How to Do Diversity and Inclusion Right
Summary
We often make the case that UK Major Projects are formidable vehicles for change. Case in point is the work that Jenny McLaughlin, Lead for the Heathrow Airport Disability Network does on designing for inclusivity. We have collated a collection of insights from Jenny, and from our knowledge repository, that illustrate very vividly, how diversity and inclusion can be a significant commercial differentiator.
APM Project Innovators Podcast
Resetting projects in a better way for a post-COVID world means capitalising on the best minds. Cognitive diversity, as explained by Matthew Syed in his book Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking, pays.
In this episode, Project editor Emma De Vita discusses diversity and inclusion with Jenny McLaughlin, a project manager at Heathrow Airport, who is also its disability network lead. Jenny is innovative in the way she threads inclusivity through every part of the projects she manages. She says project managers are the best people to deliver change, and with true support from Heathrow’s executive team, she’s showing what diversity means for projects when you take it beyond a cursory tick-box exercise.
By asking difficult questions every step of the way, she and her team are creating a sense of belonging for everyone on a project. How is she doing it? And what lessons can she share with other project managers who are serious about making inclusion real?
Jenny’s Blogposts
It’s a theme that Jenny expands on in a series of APM blogposts:
By understanding more about those currently within and those who would like to be within the project profession, together we can create the most diverse project managers who can truly be the change they want to see. Project management can be a truly, systematically inclusive world (November 2021)
As project managers we must do as much as we can to be curious about the truth behind the labels, to see every human as being different and with equal rights to participate. When we do this, we start to create a more systematically inclusive environment, not just for those that are diagnosed but for all of us. Human labels and how they affect project benefits (September 2021)
Being right is not the end goal, delivering to the best of our abilities, acknowledging each of us is human (and therefore unique) is key to learning how to fail well. For even on the bad days, if we remove fear and allow space to breathe we will achieve. Learning how to fail in projects (January 2022)
Systematic Inclusion: Design No Barriers
And in her presentation to the 2021 ECITB Project Management Conference
AXSChat Video Podcast
Some great storytelling to illustrate the power of diversity and inclusion.
Major Projects Association has regularly explored inclusive design and here are a collection of our favourite resources:
Inclusive Design in Major Projects
In the summer of 2020, the Major Projects Association commissioned three video interview with the help of Aaron Matthew of Turner and Townsend to explore the issue and offer some ways forward for projects wanting to make better sense of inclusive design.
Inclusive Design
Professor Rachel Cooper explains the role of inclusive design in major projects in anticipation of the Major Projects Association seminar on Inclusive Design and the Impact of Creative and Critical Thinking, which unfortunately COVID 19 forced us to cancel.
London 2012 Inclusive Design Strategy
The Olympic Delivery Authority’s Inclusive Design Strategy provided a framework for how the Olympic Park would be designed and constructed to be inclusive and accessible to all; in particular for disabled people, and people of all cultures, faiths and ages. The Strategy is presented as a benchmark for the incorporation of inclusive design into the regeneration of new and existing environments and buildings.
Rethinking fire emergency means of escape design for disabled people at HS2 stations using a bespoke rapid modelling tool
In anticipation of the likely significant number of disabled people who would need to be evacuated from subsurface platforms in the event of fire, HS2 recognised that a new approach was needed to give assurance that disabled people will be able to evacuate in a dignified and timely manner approximately equivalent to the evacuation of other occupants
Rethinking inclusive public toilets for HS2: Research evaluation and design to set an exemplar standard and best practice to meet the needs of multiple user groups
Between November 2019 and May 2020, a team from Atkins including Human Factors Consultants, Access Consultants and Architects, worked collaboratively with HS2 Ltd to investigate requirements and develop a design for an enhanced facility that meets the needs and preferences of as many people as possible.