This is my second post where I expand on my recent LinkedIn updated profile.

 

“I’m known for showing up with purpose and challenging with compassion”.

 

For me, “showing up with purpose” is about having the commitment to be present and the intention of aligning my values with my impact.   Much is spoken about purpose and purpose-led leadership at the moment. Smarter folks than me will have a whole lot more to say about it, but I find these two questions are key:

• What gets you out of bed in the morning?
• What change do you want to be a part of?

I find considering these questions helps with engagement and energy and provides clarity and context.

 

I used to find the prospect of providing challenge deeply uncomfortable. Yet, it is now one of the things I am known for and one of the reasons I receive repeat business and invitations to sit on boards.

 

I reframed how I viewed challenge. I realised challenge did not need to be confrontational. I recognised most of us appreciate respectful challenge, and none of us appreciate feeling judged. When you challenge with judgment it makes it really hard to create connections. Judgement creates defensiveness and breaks down rapport. The antidote to judgement is compassion.

 

Challenging with compassion goes way beyond kindness. Yes, it’s a kinder way to operate, but it is no less about impact. I want to make lasting change. I want workplaces to be more inclusive for disabled people, I want greater representation of disabled professionals at leadership level and I want disabled people to believe they can. so, I need those I challenge to be invested in the change I want to see. I want them to consider what role they can play and I want them to have the courage to take action. When previous or live decisions are open to challenge it opens up alternative perspectives and opportunity for change.  

 

A workplace culture that welcomes challenge is really healthy. I’m really clear that, without challenge nothing changes. So, we have to find comfort in our discomfort to challenge the status quo. I still find challenging can take courage. In short, challenging can feel challenging. However, when I approach it from a place of compassion it feels much more achievable, and much less daunting.

Lasting change happens when a critical mass gets behind an issue. In order for this to happen we need to take people with us. we need to, ‘show up with purpose and challenge with compassion’.

 

The challenge I provide can be on a one-to-one basis as a coach, or as a board member or inclusion trainer and consultant. Make contact if you are curious to find out more.

I recently updated my LinkedIn profile and was struck by how testing and reflective, and challenging and validating I found putting these few paragraphs together. So, I decided to write a series of posts to expand on what I chose to include.

I am starting with the paragraph that means the most to me, and I think should mean the most to existing and potential clients.

 

“Disability does not define me. It does, however, make me an ‘expert by experience’. It does mean I add value. It does mean I think differently. It does mean I am able to have conversations others avoid”.

 

“Disability does not define me.”

I am a disabled person, but this is not the defining thing about me. It’s a big thing, but there are other things about me that make me who I am. I am fun and flawed, and deep and daft, and sometimes my impairment is part of this and sometimes it isn’t. It is a big part of who I am, it informs what I do, and it can inspire change and influence action, but it doesn’t define me.

 

“It does make me an ‘expert by experience’”

I use my lived experience to inform my clients’ service design; to provide user insights; to advocate on behalf of disabled people; influence policy and practices; and to ‘call it out’ when disability is missing from the agenda. My lived experience underpins my work and my work positions me as an ‘expert by experience’.

 

“It does mean I add value”

I provide tangible, practical, feasible ideas and solutions that often stem from my lived experience, but regularly have wider impact. Adding value is what you can and should expect from me.

 

“It does mean I think differently”

Living and working in a world that is not set up for me means:

• I would design things differently
• I take a different approach to contribute.

Those who look at the world differently and navigate it differently often innovate by default. Subscribing to an asset-based approach to disability can take us beyond inclusion, into innovation.

 

“It does mean I am able to have conversations others avoid.”

Too often people avoid conversations about disability or interactions with disabled people: people still find disability awkward.

I know the importance so I will ‘lean in’, rather than avoid. My lived experience enables me to position perspectives in ways that can diffuse awkwardness and provide alternatives.

 

In summary….

I self-identify as disabled. I accept it and sometimes celebrate it. It adds much to my life, and particularly my work. Yet it isn’t the first thing you need to know about me. It plays a big role in my life but gladly my life is bigger and richer and has more context than just my impairment.

 

What does it give you? Does it define you? I know many #disabled people hold different views on this. All comments welcome….

 

Like every other business I’ve invested in my digital offers over the last twelve months. I’ve been really mindful to ensure new on-line offers continue to meet my high standards by considering how they can remain engaging and inclusive and add the same value my in-person services have always achieved. I don’t mind admitting that I thought some services might not work quite as well on-line, but I need not have worried as all feedback is just as great and the best bit is that, literally anyone anywhere can access Making Lemonade services now!

 

Webinars

My clients are loving that recordings of my webinars can be accessed after the event as well as live. They are proving to be a really cost effective way to get key messages across their organisations.

 

PDP

The PDP Experience that I deliver with Dave Rees had always been residential so a big no/no in pandemic times! Moving this personal development programme on-line continues to have the same impact and add the same value it’s known for. It’s a fantastic cost-effective alternative for organisations to invest in their disabled talent. Even better, disabled colleagues who would find it difficult to attend a residential course now have access to the benefits.

 

Our clients plan to continue with PDP On-line once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted and will offer both on-line and in-person PDP programmes to their disabled colleagues going forward: Win/Win!

 

Training & Coaching

My disability confident and vision impairment awareness training has proved successful on-line and I continue to coach remotely.

 

My mantra of, ‘if life deals you lemons…..make lemonade!’ has served me well over the last twelve months. I want to raise a virtual glass of lemonade with new and existing clients in gratitude and to a brighter future. I hope to raise a glass of something stronger in-person with you all at the earliest opportunity!

 

  It’s not been the easiest of times, but I feel privileged to still be delivering impactful support to people with an impairment or health condition and  supporting organisations with their disability inclusion agendas.

 

Please get in touch to find out more about my digital disability inclusion services…..

 

In the first lock-down last year I found myself with unexpected time on my hands. I decided to explore an idea that had been in the back of my mind for a while about creating a social change podcast. At the time I was reading, ‘My Name is Y’ by Lemn Sissay and I remember thinking, ‘if I ever do anything with this podcast idea, he would be a great guest’. I was therefore delighted to end series one of The Aperture with Lemn Sissay as my guest.

In our episode we have a beautiful conversation about the role of creativity in creating social change and art as activism. We suggest play is under-rated and not unrelated to storytelling and acknowledge both can be a cathartic form of expression and a means to speak truth to power. We agree creativity uniquely navigates the Complexity and contradictions of the human spirit and so bonds community and champions change. Liv Torc then takes the idea of ideas to another level in her creative response to our conversation.

This concludes the first series of The Aperture. Having had no idea how to make a podcast at the start of the first lock-down, I am chuffed to complete series one at the end of what has been a tricky year. This is my ‘something good’ to come out of 2020 and I am proud of the pods!

Episode 6 Flyer

 

 

Marie-Claire and I have been friends since we met as newly appointed trustees of a charity board. She recently launched her New Leaf network, so it was great timing to have her on an Aperture episode to talk about lived experience. Marie-Claire is the Founder and CEO of New Leaf, specialising in prison to employment via a pathway of education, training and holistic support.

Whilst Marie-Claire and I work in different areas of the social sector, we both champion recognising the value of lived experience and developing LEX leadership. I specialise in supporting people with experience of disability and feed into systems change at a strategic level, while Marie-Claire does the same in the criminal justice system. What was apparent from our conversation is that you will have shared experiences of the same barriers – whether your lived experience is of disability or the criminal justice system. You may have faced stigma and exclusion at times. You will likely have encountered tokenistic engagement from charities and institutions that extract your views to tick a box; or encourage you to tell your story in order to hang their work upon. You may have been perceived as a risk, or somewhat ‘less than’ in pursuit of employment or promotion – ironically often by the charities or institutions that exist to support and serve those like you.

These examples represent the experiences of many, but it does feel like a change is on its way. Marie-Claire believes we are on the crest of an exciting tidal wave of change. She puts the change down to a shift in the language being used; the change in the funding landscape; and the work of the LEX trailblazer Baljeet Sandhu. Marie-Claire talks passionately about the insights and innovation that come from meaningful engagement with those with lived experience, and the cost saving benefits from employing, and engaging with, those who know the system. Memorably, regarding employment she says, “You get a lot more bang for your buck. If somebody pays me £20,000 a year to do a job using my lived experience, I am going to give you £40,000 worth of employee’

Episode five is out now. Jason N Smith combines his lived experience with his creative talents to provide his poetic response. All in all… it’s worth a listen. 

The Aperture episode five the one about lived experieince and the criminal justice system [7981]