12, 14 hours a day. I can see that now being part of the thought process around well, how do we still execute our work if we're not here 14, 12 hours a day? Um, I've seen changes in in that flexibility aspect. I've seen a shift in terms of and look, there's a bit of a bit of a blurred line with we often talk in the, in the practitioner space around. Where does mental health sit, for instance, under dni? It's kind of over in safety, it's kind of disinclusion, it's just, and so, um, I've seen, certainly in my time, a shift in the acceptance of ensuring that mental health, people's mental health, is considered and taken care of um.
Speaker 3:Interesting I a bit of an anecdote. About five years ago now I was sitting in a power station and the company that I was working for at the time they'd been putting on it's like information sessions every month or so about different topics, and so I was happened to be there whilst they were running mental health and so it was like a lunch and learn. People would go off, see the see the talk, come back and I was sitting in the open plan office and I heard everyone coming back and chatting about mental health and oh, that was really great. I know this person. This has helped, blah, blah, blah. Just this real open acceptance, sharing of the concept that historically was very taboo, and I remember thinking, look at that, that's nice. There's like a real evolution I'm witnessing, yeah. And then the next month, when I was back with that client, they had their diversity and inclusion talk and I heard everyone come back from that and it was a very different conversation. It was a lot more. There were a lot more walls up, there was a lot more discomfort, some fear, some pushback around the concept and the discussion of dni and it showed me that this is a.
Speaker 3:This is a concept that is evolving, much like the conversation around mental health. I'd say we've reached a place socially and in our certainly the industries I work in where there is an acceptance that we talk about mental health. However, we're still and there's a way that we talk about it. However, we're still figuring out how to talk about D&I and even socially, we can see that at the moment, there's some really intense conversations and changes happening in that space and we are all still just trying to figure out well, how do we do this, how do we talk about this? So I have seen some positive changes in my time, but we still have such a long way to go in terms of figuring things out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're such good observations, I think, the mental health piece and the the D&I conversations, because often the D&I conversations are polarizing. People don't know how to engage. One one leader I worked with when Black Lives Matter happened in the US and George Floyd was killed. I had one leader say to me Lisa, all we're talking about is Black Lives Matter. I'm like isn't that great? You know, it's time that we started to have these conversations. And he said, yeah, but people are worried about their jobs. Lisa Like this is not relevant. And I was like, well, but people are worried about their lives. I think it's relevant, but it was a polarising conversation there was.
Speaker 3:No, no, sorry to jump in there, but I think you're right about it's so polarising, and I think that is the difference about D&I is because when we start you know we talk about mental health people can almost dissociate themselves if they haven't touched or had the experience in a way. Yeah, um, but currently the conversation about dni is very it encroaches on everyone in a way. So people are either feeling, oh, is it's them and us? And it's yeah, I feel excluded if you start including them and focusing.
Speaker 2:So. So they're winning and I'm losing because they're winning yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a highly emotional topic and, golly, I could go very deep into it. I think at least the recognition that the emotion around the topic and a recognition that I honestly believe that there is no right or wrong, no black and white. You know, this is the way you do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so much gray Heaps of gray, heaps of gray, and I'm hoping in the future we start to recognize some of those emotions, whether you're thinking for that person to win, Say, for a woman to get a leadership role, a man has to lose. You know we need, how can we start recognising the emotions around those two things? And you know, and the woman feeling like, well, I only got the job because I'm a woman, so that's an emotion where a man or she only got the job because she's a woman. I think we need to start unpacking some of that psychology.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah, but that that requires a lot of introspection and reflection for people to take and we don't have a society that encourages that at the moment. Rather, instead, socially and culturally, we have a society that is very external and yes, and noisy and loud, and we don't encourage people to sit quietly, reflect, become self-aware at a deep level, to understand our own motivations for, yeah, not only our behaviors but our thinking and the thoughts that are in our head yeah, you know you know what we're asking people to do.
Speaker 3:We're creating this change and this shift, but not providing the tools or the capability and mental maturity socially for people.
Speaker 2:Yeah you just have to look at what happens in the Australian media. If a politician or you know, a public figure says something and it's perceived to be wrong, or it creates, you know, a discussion, then there's often not a lot of reflection, there's a pile on.
Speaker 3:It's just yeah, and that helps no one. We actually end up making so much noise about the issue rather than resolving it.
Speaker 2:Finding a way forward yeah, we saw that recently in the us where there was more media retention generated around will smith punching someone the academy awards. Was it um more attention on that than another person going into a school and shooting children and teachers Like you just?
Speaker 3:yeah, oh, lisa, don't even get me started. Oh my God. Yeah, I have a lot to answer for in terms of the direction of society, and, again, my only wish is that we all recognise the influence that external messaging has on our internal dialogue and our internal state. And so, again, it comes back to the need for quiet time, reflection, self-introspection, rather than relying upon those external sources.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what's next for you, tegan? What are you looking forward to in the future? What are you hoping to work on or, you know, where do you see this space moving? Big questions for the end.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, and I honestly wish I could give you a really fabulous, inspiring answer around. This is what's happening. I honestly wish I could give you that because, to be perfectly honest, I you know, it's been 10 years working in this space and I'm incredibly passionate, but the the world has changed, the environment has changed and I am my. My goal and my passion is to support organizations through this change, through navigating what's occurring externally, to find, figure out a way that they can do it that suits their culture and aligns with their overall strategic intent.
Speaker 3:But personally, I myself am going through a, a reflection around well, what do I think about and I feel about the current environment that we're in, and what's my positioning, my personal position and you know, at the end of positioning, my personal position, and you know, at the end of the day, my personal position doesn't really impact an organisation, so the two are often mutually exclusive.
Speaker 3:It could, though it does, get brought up and the questions do get raised, so then you need to have a response, and so for me to get clear around, well, how do I sit with what's happening broadly? I'm still not locked down on that, lisa, so I feel like I'm learning and growing just as much as everyone else at the moment, and so my goal for you know, for the future and what I hope to be offering and working with my clients, is deepening these conversations that they're having so that they can start to not just do the surface level programs that they feel they have to run, because that's what everyone else is doing, but truly thinking around what is going to work for our people and what do we need to support our people so that they can come here, be productive, be happy and actually make this organisation better. Cool, love that. You've had good stuff there.
Speaker 2:Not only tangible and shiny, but it's true, I wasn't looking for shiny, tangible. No oh my goodness, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you, tegan. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited about the work you do and I wish I could be with you there in Brisbane and see you more often and learn from you more often, as I'm sure our listeners will have learnt from you.
Speaker 3:Really kind. Thank you for having me and if anyone wants to connect, I'm more than happy. I'm on the social media. They can find me at Instagram, thebcw. If they want to DM or connect or LinkedIn under Tegan Dowler, I'm happy to connect with others, because it's about building community, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is about building community, because we can't do it alone. That's it. The problem's too big, and I will put all your links in the show notes so people can find them easily thank you so much we hope you learned a lot from tegan.
Speaker 1:Our key takeaways at the culture ministry are that change is hard in diversity and inclusion, because we are in the business of changing culture. While we haven't seen an improvement in culture in some industries, we have seen organisational awareness of diversity and inclusion issues improve. When thinking about our overarching strategy for D&I, we can't be looking over the fence at what others are doing and do the same. We need to consider the history of the industry, what needs to change and be bolder with our challenges. Finally, we need to consider the wider societal culture in which organisations are operating. The industries and society that Tegan talked about are masculine, individualistic and short-term, so organisations need to consider how to make cultural change in this context.
Speaker 1:At the Culture Ministry, we know how challenging and lonely it can be working in diversity and inclusion and, as we have learnt from Tegan, progress in organisations is often slow. You might be just getting started in diversity and inclusion or you might be on your way. The Culture Ministry is here to help you with your diversity and inclusion progress. Please go to wwwthecultureministrycom to learn more. If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something, please share with your friends on social media If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something. Please share with your friends on social media. Give a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and leave a comment.
Speaker 2:This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.