David Carrigan, Group Director of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Sky joined BYP Network for our opening session at the BYP Leadership Conference on October 6th, sharing how he used his knowledge to achieve success and bring about positive, lasting change within their organisation.
Here are nine valuable quotes and takeaways from his talk: 👇🏾
Feel free to share them with the hashtag #bypconference
- Continue to be aware of what knowledge is around you, it’s not just training, it’s the informal relationships we build. To continue to be open to what’s around you, is a lifelong lesson.
- Learning about discrimination and the way it manifests itself heightened my knowledge on how to prevent these things happening but also made me see the continuous cycle of these attitudes – that was guised as banter.
- If you are going to be inclusive, if you are actually going to contribute to the eradication of racial inequity, we have to stop seeing it as a bad apple. Every organisation is a microcosm of society.
- Change is never easy. Change is always hard because everyone wants change until they are asked to change. When you ask people to change, people talk passionately. You have to develop a resilience and toughness. Separate the person from the problem.
- Authenticity is the one commodity that develops trust. We need that trust to drive change. Resist the temptation to not be authentic. You need to be with people who value as an individual, what you bring. And if they don’t, my advice is to change your environment. We can’t just morph into being someone else.
- A person who walks on eggshells to keep peace, makes no noise at all. Make noise.
- Does talent have a colour? No. Does talent have an agenda? No. But success sometimes does. By creating the inclusive practices, you do achieve the diversity. It’s about the fairness, transparency and accountability.
- You have to be comfortable being in a room that doesn’t look like you. Understand your worth. Recognise you’re different, but that’s a good thing. You’ve got to be authentic. You get a lot of power in calling something out.
- You have to be confident. All successful people continue to believe in the work they’re doing, and they never waiver from that.
Thanks once again to David for the incredible insights and to Sky for being our headline sponsor at this year’s conference, themed around ‘Knowledge is Power’.
We’re pleased that Sky has been partnering with BYP since 2019. As David mentioned, “it really underlies our commitment to being a force for positive change.”
“Sky invested 30 million pounds to be a force for good in the world – we call it to be a corporate citizen. We recognise it’s important to not only hold up a mirror to society but to champion Black equity. We recognise creating economic wealth within the Black community is incredibly important.”
Feeling inspired? Which of these resonates with you most?
Look for new job opportunities on our BYP jobs board, or apply for a free mentor who can empower you further as a Black professional.
You can also register your interest specifically to hear about more opportunities from Sky and our other sponsoring companies.
