Reflections on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

by CEO Fiona Wotton

When trying to embed a new habit, research suggests that preparation is key to success. Just as the professional chef wouldn’t dream of starting service without considering their mis en place – the physical set-up by which the relevant utensils and ingredients are gathered together or put in place, the reluctant new runner can get into a healthy habit by laying out their trainers and running kit the night before, thus avoiding a ‘hunt for a missing sock’ being an excuse not to get going.

One of the new habits I set out to bring to my leadership at Creative Kernow was to empower all staff to think about – and act to create – greater equity and inclusion within our organisation and in the work that we do with the creative sector. It is a huge area for learning and exploration, made more complex by being in perpetual motion. Even in the last three years, significant shifts have occurred in how diversity and inclusion issues are being raised by underrepresented groups, how the government and media are responding to these changes, and how funders are translating these needs into greater demands to demonstrate our relevance to and engagement with diverse audiences. This is why we need to have a habit of updating our connections, knowledge and skills. It’s not a static topic.

My Creative Kernow colleagues will know that I’m a big fan of metaphors and analogies and so I’ve been questioning whether there’s a way to use the analogy of mis en place to help embed this new habit. What are the tools and resources we need to gather together in advance? And how do we lay them out to make sure we remember to use them?

These are my top three utensils:

A safe place to ask questions and make suggestions

Creative Kernow has an internal staff Equity, Diversity and Inclusion taskforce which identifies needs in the organisation and the sector, finds inspiration from global best practice and comes up with solutions that fit our abilities and capacities. The group has been particularly active in identifying training needs and proposing sessions that have benefited their colleagues and other creative professionals working in Cornwall.

Expert training

Three recent sessions proposed by the EDI taskforce and funded through the Cultivator programme have included workshops on unconscious bias with Sonya Barlow, trans awareness basics with Gendered Intelligence, and working with neurodivergence presented by Neuk.

Feedback highlighted that one of the most empowering parts of these sessions, facilitated gently but firmly by expert trainers with lived experience of racism, transphobia, ableism and general ignorance, was being able to ask “silly” questions – ones that make us feel ashamed of our own ignorance but which will improve our shared understanding and lead to improvements for marginalised groups.

Time for reflection

We can always plan, deliver, and feel that we’re making progress towards agreed goals. But if we can’t remember what we’ve learned, and we haven’t applied it to our own context, then we’re going nowhere.  Therefore, it’s been a joy-filled experience over the last few weeks to hear how our different teams are applying the knowledge they have acquired through both training and on the job experience to their day-to-day work and their forward planning.

For many it is the confidence to challenge out of date views and language.  Others have been thinking about our user journeys and how individuals and groups with different needs access information or event spaces.

For me, squeezing out one of these semi-regular blogs allows me to reflect on our journey towards embedding a regular equity, diversity and inclusion conversation within the organisation, and being open and honest about this still being a new and challenging area for us, but an exciting and dynamic one nonetheless.