Diversity in Action at Sussex Innovation

Nigel Lambe, CEO of the Sussex Innovation Centre, answers the question of why Diversity and Inclusion is important to business success:

Our cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs shape our thinking. When organisations create a workforce with similar backgrounds, decision making tends to be homogenous and produce the same outcomes, time after time. However, when we embrace cultural difference and a broad range of experiences and beliefs and create an environment where sharing opinions is encouraged, it challenges our preconceptions and we start to think differently, reassess and change our approach. This drives innovation, continuous improvement, change management and ultimately, success. Fundamentally, innovation requires collaboration. Hence, diversity is not only inclusive practice, but a key component of innovation. Studies and observations on diverse work environments suggest that they result in greater progression and acceleration of innovative thinking. McKinsey’s examination of racial diversity in workplaces across multiple countries, including Canada and the United States, showed a 35% increase in potential financial returns. Other research has found that businesses championing gender diversity on their executive teams were more competitive and 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability. Individually, we can challenge our own concepts of innovation and ‘progressive thinking’ through exposure to the experiences of our peers of different cultures and heritage. This in turn works to challenge ignorance and discrimination at work and emphasises a culture of self-reflection, selfawareness, and empathy. These are all key development points which we at Sussex Innovation aim to facilitate, leading to the formation of our Diversity and Inclusion Action group.

The creation of this group solidifies our obligation to challenge existing norms, beliefs and existing business practices which may undervalue or discriminate against underrepresented communities, signalled by the Black Lives Matter Movement in the summer of 2020. We believe that celebrating difference should also be met with acknowledging the disparities of racial privilege in business.

Last year Eva Poliszczuk, then Project Manager of our Catalyst Team, outlined Sussex Innovation’s plan of action for how we would support and centre Black voices in business. We have recently been refl ecting on this diversity plan that was drawn up in July 2020 and have continued building on it to ensure diversity and inclusion is core to our ethos as a business, and that we advocate for racial equality across all business and innovation spaces.

We now have our HR Manager, Monica Beckles stepping up to lead our Diversity Action Group. Monica has been driving our commitment to diversify our talent pool and recruitment. Diversity in our leadership team has improved signifi cantly in the past 18 months, by 30% in race and a further 12% in gender. We are part of the University of Sussex, which was recently awarded the global award for student diversity in the Study Portals Global Satisfaction Awards 2021. We therefore have a very diverse talent pool at our fi ngertips – which we take advantage of in the form of our Catalyst team. This year’s team are from an array of backgrounds including Nigeria, Brazil and India. We have aimed to support more women in business through our Female Founders group. This has been running for the past three years and throughout lockdown – providing a space for women in business to network and support each other. These events have successfully provided the means for us to reach out to more women in business and make them aware of the support we provide.

To champion more Black-owned businesses, we want to give back to participants of our next season of podcasts, through opportunities such as free consultancy or funding support. Whilst our changes have been promising, we are still working towards creating a better, diverse, and inclusive environment. In the coming months, we intend to expand our focus to other areas of inclusivity such as disability, neurodiversity and the LGBTQ+ community.

We launched the first season of our podcast series ‘100 Stories’ in 2020. The purpose of the podcast is to share and amplify the voices of Black entrepreneurs, discussing the barriers they have experienced as well as their successes. We believe it is particularly important to understand the various instances of discrimination Black professionals experience, providing an opportunity for learning and understanding on issues such as microaggressions and stereotyping that exist in business for people of colour. We have already begun recording new episodes and plan to release the second season in the beginning of 2022.

Sharing the stories of people of colour in business has proven a valuable platform to understand how we all have a different journey yet share similar hurdles. Mo Kanjilal, Co-Creator of Watch This Sp_ce, shared the issue of shortening ethnic names at school: “most people were white... and they would do things like not be able to say my name properly... I always shortened it...”. Stephanie Prior, Marketing & Business Development Manager at Healys LLP, discussed the challenge of unconscious bias and her experience of worrying about the perception of her cornrows for an upcoming interview.