Effective team management within any organisation demands an understanding of equality and diversity issues. Skilful handling of these issues will impact on the personal development of all team members as well as the consequential culture and public image of the organisation as a whole.

1. Equality
andChange
L M Chapman 2010
Email eqt@btinternet.com
HANDOUT
Equality & Diversity and Culture Change
Effective team
management within any
organisation demands an
understanding of equality
and diversity issues. Skilful
handling of these issues will
impact on the personal
development of all team
members as well as the
consequential culture and
public image of the
organisation as a whole.
The path to
understanding such issues is
a personal one. However,
the creation of an inclusive
environment is a political
issue, as it requires
stakeholders to be engaged
in change while supported
by management, structures
and systems. The challenge
is to find a process that
engages everyone. If team
members espouse shared
values, we need no longer
rely on a charismatic
leader. Gone is the need to
‘sell’ the future direction to
the organisation, as the
members create it
themselves. And the vision
is no longer unrealistic as it
can be firmly grounded in
the collective experiences
of past and current
achievement.
Equality and diversity
must be mainstream
CONTENTS
Introduction 2
Culture change 4
Leadership and Equality 5
Career Management 6
Learning and empowerment 7
Findings 8
References 9
Everyone can make a positive contribution to their
organisation, by improving their own and their teams
performance.

2. Too many people still
feel a lack of belonging
in our communities. Equal
opportunity in shared
activity begins with an
invitation. While the
situation is improving,
many professionals now
realise that they need to
do things more
intentionally to make full
inclusion a reality for all.
Equity: The principle of
equality has to be
reinforced and extended by
the practice of equity. On
the basis of the discussion
so far three broad
principles about the nature
of social justice:
Equality: every human
being has an absolute and
equal right to common
dignity and parity of
esteem and entitlement to
access the benefits of
society on equal terms.
Equity: every human
being has a right to benefit
from the outcomes of
society on the basis of
fairness and according to
need.
Social justice: justice
requires deliberate and
specific intervention to
secure equality and equity.
(West-Burnham &
Chapman 2010)
Everyone Matters
The development of
inclusive practice
fundamentally tackles the
issue of equity - equal
outcomes. Changes in
practice made to address
culture will ultimately
secure a better
entitlement for all
children and ensure an
increasing quality and
better standards across
all provision.
Changing culture an
important component of
a wider move towards
enabling environments
and positive
relationships, one which
will ensure everyone can
reach and exceed
expectation.
On the most basic
level belonging is
nurtured when the culture
is accepting and allows
each individual to be
honest about his or her
needs. Getting it right
can often be
straightforward, if the
strategies put in place
help people feel they
belong. However things
go wrong when practice
and language do not
support acceptance, and
people are expected to
fit in.
Equality and Change - 2
Introduction

3. The government Equalities Office aims to bring in the new Equality Duty in
April 2011. This is good news for organisations already committed to ethical
practice. And means that reducing inequality will be understood as an
organisations’ core purpose, therefore part of strategic activity. So there will be a
need to develop more inclusive practice in and effort to respond more flexibly to
people’s needs.
The main purpose of current legislation is to bring about a culture change so
that equality becomes part of business. This will mean considering the impact of
all business decisions on marginalised groups. “The government’s vision is to work
towards a fairer society and have set out duties to reduce discrimination based on
outcomes and evidence.”
Culture Change
Compliance
→
Commitment
Tolerance
→
Acceptance
Mindscape
→
Landscape
Single/Other
→
Diverse
Deficits
→
Assets
Barriers
→
Boundaries
Rigid
→
Flexible
Rules
→
Values
Improve
→
Transform
Equality and Change - 3
Culture Change

4. Definitions:
Equality and Change - 4
Equity: is the overall concept to achieving
fairness, it goes further than the law.
Equality:
is the narrower application of
law, enjoying rights and opportunities – a
baseline.
Diversity: an approach that involves
valuing people and their different
contribution.
Ethical practice: does the organisation
have an effect on opportunity within the
community?
Putting values into practice
Inclusive practice:
concerns actions,
processes and environmental factors that
facilitate or impede growth. It is an
emergent process: rather than offering an
alternative to existing habits, it builds on
existing best practice and develops
different action that eventually transforms
culture. It is vital that inclusive practice is
not understood as a tool to ‘mainstream’
the difficult or the needy. Crucially,
practice needs to become flexible and
person-centred so that it respects and
responds to individual needs. Consistent
steps towards greater equity through
inclusive practice, engages all participants,
by creating an environment that fosters
belonging. The development of inclusive
practice articulates the underpinning
philosophies of equality and diversity. It
builds on existing success by changing
practice and policies in mainstream
settings, and ultimately strengthens
relationships improving the lives of whole
communities. The development of inclusive
practice fundamentally tackles the issue of
equity - equal outcomes. Changes in
practice made to address culture will
ultimately secure a better entitlement for
all and ensure an increasing quality and
better standards across all provision.
Inclusive practice is an important
component of a wider move towards
enabling environments and positive
relationships, one which will ensure
everybody can reach and exceed
expectation, fulfil promise and develop
latent potential. At the heart of inclusive
practice is the expectation of participation,
fulfilment and success. (NCSL West-
Burnham 2008). It is the ‘shared and
common agreement’ that often is not
expressed in language and behaviour, and
further reinforced by rigid systems. All too
often decisions are made without enough

5. This applies to all organisations that
has functions of a public nature,
including parts of private or
voluntary sector organisations.
Legislation will strengthen existing
duties to address treating people
fairly irrespective of race, disability,
and gender. However it also now
covers other groups, including
people who have been treated
unfairly because of their sexual
orientation, age, religion or belief,
pregnancy and maternity or gender
reassignment.
“We believe that involving people, especially people
whose voices may not previously have been heard, is
at the heart of any effective approach to
understanding problems and developing effective
approaches to tackling them.”
Voices from different groups
teach us different things, as have the
unique visions of the individuals
taking the lead. We should never
want to lose the richness and detail
of people’s dreams: they are crucial
in motivating people and if properly
fostered can catalyse rich and
varied solutions. Such dreams can
be used to build a vision that whole
communities will want to achieve.
The trick is to acknowledge
differences at this stage and not rush
the process by focusing on the
similarities. This deliberate approach
will enable communities to move
away from an 'oppress the
oppressor’ mentality (a natural
reaction to oppression) and towards
a common vision. In line with this
new strategic angle, and in order to
promote shared responsibility at all
levels, changes will affect every
daily activity of the organisation.
This improves on the powers of
separate equality schemes, and
moves action beyond compliance to
a proactive approach to anti-
discrimination.
Organisations will be required to set
out their objectives and the steps
they plan to take to achieve them.
They will need to show how they
take into account evidence of the
impact on equality in the design of
key policy and service delivery
initiatives, and evaluate the
difference this has made.
Organisations will need to work with
their local community in deliberate
ways in order to identify areas
where they can have the most
impact.
Legislation
Equality and Change - 5

6. The next challenge is to
listen to people, starting with
those among us who already
experience discrimination.
Establishing the balance of
power fairly and safely should
be a priority and benefits all
parties. If we are not aware of
how we are influenced we
may fail to consider the truly
important issues leads us to
assess clothes, accents and
appearances and to make
judgements corrupted by our
own prejudices. This in turn
will influence our thoughts,
direct our actions, and hinder
openness and acceptance in
each new encounter.
We need to be clear in our
understanding of stereotype
and prejudice. Whilst
stereotypes are essential in our
ability to process difference
and enable a fine-slicing
based on experience and
instinct. Prejudice means being
lead by our stereotypes into
making assumptions; we need
to be careful to challenge and
re-evaluate these assumptions,
and hold them up to scrutiny
at every opportunity. It is one
thing to hold a set of ideas on
a subject we know a lot about,
through both experience and
expertise. It is quite another to
jump to an initial reaction to
something or someone, based
on a lifetime’s accumulation of
negative media and biased
information.
“Our first impressions are
generated by our experiences and
our environment, which means that
we can change our first impressions,
by changing the experiences that
comprise those impressions… it
requires more than a simple
commitment to equality. It requires
that you change your life so that you
are exposed to minorities on a
regular basis and become
comfortable with them and familiar
with the best of their culture, so that
when you want to meet, hire, date,
or talk with a member of a minority,
you aren't betrayed by your
hesitation and discomfort.”
Malcolm Gladwell, (2005) Blink
The power of thinking without
thinking. Penguin.
There are still too many
people who have been subjected
to rigid, exclusive systems and
negative attitudes. Every one will
quickly pick up on even the
subtlest signals given out by those
around them.
Attitudes translate into
behaviour and will impact on a
person’s feelings of
empowerment and their
expectations. To feel a sense of
belonging enables us to join in
with a game, activity, routine, or
the life of a community group.
Every person has a right to be
heard: their strength needs
recognition, their expertise needs
appreciation and their
experience must be valued. If
those in power are overly
concerned with their own
position, will they have the
strength to really listen?
•Which groups get treated
unfairly?
•How would you feel if you
were treated unfairly?
•How does this make you
react to unfair treatment?
•How does this reaction
make you appear to others?
Equality and Change - 3
Stereotypes and Prejudice

7. Organisational structures and
pressures that impose pressures on us
all, but also discriminate against
certain groups by treaing them less
fairly. Wellbeing needs to be taken
much more seriously to reduce
discrimination by enabling greater
opportunity for development for all.
Factors that enable wellbeing are
also more effective as they are not
solely aimed at marginalised groups.
Pursuing equality:
Equal treatment for all: The
availability of the same rights,
position, and status to all people,
regardless of gender, sexual
preference, age, race, ethnicity,
ability or religion. All individuals
need to have equal choices and
opportunities regardless of their
ability.
Enabling environments:
“Is an ongoing process of
reviewing and developing practice in
order to adjust and celebrate
diversity. It is the journey not the
destination!”
Wellbeing:
Wellbeing has always been of
great concern to all; people know it
enhances participation, social
interaction and ultimately gets results.
However, with wider pressures
arising from a culture, there is a fear
that new priorities will negatively
affect everyone. In view of recent
research wellbeing needs to be taken
more seriously to enable a better
personal experience.
Having a positive approach to
work and finding pleasure in
developing personal skills does a lot
more than make the activity
enjoyable. Enjoyment literally unlocks
creativity, enables flexibility of
thought and allows openness to new
information, all vital to motivation
and making meaning.
Ensuring that people’s wellbeing
takes top priority necessitates a wider
choice and flexibility in practice.
Relationships are all-important to this,
as teams need to know each other
well in order to know their strengths,
weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
Defining happiness
Achieving equity through strategic activity
Equality and Change - 7

8. Happiness in this context needs to be
defined more clearly than by common
and vague notions of heightened
pleasure or a neutral state in the absence
of pain. It needs to be understood as
having quite specific implications for
performance, and long-term implications
for achievement.
Research shows that ‘subjective well-
being’ measures correlate closely to
feelings of happiness, so settings can
determine levels of wellbeing with
accuracy by asking people how happy
they are. This is essential knowledge in
view of recent legislation, as from now
organisations will need to assess and
evaluate the impact practice, policies,
and strategies are having on specific
groups wellbeing.
According to Seligman (2007), three
routes to happiness enable a ‘Full Life’;
these are the ‘pleasant’, the ‘good’, and
the ‘meaningful’ life. Together they
enable people to flourish, as they
prevent what he terms an ‘Empty Life’. It
is worth noting that they all differ, some
can be changed more easily than others
through practice and training. However, a
person who can engage through all three
dimensions will have a ‘fuller life’ than a
person who engages with one or two.
Essentially, the life satisfaction produced
by addressing the three lives combined
appears to be greater than the sum of the
parts, and is therefore the most successful
route to flourishing.
A further ‘time’ dimension also needs
to be added, as present happiness is
critical to future wellbeing. Raising
aspirations are needed to realise
potential, because imagining a positive
future is impossible when presently
unhappy.
Equality and Change - 8
Happiness

9. In this handout care has
been taken to use respectful
language. This may differ
from some political correct
terms for good reason, it
acknowledges oppression,
this is significantly different
from labelling ‘others‘ by
their characteristics or
numbers within communities.
It demands an intentional
and deliberate change by
the speaker to stop the
perpetuation of wrong
assumptions about
difference. The adoption of
new terminology should help
to challenge thinking that
creates discrimination, as it
promotes a responsibility to
accept difference, rather
than shift the individual
blame for it onto members of
certain groups.
Many people from
underrepresented groups
have felt empowered by the
ideas and language of the
Rights Movement. Using
language reclaimed and
owned by group affiliation
develops respect and
acceptance. It acknowledges
that community can change
to remove negative
terminology in their
literature. The nub of the
issue does not concern
‘good’ or ‘bad’ words, as
respectful language aims to
be neither negative nor
positive: it aims to describe
situations and increase
awareness.
The aim is to contradict
the negative and unhelpful
ideas that are often used to
describe the lives of those
who are labelled according
to difference. In fact, there is
so much confusion around
terminology that often
people are too scared to
talk about the issues at all.
In order to tackle equality
issues, we need to move
forward from this state.
Unfortunately, too many
people in power insist on
using politically correct -
rather than respectful -
terminology. Political
correctness simply confuses
issues, advocating terms
such as physically
challenged, visually
challenged etc. Such
expressions detract from the
real issue: who is being
challenged here? People
should feel valued whatever
their difference, but they
often do feel challenged by
other people’s lack of
acceptance and by the
barriers that make it harder
for them to participate.
Some examples:
Marginalised groups:
individuals may be members
of minority groups but the
accent is on which groups
hold on to power, the breath
of acceptance in systems
that oppress, alienate, or
exclude people within
society.
Systemic marginalisation:
refers to the ways institutions
work, the systems and
structures, that deepen
inequality. Creating divisions
between groups and lack of
opportunity for individual
development.
‘the’ black, ‘the’ poor,
underachievers;
To call any group of
people 'the' anything is to
dehumanise them.
Recognising the labels is key
to understanding who faces
the oppressive barriers of
attitude, structures and
environments in society.
Black World Majority /
Black person: many people
from perceived smaller
groups are often referred to
as minorities, when they may
in fact they belong to much
larger groups across the
Equality and Change - 8
The Power of Language

10. Related Programmes
Equalities
Changing organisational culture - from
compliance to commitment.
Overview:
To help participants get a clearer
understanding of their role in achieving
fairer outcomes in line with the vision
proposed in the new equalities bill. This
programme will help participant understand
the strategic implications for organisational
core purpose, and help embed the
understanding that ethical practice is
ongoing and therefore moves beyond the
compliance approach laid out in present
legislation. It will help staff become
increasingly proactive in the area of inclusive
practice using area knowledge specific to the
district and more effective in their use of
internal resources. Participants will be
offered opportunities to refresh their
understanding of legislation by examining
the key theories underpinning new research
and theory. They will have the opportunity to
reflect on changes in their own practice and
develop new strategies that aim for positive
impact on marginalised groups.
Equality –
Equity, Values, and
Inclusive Practice.
Overview
This programme helps participants gain
an understanding of shared leadership that
enables individuals to achieve change by
responding effectively to inequality.
Underpinned by the Equality Bill agenda this
workshop aims to create personal motivation
by supporting people’s understanding of the
vision and commitment needed to achieve
ethical practice at operational levels. This
programme is specifically designed to bring
equality issues to life, the approach is non-
didactic and tackles practice based
scenarios. The format is one of facilitation,
where participants are invited to come up
with solutions, whilst being guided by a
robust framework of questions. It will enable
participants to create an action plan to
tackle discrimination within their roles at
work. To increase knowledge and expertise
by understanding good practice and use this
to challenge the prejudice that leads to
discrimination.
Equalities – Impact
Assessment and Service
Delivery
From consultation to participation -
Plan, Do, Review
Overview:
The use of the equality impact
assessment framework has been daunting for
many, so we have simplified the initial
process to help get participants started. We
hope that those involved in this programme
will feel empowered to enable change, by
increasing their understanding of the
learning cycle underpinning Action
Research. Through simple steps this session
exemplifies the process through activities
such as: identifying barriers to be tackled
and sharing the development of strategies to
enhance participation. Ultimately,
participants will gain an understanding of
policies as dynamic tools to enable
communities to create their own change.
References:
© L M Chapman - EQuality Training - 2010. For more information on any aspect please do get in touch
with us. www.equalitytraining.co.uk 01484 530 321, 0773 792 5573,