How does it feel when we are included?

Aliaxis, one of our Strategic Partners, talks about introducing their Nurturing Inclusivity Workshops to colleagues across the UK. 

For many of us inclusion is feeling valued, respected and heard, for others it’s about feeling motivated, engaged, safe and secure.  But regardless of what inclusion means to an individual, we can probably all agree that being included often makes the difference between feeling at home and feeling like an outsider. That’s why back in March of this year, we introduced our Nurturing Inclusivity Workshop to colleagues across the UK.  

Right from the offset, we wanted to make this workshop accessible to all, we wanted to make it fun, interactive, and engaging.  We wanted to harness the power of face-to-face communication over PowerPoint and get colleagues from different departments talking to one another and sharing their experiences.  Every part of this workshop was purposely designed to foster engaging, thought-provoking and open conversations between colleagues who may never have spoken before.

Our icebreaker, inspired by ‘Don’t put people in boxes’ meant we could discover where our similarities lie and what our differences might be.  And after lots of laughter and a few debates as to whether marmite should be allowed with poached eggs on toast, we opened the door for discussions around our biases. 

Be it conscious or unconscious we all have them, we just need to recognise that we do and ensure we’re not being discriminatory because of them. This led us nicely into some facilitated discussions in smaller groups around the legalities of discrimination, the 9 protected characteristics in the UK and why they are so important. 

We know we can’t change behaviour overnight, and that isn’t our aim, but our hope is that by the end of each workshop, our colleagues come away having learnt something new and feel more confident about what they can do to make our workplace more inclusive.  Having now started the conversation; we’re looking forward to seeing where they take us next! 

If you want to be part of the solution to build a better construction industry, please get in touch here.