The Accelerate Programme: Making Business Multicultural
Emmanuella Ngimbi, Features and Entertainment Writer of Pride Magazine wrote this great piece on Linkedin about her experience of our Accelerate Programme. We couldn’t help but share it!
Through times of upheaval, community and inclusion have never been more important. Nothing speaks to these two words more than the launch of Creative Equal’s Accelerate programme. The programme was launched with the focus of getting more people from multicultural backgrounds into positions of leadership. After shocking findings revealed that only 3% of CEO's were from multicultural backgrounds Cross-Cultural Director, Lydia Amoah sprung into action. With three sessions well underway, it has already garnered impressive results.
Amoah, Cross-Cultural Director at Creative Equals, has witnessed a lack of multicultural talent at leadership level through her own work in media and is now dedicated to making a change within the industry. Speaking to Creative Equals, they highlighted the need for the programme, “In times of uncertainty like these, we are seeing unconscious bias’ slip into people's mindsets, but it’s also more important than ever to value community and inclusion if business’s want to get through this. We need to adapt. How we can do this is by having new ways of thinking and this means different types of people around the table”
The six-month programme will teach it's participants how to bring their cultural background into business, then pay it forward and share their learnings to rising stars, ensuring that there will be more multicultural leaders in the coming years. The programme is being supported by an advisory board of industry executives including Spotify, M&C Saatchi, MediaCom and Wavemaker just to name a few.
Accelerate is unlike any other programme, its interactive workshops and stimulating training sessions help participants recognise their brand, affirm their cultural value and ultimately increase their self-confidence to propel them into leadership. I know this because I was there. I attended Module 1, Barriers, Backgrounds and Bias. Not only was there rousing conversation with TV presenter AJ Odudu about her journey as a Nigerian growing up in Blackburn but by the end, I was able to uncover my own unconscious bias. I witnessed people shedding bias's around their background and upbringing they didn't even realise were holding them back in the workplace.
The Accelerate programme emphasises that if you want to invest in businesses, you need to invest in multicultural leaders. If everyone in your team looks like you, you are missing out on the chance to tap into the multicultural market, which is worth 3.9 trillion globally.
With participants already earning promotions, the Accelerate programme is proving that action definitely does speak louder than words.
By Emmanuella Ngimbi