2020, A Year of Innovation

Innovation isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when you think about 2020. The Corona Virus would normally be top of the list as would the death of George Floyd. It was at a beach side restaurant that I attended with my friend that I thought that if there was anything positive about 2020 it was the spirit of innovation.

At the beach side restaurant, I notice how busy it was and thought, how have they managed to survive these difficult times. It was then my friend informed me that they closed down the inside section and, only utilised the outside space transforming it into an out door eating area. They demonstrated care and thoughtfulness by wiping down the area every time people left their table. They served food in boxes and drinks in disposable cups. They They were truly innovative in the way they managed to adapt their business to survive these unprecedented times.

In my sphere of work I have seen many who have gone from face to face training and development to a virtual space. This approach has helped organisations to continue to support and develop their employees, providing them with a platform to fully engage. I have also chosen to adopt this approach to ensure that I am able to work together with my clients to produce a strategy that works for them.

Some of you may know that I am not only the Director of Equilibrium Mediation Consulting (EMC) Limited, I am also the Managing Partner of Synergised Solutions Ltd alongside Jacqueline A. Hinds who is my business partner. We have taken innovation one step further and designed and created a new Equality, Diversity and Acceptance programme specifically to address bias. Not only that we have created a new approach to Reverse Mentoring. All our programmes use an Emotional Intelligence framework to further enhance our programme design making the programmes extremely relevant and affective.

Innovation is about making changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas or products. Innovation doesn’t have to be done on a large scale, it can just be a change of direction that leads you to a new place to allow you to improve your circumstances. Thinking differently to improve your circumstances and those of others need not be an arduous task. It needs an open mind and a willingness for change.

Innovation has enabled me to make a difference in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion space. Teaming-up with Jacqueline A. Hinds to form Synergised Solutions Ltd to create ground breaking initiatives, which was truly our lightbulb moment. We continue to innovate and explore new ideas to empower, align and transform organisations who wish to be organisations of choice when it comes to dealing with a diverse work environments.

We have confidently presented Equality, Diversity and Acceptance as new approach to ensure that those within the nine protected characteristics feel accepted not just included. Feel comfortable accepting that they have the right to the space they are in and can progress confidently. We want to build and strength individuals to be the person they want to be.

Organisations are required to accept their responsibility to treat all employees fairly. They need to accept that their policies and process may hinder those who may be different from the majority they employ. An employer has a Duty of Care to all employees to make sure that their health, safety and wellbeing are being met ensuring a safe working environment. This cannot be achieved without acceptance of the organisations responsibility to it’s employees.

To affect change we need to innovate to improve our chances of success. We cannot continue to stand still whilst people are struggling to have a good working environment, it is important that innovation plays a part in your organisation.