Unlocking unity: the crucial role of listening in Avenue C’s approach to SBS’s Core Inclusion program
When it comes to promoting greater diversity and inclusion, listening is just as important as learning, according to Avenue C Managing Partner Mel Mullins. She explains how the agency embraced the SBS Core Inclusion program through a collective approach, learning from each other as well as the course modules.
As someone who fits into a few minority groups, I have always felt strongly that you can’t tackle deeply embedded systemic issues unless you offer systemic alternatives.
This was partly the reason I was so excited to return from maternity leave to see that SBS had shared its inclusion course with MFA member agencies. It made perfect sense that a network that has long led the way in embracing diverse voices should set about educating the industry.
Avenue C proudly champions being ‘good with being ourselves’ and felt it was important that we educated ourselves further in this space. However, we realised that putting in our headphones and watching the videos in isolation wasn’t our style. We love being challenged and working as a collective, so if we were going to broaden our understanding of diversity, we needed to learn and discuss together as a diverse group ourselves.
Every fortnight, we come together, protecting the time to dive into a new SBS Core Inclusion module of our choice and, most importantly, discuss it together.
One of the most interesting aspects of learning about DE&I in this way is you quickly realise that the take-outs of each person watching the same video are incredibly diverse in themselves, and by coming together and sharing, discussing, and listening, we can maximise our diversity learning.
Morag Cahill, Media Director:
While the course has been fantastic to do alone, the greatest gift it has given us as an agency is the opportunity to listen to each other’s stories, and most importantly discuss our differences.
A week ago, I didn’t know what ‘saving face’ meant in Asian culture, or that my ‘Aussie’ way of asking a question can be very offensive to others. You don’t often sit down with people you work with and ask about their experience as an immigrant or how growing up in a specific culture impacts how they communicate.
We are a rambunctious bunch and this course has made us stop, listen and learn a lot about what has shaped us.
Andrew Markou, Media Director:
Doing this training has been a reminder that people may be impacted by things that you may not even think of, but are important to them. Simply understanding that, gives you a greater level of respect for each other which in the workplace is key.
Dennis Wong, Business Director:
We don’t realise how far down our own echo chambers we are, hearing what we want to hear with our social circles, and content we watch. The discussions give me the opportunity to jump out of that echo chamber and appreciate that we don’t just live our lives, but we share them with the people around us.
If we really want to encourage DE&I in our industry, we need to both learn AND listen. By tackling the training as a collective, you get to hear the unique values and opinions of your colleagues and in turn, develop a greater sense of empathy for others’ experiences, which is what this training is all about.
I encourage you to try this in your agency and be amazed about what you learn from the people you sit next to every day.
The SBS Core Inclusion program is available to MFA members free of charge.