Designing for diversity: An insight into creating space for cultural diversity in modern organisations
We were joined by Kerry Topp for a conversation on how to create space for and get value from cultural diversity in modern organisations. Kerry is the founder of the ecosystem collaboration and innovation specialists, The Kerry Topp Collective. Kerry has 20+ years experience in digital transformation and helps businesses and regions demystify and accelerate ‘Collaborative Leadership and Innovation for Impact’ through a relentless focus on collaboration, innovation, capability growth, and impact. We kicked off the session with a discussion about Kerry’s background and how his journey through commercially focused organisations such as Air New Zealand and Datacom has given him a broad view of the types of dynamics that exist that can lead to a relatively mono-cultural environment. We also touched on how his te ao Māori journey has given him a new lens on how to effectively promote diversity that leads to tangible outcomes.
We then talked about the different perspectives that we can come to the ‘diversity in organisations’ conversation from. We focused in on the commercial benefits that a focus on diversity can have and discussed briefly discussed the importance of being able to articulate these benefits in a manner that can lead to leaders that may not have considered the importance of diversity engaging with the topic in a new way.
Finally, our conversation turned to what the future of leadership holds for all of us. We touched on some of the key drivers that are shaping the world of the 2020s and how these may naturally lead to a new type of leader emerging who can both be responsive to our rapidly changing environments (business, social and natural), as well as leading through aligning organisations around a collective set of shared values.
Actions:
Papa Reo through Te Wānanga ō Aotearoa
YouTube Channels:
Learn English by Ako Māori
Starting in Te Reo Māori
Embracing Te Reo Māori
Other Resources:
Manavation (short videos that help with everyday usage of Te Reo)
Mahi Pai (children’s programme on Maori television)
Pepeha (https://pepeha.nz/)