Wave is proud to have taken part in Diversity, Inclusion, Cohesion and Equity (DICE) Training. Every team member at Wave undertook four weeks of training with Bristol-based diversity and inclusion company, BCohCo.
During the process, we faced our biases, challenged assumptions and learned how to champion diversity and equality in the workplace.
Why did Wave take part in diversity training?
We all have biases. Every single one of us and we don’t often know that we’re doing it or why. We also have the ability to run checks and balances on our own bias.
Therefore, it’s important to recognise this. Everyone on Earth is a product of their environment, and humans are like sponges – we absorb much of what we see from our parents and peers’ wisdom and values to teachers at school or the shopkeeper down the road.
This means we have developed biases. Some good, some bad. Recognising this is a great first step towards creating a more tolerant, open world. Marketers play a fundamental role in this journey as they produce the subliminal messages that culturally we absorb on a daily basis.
This is why Wave took part in the diversity training. We want to make sure our team members are open, loving, tolerant people who can acknowledge their shortcomings and make changes to overcome them.
What is DICE Training From BCohCo?
BCohCo is spearheaded by Katie Donovan-Adekanmbi. They teach organisations about Cross-Cultural LiteracyTM.
Katie taught Wave about the history of the Equality Act, its purpose and had Wave interrogate our own biases. Katie then taught us how to overcome these biases and become diversity, inclusion, cohesion and equity champions.
Diversity and Marketing
There is another reason Wave took part in the diversity training.
As marketers, we make data-informed decisions on marketing strategies and collateral. Biases prevent smart decisions. Biases accelerate stereotypes.
For example, without being able to confront bias, we might assume that ALL gay men say “YAAASSSS QUEEN” or that all women are obsessed with reality TV shows.
Another example could be, without being able to confront bias, we might assume that all IT, finance and business leaders are white men and that women are PAs. We might assume that someone in a position of power with a unisex name such as Alex is white man, when Alex could be short for Alexa or Alejandro.
This is clearly an inaccurate version of the world. As a marketing agency, we need to dig beyond stereotypes to understand our audience and provide progressive and inclusive work for our clients.
Some changes we have recently implemented:
- For our client Kids Konnect, we are using inclusive language like referring to parents as “grown ups”, “parents” or “family” instead of as “mum and dad” as a potential customer could be part of a same-sex couple.
- For Contour Collective, we promoted the idea of a female hire and expanded their content to include the successful “Women in Mountain Biking” series.
By undertaking the training, Wave has the ability to think critically about our marketing efforts regarding race, sexuality, gender, disability, marriage, sex and religion, and make sure our efforts are sensitive, inclusive and spread tolerance.
Future Steps For Wave is taking for diversity
But how will the training impact Wave’s practices?
Wave pledges to do the following:
- Have active equality, equity and diversity practices and policies in place for company operations.
- When hiring, broaden searches and actively look to hire from protected demographics.
- Promote inclusive content to our clients when preparing strategies and developing brands.
- We interrogate all of our data sources to ensure that no biases are included by those undertaking the research and gathering the data. This ensures that we are marketing in a non-discriminatory manner.
Work with Wave?
Do you need marketing, CRM or technology help, talk to Wave today and learn how you can make your marketing more inclusive and impactful!
