3 tips for making a lasting change in 2012…

As we enter the New Year, talk about New Year Resolutions is all around us. “What are you giving up this year”, people ask? High amongst the regulars are giving up smoking, losing weight, going to the gym more regularly, and starting a diet or detox regime to get rid of the Christmas excesses. These resolutions are all good and great, and I wish you all the best as you set out to achieve them. Indeed, where these assist in facilitating positive change, they are to be encouraged.

But what about those resolutions that help drive real change and reform character? Those that promote the human spirit; that facilitate the opportunity for each individual to achieve their best in the workplace and society; that create an environment characterised by fairness, inclusivity and transparency leading to a new paradigm for positive human co-existence? What about these resolutions?

Here are 3 simple tips alongside the others aforementioned above that will assist in the creation of lasting change this year, and importantly, beyond:

Diversity FAQ’s 20: Should we change the term ‘diversity’ to something else?

“Can a Leopard change its spots”? Jeremiah 13:23

I think it is fair to say that in my professional career thus far, there is one single term that tends to cause the most ‘discomfort’ and ‘uneasiness’ when raised for discussion: the term ‘diversity’. Indeed, when at client meetings and engagements I have introduced myself as a ‘diversity and talent management consultant’, I often notice the sharp intake of breathe that tends to follow – as the first part of my job title (note not the second part) is taken in and digested. And this experience appears not to just be mine. It was only last week a business partner suggested that he might consider changing the name of his business, removing the word ‘diversity’ as according to him, it might constitute the reasons for the reduced client engagement currently being experienced.

Isn’t it paradoxical that that which is at the very essence of who we are as human beings, is at one and the same time, that which gives us the most ‘discomfort’ and ‘uneasiness’??! My Mother once said to me: “You will only find out what true love is Jude when you have a child and become a parent. That is when you’ll realise that true love is also intense pain”.

So, what is it about ‘diversity’ that rubs us up the wrong way such that some advocate for the term to be changed? Is it the statements below which are often provided as key reasons?

Diversity FAQ’s No 19: How is Diversity connected to Business Strategy? Part II – ‘Change and Downsizing’

“Change in organisations is inevitable”

Charles Handy, author, philosopher and specialist in organisational management and behaviour.

It seems pertinent that in pursing Part II of our discussions on how diversity is connected to business strategy, that we spend some time discussing the phenomena of ‘change’, a reality of business strategy, more so within the context of organisational change and downsizing – a very present reality in the UK workplace.  Indeed, the global world of business, precipitated by the fall of Lehman Brothers on September 16th, 2008, is arguably the spark that commenced the beginning of what we now understand as the global financial crisis, which played itself out before our eyes as organisations either folded or embarked on restructuring processes.

As of early 2009, organisations were still reeling from the effects: the Daily Mail reported that in the UK,100,000 people a month were made redundant, that a job was being lost every second, and that a typical organisation like MacDonald’s, for example, was receiving approximately 22,000 job applications per day. Indeed, figures from the Office for National Statistics (the ONS) showed that 302,000 people were made redundant in the three months to April 2009 – that is 36,000 more than in the previous quarter and the most since records began in 1995.

Indeed, coming closer ‘home’ – and as of the second quarter of 2011, 56% of the public sector and 29% of the private sector had made redundancies according to a recent KPMG survey, with further downsizing and restructuring predicted.