Welcome to Balancing The Scales!
Flagship Event Experience
“A hugely memorable and powerful evening” Julie Baker, Head of Enterprise and Climate Engagement, NatWest Group
“I learned a new term: Relative Privilege and it was deeply moving” Hannah Schmidt, Senior Strategy Analyst, myenergi
“The speakers were incredibly knowledgeable and shared valuable insights that I will take with me as I continue to grow in my career” Chris Williams, Global DEI Director, CBRE
Hello, I'm Ishreen Bradley - Chief Inspiration Officer here at Belonging Pioneers, and I am delighted to welcome you to the online edition of Balancing The Scales – our flagship event that marks the UN World Day of Social Justice.
Here, you will have the opportunity to:
Access our speaker videos and additional resources to put more ‘S’ into your ESG, and
Explore how to engage the best talent in these challenging times
Following are activities and talks that you can use as a starting point for further conversations and action planning. I would be delighted to assist further through a 30 minute exploratory call if that would be useful:
Our Vision For Balancing The Scales
Our vision at Belonging Pioneers is to Balance the Scales towards a culture of equity at work. It requires that we understand and work to balance the inequities we find in the workplace that are based on the different levels of privilege we are each fortunate to have.
This is our core work.
We contribute to the future reality of our vision by partnering with the Hope For Children charity, Balancing the Scales by fund raising for children who don’t have the privileges we enjoy so that they can have increased opportunity to succeed.
An important framework for Balancing The Scales is the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals Agenda. At Belonging Pioneers, our work is underpinned by Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth) and Goal 10 (reduced inequalities).
To forward the realisation of these goals, Belonging Pioneers holds a charity event on 20th February every year to celebrate The United Nations World Day of Social Justice. These recordings and resources are from our inaugural event which took place at NatWest HQ in February 2023.
This is an energising (but not physically demanding) activity tailored for us by Shardonae. It takes a kinaesthetic approach to helping us think about social justice and privilege...setting the scene for the rest of our event. Shardonae joined us through the Kickstarter scheme...and is now key members of our team.
Julie is responsible for the award-winning NatWest Women in Business program and leading on the implementation of the Rose Review interventions on behalf of Alison Rose. An ardent supporter of business expansion, job creation and economic growth and an external influencer who sits on the board of Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, on the Investment Committee of Innovate UK, the X-Forces Enterprise Advisory Board and Chair of the Access to Finance Group APPG Women in Enterprise. Passionate about supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and future leaders through providing mentoring opportunities and providing valuable connections.
Anil Soni, CEO of World Health Organisation Foundation, is a dynamic leader with deep experience across all aspects of global public health. He is committed to health equity around the world and realises his organisation has to be a match for that in terms of being truly diverse, inclusive and equitable. Anil has kindly agreed to share his approach and learning with us at Balancing The Scales. With a wide scope of experience, from Viatris where he led the development and introduction of medicines to treat HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, to his leadership of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and his time at the Global Fund, Anil has had an impact across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
In a world of privilege, we are all looking to each other for answers. Tammy’s talk takes us back to our own personal journey. She helps us recognise that each one of us as we move through our lives and careers have times where we can give, make change and support others. Equity is something to be strived for, life is not a competition it’s a collaboration. Tammy uses her story of business success despite adversity to highlight the small actions of others that helped her move from being powerless to powerful. She explains how she now uses that power daily with micro actions to ensure allyship and the building of others through her business Taye Training and Parliamentary work.
Sheetal and Ishreen address the following challenges:
-How do digital technologies reproduce privilege?
-What are the structures and processes that make access to good connectivity feel normal and be assumed and hence disadvantage those who don’t have it?
-What are the implications from assumptions of constant availability/overwork due to working from home?
-How can you identify digital privilege in your organisation and in your supply chain…especially when smaller SME’s/diverse supplier/less socio-economically advantaged colleagues are involved?
-How can you bring effort and intention from colleagues who benefit from digital privilege to make reasonable adjustments for colleagues/people who are in your organisation/supply chain who don’t have such privileges?
Having received media attention from the likes of The Guardian, Huffington Post and the Camden New Journal, Samuel is often recognised for his thought provoking, impactful pieces such as ‘Fatherless Britain‘, 'Our Iconic Land' & ‘What I Wasn't Taught In School'. Samuel is also a celebrated TEDx Speaker with his talk "If the Youth Ruled the World" fusing together poetry and public speaking. Accumulating over 2.5 MIllion views across all media platforms. Samuel has written a specific poem to share with us to mark the UN World Day of Social Justice.
Relative Privilege has a profound impact in the workplace. It is what is behind conscious and unconscious bias. Relative Privilege has been hijacked in the last few years by an over-focus on white privilege. There is little research into the impact of relative privilege in the workplace, so we have started our own.
In this session Roger and Ishreen share with you whatthey have found so far...and what comes next.
Ishreen Bradley is our founder and Chief Inspiration Officer. She guides Culture Transformation Programmes with global C-Suite and Senior Leaders to cultivate environments that embrace diverse talent by encouraging equity, inclusion and belonging.
Relative Privilege has a profound impact in the workplace. It is what is behind conscious and unconscious bias. Relative Privilege has been hijacked in the last few years by an over-focus on white privilege. There is little research into the impact of relative privilege in the workplace, so we have started our own.
In this session Roger and Ishreen share with you whatthey have found so far...and what comes next.
Roger Williams focuses on digital technologies and customer-centred design. He works with organisations to transform their understanding and application of data, information and organisational knowledge to create exceptional business results. Roger manages Belonging Pioneers research programme into the Impact of Privilege at Work.
A request from us….
In addition to the important work we do with organisations towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we at Belonging Pioneers believe that it is fundamental to give back - Balance the Scales for children who don’t enjoy the privileges we enjoy. We are grateful to our hosts at NatWest who sponsored the venue and meal for our event on UN World Day of Social Justice. We appreciate that these are economically challenging times, but we hope you can also find a way to contribute to our Charity Partner Hope for Children who are funding some amazing work around the world. You can make a donation at: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/BalancingTheScales
Belonging Pioneers is where intentional leaders gain the clarity, confidence and courage to achieve their equity diversity and inclusion ambitions through authentic leadership and innovative new approaches.
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