39 mins: Everyday allyship

What you'll learn:

Judy O’Brien has spent over two decades working in harm prevention and culture change, making environments where everyone belongs. Currently, as Chief Executive at InsideOUT Kōaro, she’s bringing allyship into everyday workplace actions.

Her workshop (a first with our entire membership – allies too!) gave us a practical framework for stepping up in regular everyday interactions.

💡 Allyship is using your energy and influence to support people who experience inequity, without expectation of reward – This isn’t about getting acknowledged, but about being ‘a piece of sandpaper smoothing away a block of marble to get to the healthy, welcoming workplace’. As an employer, it pays, too – the benefits of inclusion in a workplace are a genuine sense of belonging that shows up in retention (50% less likely to leave), and performance (56% improvement).

💡 Start with self-awareness: map your privilege and your influences – Use Ara Taiohi’s Aotearoa Wheel of Power & Marginalisation to understand where you hold privilege and where you might be marginalised (it can shift by context). Download the ‘Trusted 10′ exercise: list your 10 closest people outside of your family, note down their gender, ethnicity, age, orientation, education, religion, and income. If they’re all similar, then you’re missing perspectives. Intentionally seek out diverse viewpoints- your worldview depends on who shapes it!

💡 Use the 5 Ds when you see something wrong: Decide, Declare, Delegate, Defer, Demonstrate – Decide there’s a problem and you’ll act. Declare it (‘Could you repeat that?’). Delegate to someone closer or with more influence. Defer by checking in later with the person affected or the one who caused harm. Demonstrate by being an inclusive leader. You don’t need to confront in the moment (sometimes, that can create more problems), but checking in afterwards is still really powerful.

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