[IDEA]

End of our Expertise

Exchanging expertise with Be Equitable, on an ongoing journey of inclusivity.
During initial meetings with Be Equitable’s (formally, ‘Cook Ross’) CEO and Owner, Michael Leslie Amilcar made it clear that this project had a hidden agenda. As a full-service consulting firm specialising in inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA), they had two key goals. The first: for their brand to strengthen and expand its mission to build a more equitable world. And the second? To shift the tide of inadequate diversity and inclusion standards across the creative industry — starting with us.

As a small studio, we don’t have a HR department or formal IDEA policies set in stone. We’ve been fortunate to date that the FTP ethos and type of work has attracted caring, empathetic and open-minded people. We knew, however, that working with Be Equitable was a rare opportunity to learn from those with expertise in IDEA and from their lived experiences.

Over the past year, we’ve recognised the areas where we need to improve. We’ve become more conscious of our own biases and behaviours, and have learned practical skills which have already been put into action — both internally and with our clients. As we continue on our IDEA journey, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the seemingly small, yet radical changes to our own perspective and share For The People’s ongoing commitment to doing the work.

[01]

Confronting the truths of our industry
It didn’t take long for us to realise we still had a lot to learn. Right at the beginning of our engagement, during a client kick-off meeting, Michael politely called us up on a common industry acronym: ‘WIP’ or ‘work in progress.’ To us, this term was second nature. We had never thought about the violent historical connotations it carries when heard as ‘whip’, or considered how else our standard industry practices impacted others.

And we weren’t alone. In our industry, engagement with IDEA is low, and the stats can prove it. The 2021 Australian Create Space Census outlined just how far we have to go. 20% of those working today say they’re likely to leave the industry based on a lack of inclusivity and discrimination. Micro-aggressions and casual discrimination are widely reported, especially among minority and marginalised groups. And only 53% of people say they are aware of their company's Diversity and Inclusion strategy and policies (if they have any at all). Based on these results, it shouldn’t surprise any of us that only 16% of people in Australian agencies are culturally diverse. The US and UK report even smaller numbers.

We encountered the impact of this inequity first-hand while searching for freelance creatives from diverse backgrounds to work with us on the project. In an industry that has done little to support or lift up talent from minority groups, it is again, unsurprising that finding and connecting with diverse creatives was unnecessarily difficult.
We were fortunate to partner with typographer, Tré Seals, and illustrator, Edward Ubiera, who brought their own creativity and perspectives to the project.
There is no denying this inequity — working in this industry, we intuitively know it exists. But the more we learned from Be Equitable, the more we had to confront the realities, and challenge the behaviours that our industry has become accustomed to. Be Equitable were open and willing to navigate us through this.

When Michael addressed our use of the term ‘WIP’, she didn’t criticise but she didn’t just move on either. Instead, she asked us to PAUSE — a model used by Be Equitable (and now FTP) to stop and reflect on a situation that should be discussed. With Be Equitable’s guidance, we unpacked the significance of this seemingly insignificant acronym. And instead of splintering our relationship, this became an important moment in realising how much work our industry has to do, and how to approach these necessary conversations going forward.


A short, incomplete vocabulary of discriminatory terms used in our industry:


WIP: 
An acronym for work in progress, that holds painful connotations of violence and repression.
Alts: progress meetings, check-ins, catch-ups

Guys:
Exclusionary language, not gender neutral
Alts: folks, team, all, colleagues

Empower: 
Implies that one individual or group should have power over another
Alts: lift up, create space for

See/hear: 
e.g. ‘see more’, or ‘hear more’. These terms are not inclusive to all 
Alts: learn more, find out more, recognise, distinguish

Shooting for/Aiming for: 
Associated with gun violence
Alts: focus on, work towards

Master/Mastery: 
The term ‘master’ carries strong connotations of slavery, conquering and colonisation
Alts: (Master), expert, specialist (Mastery), learn, achieve, overcome

[02]

‘Work’ and ‘life’ aren’t mutually exclusive

At For The People, we rarely shy away from discussing the hard topics, but we may not always recognise how our broader cultural context impacts our team. For so many of us, being able to separate our working lives from the world around us is a luxury.

But for Be Equitable, their work is directly informed by what’s happening around them. Throughout the project timeline, we witnessed the magnitude of the Black Lives Matter movement, mass shootings, hate crimes, and the violation of reproductive rights. These aren’t events you can simply leave behind when you log in for the day. It was in these more difficult moments that we saw the importance of Be Equitable’s work in action, starting with their own team. The following outlines the simple, yet profound ways Be Equitable responded in real-time:


1. Acknowledge the situation

Meetings with Be Equitable were always something we looked forward to — even with the 7am starts. We’d log into the Zoom call to excited faces. But some mornings, following such events, the mood was different — the sadness and exhaustion was almost palpable. These moments weren’t ‘business as usual’, so our workdays shouldn’t be either. Instead of putting these issues to the side, Be Equitable taught us to approach them head-on. Meetings would begin by acknowledging the tragedies unfolding and the impact they were having on the team. These conversations allowed everyone to openly express their sadness and frustrations and gave the work we were doing even more meaning.


2. Create space for staff

When events occurred, such as Roe v. Wade being overturned, Be Equitable created space for their team by offering a day of reflection. In these instances, timelines and projects were reshuffled in order to prioritise the well-being of employees and ensure necessary focus was on the events at hand.