When the chief Executive takes the trouble to call you in to tell you what a good job you and your team did you should just accept the praise shouldn’t you? You might say it’s all down to the hard work and dedication of your team because that’s the done thing. So when the chief executive is saying how sir what’s his name from government office said how impressed he was with the measures we had taken to make the event accessible for all, referring to ramps and the type of food on offer , common-sense tells you to accept the complements . Now is not the time to point out it was nothing todo with you or your team. In fact it’s nothing to do with the organisation since we contracted out to some specialist events organisers and they are the ones who thought of the needs of a diverse audience and put these things in place. Now is probably not the time to point out that the Chief Executive has shown little interest over the last two years in the corporate working group on Equality,Diversity and Inclusion of which you are chair. In fact his lack of interest is reflected the status of the group and therefore the seniority or lack of it , in the represents directorates sent to the meetings and the amount of time , or lack of it, the senior management team has spent discussing reports produced by the group. Now is probably not the time to draw attention to our repeated failure to hit recruitment targets for BME groups, or the survey that reveal a lack of confidence in the organisation amongst local ethnic minority groups. Now is probably not the time to point out that just because we have a ramp at the front of the building and lifts doesn’t make our HQ accessible. Now is probably not the time to reference the report the group produced on hidden disabilities. No doubt it would be unwise to refer to the chief executive dismissive comments about transgender issues raised by HR whilst he is saying how impressed this VIP was to learn that the organisation was discussing openly how to address these issues. Now would have been exactly the right time to say all this, in private just the two of us, had I the courage. Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
