Changing Perspectives... 
on Opportunity & Inclusion

Before I worked in People & Culture, I played professional golf (not very well, mind you). On the surface, golf can look like the purest version of merit. Everyone plays the same course. The rules are clear. At the end of the round, the scorecard tells you who performed. 

For a long time, I accepted that story. Golf rewards discipline, preparation and resilience, and I still believe those things matter. But the longer I spent in the game, the more I understood that a shared scorecard does not mean a shared starting point.

No two players arrive at the first tee with the same conditions behind them. Some have had access to coaching from an early age, quality equipment, time to practice, financial backing and people who understand how the system works.

Others may have the same ability and ambition, but spend far more energy finding their way into the game, staying in it and proving that they belong.

That realisation changed the way I understood performance. Talent matters, but talent is not developed or judged in a vacuum. Confidence, opportunity, networks and belonging all shape what someone is able to show when the moment arrives. 

When I moved from golf into People & Culture, I started recognising the same pattern in a different setting. Our workplaces have their own scorecards. We look at results, progression, visibility and potential. We often describe success as though everyone has been playing the same course under the same conditions. 

But the conditions around performance are not always visible. We do not necessarily see who had a sponsor advocating for them, who was taught the unwritten rules, who felt comfortable speaking in the room or who was using part of their energy simply trying to fit in. We see the outcome, but not always everything that made it possible. 

That is where my perspective on equality and equity began to clarify. Equality can mean giving everyone the chance to play the course. Equity asks a harder question: does everyone have a fair chance to participate, develop and perform? 

Golf’s handicap system helped me think about that distinction. It does not remove the standard or the competition. It acknowledges difference so that people with different levels of experience, ability and background can participate meaningfully in the same game. It is not a perfect analogy for DE&I, but it challenged my assumption that fairness always means treating people identically. 

In our industry, we rightly care about merit. The risk is that the language of merit can stop us from looking more closely at how it is recognised. If pathways into the industry are narrow, if ‘potential’ is assessed subjectively, or if opportunity depends on informal relationships, then using the same process for everyone can keep producing the same outcomes. 

Golf also taught me that performance is not only technical. Standing over a shot, you need trust in your preparation, your judgement and your right to be there. In the workplace, belonging creates a similar foundation. It is difficult to do your best work when you are second-guessing whether your voice will be heard, whether you can be yourself or whether your difference will count against you. 

That is why inclusion cannot live only in policy, training or a calendar of events. It is shaped in everyday moments: who receives the stretch opportunity, whose ideas are credited, how meetings are run, which behaviours are challenged and whether a leader remains curious when someone describes an experience different from their own. 

My experience has also taught me to be careful about assuming that my view of the course is the course itself. What felt open or straightforward to me may have presented barriers to someone else. The only way to understand that difference is to create space for people to describe what they have experienced and to listen without immediately explaining it away. 

There is another principle in golf: you play the ball as it lies, but you also leave the course in good condition for those who come after you. That is how I think about the work of inclusion. We need to respond honestly to the conditions people face now while changing the systems and habits that shape what others will experience next. 

My perspective is only one perspective. Golf shaped how I think about fairness, opportunity and belonging, but people across our industry will have arrived at those questions through very different experiences. Those stories matter, including the moments when people felt seen and supported, and the moments when they encountered barriers others may never have noticed. 

A level playing field is not something we inherit. It is something we create, deliberately, collectively and one decision at a time – for ourselves and others.