This blog originally appeared on LinkedIn on 27 October, 2019.
For the last two years I have had the pleasure of being part of a collaborative team with diversity and inclusion practitioners and organisations in the emergency management sector as part of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre project Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability. As a team, our aim has been to develop a framework to support better management and measurement of diversity and inclusion across the sector.
Diversity and inclusion are connected, as diversity is the ingredient that creates change and inclusion is the key to managing this effectively. 'Doing diversity without inclusion' is as one of our stakeholders pointed out 'like jumping out of a plane without a parachute'. As a result much of the focus of our research has been in understanding what this means in terms of effective practice. Our report the The Long Road: Building Effective Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management Organisationsfound that implementation was long term and needed to be strategic and systemic. However, there was no clear picture of what an inclusive and diverse organisation looked like in the emergency management context and it was seen as separate from day-to-day tasks. We also found no compelling narrative to show how this related to operational and organisational objectives, leaving it up to individuals to make a choice to be inclusive, based on a moral imperative.
Our most recent research Risky Business: why diversity and inclusion mattersfound something that has been in plain sight for some time - poorly managed diversity and implementation of inclusion or lack of inclusion, can create risks. These risks are pervasive and can cascade into other unrelated areas of risks, increasing the impact of those risks in organisations and the community. The impacts can be severe and reduce both organisational effectiveness and community safety. For example; exclusion within the organisation may damage individuals resulting in reputation damage and potentially legal action. This in turn can result in a loss of trust and disengagement with the emergency services by sections of the community, which can then flow through resulting in poorer preparation and response outcomes. It is what we have coined the carbon monoxide risk as it is often not seen until the impacts appear.
The flip side of this is the social, financial and organisational benefits that can result from effective implementation of inclusion, such as reduced insurance premiums, reduced risk and increased engagement and participation of the community. Our preliminary economic assessment of one agency's indigenous training program also found a twenty to one return on investment in terms of community benefits. What has become clear through our work with diversity and inclusion practitioners, is that this cohort have extensive skills in relation to mitigating this sort of risk. However, their skills are rarely recognised as risk based and as a result have often been seen as less valuable than more traditional technically based risk skills.
Risk is evolving and the recognition of the systemic nature of natural hazards and the role that social risk plays, is now widely recognised. Diversity and inclusion are central to this agenda and is a capability that organisations need to build. It is a form of risk mitigation which reduces harm to people both in organisations and the community which is core business for emergency management organisations. The business imperative is now clear and so is why emergency management organisations cannot afford to ignore it.
Acknowledgements: This work is the result of the collaboration of our participating organisations and the diversity and inclusion practitioners and researchers who are part of our team. I would like to thank them all for their trust and generous and respectful sharing of knowledge. In particular, l would like to thank the following people, Janine Taylor (QFES), Steve OMalley (MFB), Mal Connellan (Formerly FRNSW), Peter Button (SAMFS), Kelly Martin (Formerly YNP, USA), John Beard (CFRS, UK), Dave Baigent (Fittingin), Joe Buffone (EMA), John Bates (BNHCRC), Dermot Barry (SASES), Emma Ginman (DEFW, SA) , Ed Pikusa (DEFW, SA) , Faye Morton (DEFW, SA), Heather Stuart (NSWSES), Sonja Braidner (Formerly FRNSW),Victoria McDonough (Oxfam International), Roger Jones (VU), Neelam Maharaj (VU) and Bruce Rasmussen (VU).
