How a Cancel Culture is Silencing Us at Work with Simon Fanshawe #55

Nick Day is joined on The HR L&D Podcast sofa by Simon Fanshawe, OBE, who is a former Perrier Award-winning stand-up comedian and co-founder of Stonewall.

Simon was referred to in the 1980s as the UK’s ‘first openly gay comedian’ and he now works with businesses and organisations to encourage honest conversations about diversity to achieve real change.

Simon has been listed as one of the UK’s Most Influential Thinkers by HR Magazine and he was called ‘Inclusion Royalty’ by The Sunday Times.

Now, after becoming increasingly frustrated by the silencing of views and the impact of cancel culture in the workplace, Simon wrote a ‘manifesto for change’ which has just been published as a book titled – ‘The Power of Difference’.

The book is a timely call to action in response to a growing intolerance of different political and social views in the wider world and the negative impact this is having on how we behave at work – evidenced by a recent YouGov poll which stated that 40% of the Britons at the end of 2021 said they had stopped themselves from expressing political or social views for fear of judgement or negative responses from others at work.

Topics people were reluctant to talk about included race relations and discrimination, sexuality, women’s and gay rights and transgender issues.

So today, stay with me as we discover how a Cancel Culture is Silencing us at work and what we can do collectively, to support real progress.  We’ll also find out more about The Power of Difference!

In this “How a Cancel Culture is Silencing Us at Work” episode with Simon Fanshawe on The HR L&D Podcast, we also explore:

1. What do the words Human Resources mean to you?
2. What strategies can companies follow if they want to develop an inspiring and inclusive culture?
3. Why has HR become one of the hardest jobs in a high-growth company?
4. What are the common issues that HR leaders encounter?
5. What strategies from your book can help some of our listeners?
6. What approach would you recommend an HR professional takes to ensure they are able to deliver an effective HR service?
7. In your 25 years of experience, what have you found have been the biggest challenges or obstacles in achieving rapid growth or change?
8. Can you tell us more about your The People Leader Accelerator programme?
9. If you could reduce all your HR experience into one piece of advice to help an HR leader scale for success, what would it be and why?

Links highlighted in this “How a Cancel Culture is Silencing Us at Work” episode are included below:

• Simon’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-fanshawe-0549a031/
• The Power of Difference on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Difference-Complexities-Diversity-Inclusion/dp/1398601543
• Diversity By Design: https://diversitybydesign.co.uk/
• Link to the Forgiveness Charity highlighted by Simon in the show: https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/
• Simon talking about ‘The Dialogue Crisis About Diversity and Inclusion At Work’ (video on Kogan Page’s YouTube channel): https://youtu.be/g8sVSiavIOQ
• Book referenced in the show by Simon: The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth  by Amy C. Edmondson 
• The host of The HR L&D Podcast – LinkedIn Profile: Nick Day
• Leading HR Recruiters: JGA HR Recruitment

ENJOYED THIS EPISODE?  CHECK OUT OTHER PODCAST EPISODES INCLUDING:

• Diversity & Inclusion Thought Leadership with Margaret Ochieng #017
• Championing Inclusivity with Dr. Steve Yacovelli #52
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace – with Woosh Raza #021
• 10 Strategies to Improve Recruitment Diversity Post-Pandemic with Margaret Ochieng #46

Of course, if you are an HR or L&D Leader listening to this podcast and you have an HR-related vacancy that you would love some specialist human resources recruitment support with – please also get in touch with me!  I would love to help show you what a great HR recruitment experience feels like!  You can reach out to me directly at nick@jgarecruitment.com or give me a call – 01727800377

www.jgarecruitment.com

Thanks for listening, folks – I look forward to bringing you the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast real soon!