Why Organisational Culture Matters On The Path To Equality

In today’s video, Mission Equality co-founder Lea Jovy looks at the importance of organisational culture. 

Why Organisational Culture Matters On The Path To Equality Transcript

Hello, today I'd like to talk about organisational culture.

And many people think that the culture of organisation is this kind of … it's like an HR/people thing to focus on and it's kind of over here. And it's not really fundamental and it's a kind of nice add-on or bolt-on to have and it's something that HR people do.

And actually it's much more fundamental and integral to the way an organisation works and the impact that it can have, particularly on the path to equality, because how people show up for themselves, how they represent themselves internally in an organisation, in a workplace, and how they show up for each other, is representative of how they will also show up for and represent the organisation externally within the industry, within the system that the organization operates in.

And so being intentional about organisational culture and particularly creating a culture from a foundation of equality means that when your team and people experience that [equality] in an organisation they can also create ripples of impact that can have an effect and can have an impact externally outside of the organisation. Because people are experiencing something so different when they're working in a workplace that is founded upon equality - and that's certainly what we've experienced at Mission Equality - and when people have that and they have that: people talk about psychological safety, they talk about kind of unconscious bias training and workshops and all of those are like nice sort of DEI type - diversity equity and inclusion type - initiatives. 

But actually building and creating a culture that is founded upon equality is a programme of significant business change. It isn't just like bottom-up;  it has to start from the top and it has to infiltrate all levels of an organisation. And when that is in place it can have a significant impact on the way that the organisation shows up and represents itself externally within the industry and within the system that it operates in and it can start to have a real effect and impact on creating equality for others outside of the organisation as well.

Visit the Mission Equality and Equaliversity websites to see our vision for equality and the action we’re taking and supporting to bring an equal world into being.