What do we need from ourselves to bring ease to others?

LinkedIn post 23 March 2021. I was sent a gift last weekend. A link to a raw but uplifting poem for our times: ‘For One Who Is Exhausted, a Blessing’ by John O’Donohue.

It describes how we can lose our sense of self and the choices we have as we travel fast through life. Although published in 2008, it seems to capture how many people are feeling right now – exhausted through overwork, lack of work, anxiety, grief.

The poet tenderly offers a path to recovery, reconnecting with ‘small miracles’ of nature, discovering space where there seems to be none. Continue reading

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Embarking on climate change coaching

LinkedIn post, 16 March 2021 What changes have you made over this past difficult year? What’s precipitated those shifts?

Last May I attended my first online coaching conference as UK ICF responded to the ‘New Reality’. I heard Charly Cox, Climate Change Coach, FRSA speak about how many of us feel powerless in the face of this existential threat, and how coaching can help people shift from fear and uncertainty to action.

It was inspiring. As a non-expert, I’ve been reflecting on what more I can do to help ensure future generations enjoy a planet that’s in balance. I’ve just embarked on Climate Change Coaches training programme to learn how to apply my coaching practices to this biggest of all challenges. Continue reading

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Getting to equity: time to celebrate or worry?

8 March 2021    By Alison Maitland

It’s apt that this year’s International Women’s Day theme is #ChooseToChallenge. Even though there are some milestones to celebrate, the journey towards gender and other forms of equity faces troublesome obstacles and there is plenty ahead to challenge. I see two big threats to hard-won progress, one driven by the economic and social fallout of Covid-19, the other by prejudice and ignorance.  Continue reading

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What’s your intention for 2021?

By Alison Maitland,  11 January 2021 

Did you make a New Year’s resolution? Have you managed to stick to it?

If it’s already seeming like hard work, you’re not alone. Studies indicate that resolutions are often broken and that they’re an ineffective way to make changes in your life.

This year it’s likely to be more challenging than ever to kick bad habits and start new ones. There’s a bumpy road ahead, with the ongoing pandemic, rapidly rising unemployment and societal disruption. Thankfully the mass vaccination programme is rolling out. But uncertainty rules, making it hard to plan.

Rather than a resolution, a better way to move forward positively is to set an intention connected to your values. Continue reading

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Racism and ‘allyship’

16 Nov 2020   By Alison Maitland

ALONGSIDE the Covid-19 crisis, the police killing of George Floyd and the resurgence of the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the US and many other countries have been defining events of 2020.

They have focused attention on the persistence and the price of racial inequity, something that each of us has a responsibility to acknowledge and address.

Like many other white people, I’ve been listening, reading, watching and taking part in discussions about race over recent months with a heightened awareness that, individually and collectively, we must do more. While it’s a continuing process, here are some lessons I’ve learned that I’d like to share.

‘Not knowing’ has consequences Continue reading

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Inclusion in the new era of work

13 Sept 2020     By Alison Maitland

BY MOST ACCOUNTS, we are moving into a new era of work. For those who typically worked in an office, the Covid-19 crisis has tipped the balance decisively in favour of workplace flexibility.

The knowledge workforce of the future looks set to be much more ‘distributed’ – located partly in offices, partly at home, and partly in other places.

How can leaders and managers take inclusive action to get the best from all their people in this fast-changing environment? Continue reading

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Systemic inequities need radical responses

13 July 2020  By Alison Maitland

The economic crisis caused by the global pandemic risks reinforcing inequalities around the world. What needs to be done to prevent this and to stop the pockets of progress of recent decades from being reversed? It is an urgent question that needs radical responses.

Current trends demonstrate the interconnectedness of systemic challenges, showing overlapping disadvantages linked to gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. Continue reading

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Diversity numbers are ‘not enough’

26 June 2020 INdivisible cited in Germany’s ada magazine

INdivisible, which I co-wrote with Rebekah Steele, was featured in an article about diversity and inclusion by journalist Alexandra Borchardt in the German magazine ‘ada’, which focuses on the digital world. Borchardt quoted our argument that it’s not enough for organisations to tick the ‘diversity numbers’ box, and that the work of inclusion goes much deeper and wider. Here’s the excerpt, translated from the German: Continue reading

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Crisis lessons in inclusive leadership

17 May 2020       By Alison Maitland

‘WE WILL get through this together, but only if we stick together, so please be strong and be kind.’ This was one of the messages that have elevated Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, to the widely conferred status of one of the world’s best leaders during the Covid-19 crisis.

The pandemic has highlighted the gulf between good and bad leadership, and the difference it makes, in this case to people’s very survival. Continue reading

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Three lessons from the pandemic to make organisations more human

29 April 2020 What can leaders learn from the Covid-19 crisis about how to make organisations more human in the digital age? I offer three answers to build and sustain inclusive work environments in this article for the Octave Programme’s web magazine. You can read this and other pieces written by me and my co-author Rebekah Steele about our book INdivisible here.

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