Post by COWI

If we were all the same, it would be a pretty boring place to work The headline was inspired by a horse-riding instructor I had as a young girl. I’ve often thought about how true this statement is, and the essence of the message has been guiding a lot of our conversations about working at COWI in the UK and Ireland and how we work closely with our colleagues across the globe. For us, it is fundamentally about our people feeling safe. Safe to speak up. Safe to show up as who they are. Safe to bring their whole selves to work, every day. Our Silver Award from the National Centre for Diversity tells us we’re moving in the right direction, but also that we’re not done yet. So, we have been asking ourselves honest – and tough – questions: Are we truly creating the kind of environment we strive for? Are we doing enough? And where can we do better? Because creating psychological safety requires continuous attention and action, we have made it part of our everyday dialogue. It’s now an integrated part of our monthly company meetings, our senior team meetings and our smaller ‘lunch-time chats’ as we call them. The lunch-time chats are facilitated by volunteering senior team members and centre on a topic not directly related to our professional delivery work. Here, our agenda is to have an open talk about things that are often left unsaid in the workplace but at some point in our lives may impact every single one of us. Like parenting, menopause, grief, fertility and men’s health. It’s done with honesty, and it comes from the leadership team to help spread it across the organisation. We believe that when these conversations are initiated by leaders, we can start to build trust. And trust is what makes people feel they can be themselves. As leaders, like me, we have to go first. Not just by talking about it but by acting on it, every day. It takes courage, but it is necessary and a natural part of being a leader today. My ambition is that one day, we won’t need to talk about these topics because everyone already feels safe, included and able to be themselves. And ultimately, that’s what this is about. To go back to the beginning. If we were all the same, COWI wouldn’t just be a pretty boring place to work; we would also miss out on the perspectives, ideas and energy that come from real diversity. Eva MacInnes, Senior Vice President, COWI in UK and Ireland.