The O2, and way too much Caffeine.

A couple of years ago I was travelling to London quite a bit, I soon got the hang of commuting around with my trusty City Mapper app on my phone, and ear buds in. Blending in nicely.

But as I sat at Grantham Train Station, Starbucks in hand, at 6.45am, on Friday 4th October, waiting for the 6.58 to King’s Cross, I was feeling a little apprehensive. Firstly, would I be able to navigate my way around like I used to? And, Secondly, As everyone else attending the event was travelling from King’s Lynn that morning, we had arranged to meet by WH Smiths at King’s Cross, and apart from one person, whom I’d only ever spoken to via email, had no idea who I was meeting when I got there. I may not recognise anyone! Ok yes, I’d attended meetings via MIcrosoft teams, but to be honest I had no idea what people looked like, Haha!

Typically, my seat on the train G22, was occupied already, and the one next to ‘mine’ was taken up by a bag, and coat. I reluctantly sat elsewhere. It turned out that I’d been looking at my return ticket when I boarded, and should have actually been sitting some five carriages up in B27.

I’m a member of the D, E & I Committee at work, (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and I’d been invited to attend the D&I in Grocery LIVE Event at the O2 in Greenwich that was being held by GroceryAid. I say, “I’m a member” with some trepidation because due to my shift pattern (I’m the only one of the team working nights), and not having much of an ‘officey’ role, I don’t get to sit in many meetings, when I do, I feel a little out of my depth. I try and engage and offer what I can (although that’s usually just Dad jokes!). I need to find my ‘thing’ here, need to feel useful somehow. 

Incidentally, when I mentioned to others at work that I was attending a Diversity event at the O2, I was asked if the little kid with the cool hair and glasses still danced with them.

“Yeh mate… erm, different sort of diversity I think!”. Mind you, if you think about it, it would have a been a great idea! 

Arriving at King’s Cross, I found the others, well, they found me to be fair, and after 20 minutes undergound we emerged from North Greenwich Tube Station Right next to the O2. This city has an aroma all of its own, its as if it never lost the smells of trapped coal fumes that caused the Great Smog event in 1952, and it seems to permeate every inch of the place.

Following the line of human signposts we arrived at the Arora Ballroom (the largest ‘Pillar-Free’ ballroom space in the UK, you are welcome pub-quizzers!). There were so many people. 

We politely ‘pushed’ our way to the sign-in desks and scanned our phones QR codes, printed our badges, grabbed free coffees, and pastries. Then it was off to the ballroom where the stage was set to receive our host, Clive Myrie, you know … the bloke from ‘Mastermind’ on the TV?

Do not ask me what he said, I made no notes at this point, no doubt it was some sort of introduction to the event (sorry Clive!). There were two other guest speakers, one of which I cannot recall, because the other was incredible and it pushed all the other stuff out of my ears! 

Tarsila Calvo, is the Head of Customer Supply Chain at Reckitt, and her story was amazing. The extreme back and forth of her childhood as she went in and out of different foster care arrangements certainly triggered my own fostering/adoption experiences and I found it difficult to listen to, and yet, I was fully invested at the same time. Towards the end of her speech, Tarsila revealed that she also had severe hearing loss, bringing home the huge scale of her achievements.

Right, more free coffee. I usually have decaf … this could get messy!

The next stage of the day were the breakout sessions, as a group we decided it would be better if we tried to split ourselves up across the different presentations, to cover as much of the event as possible. Greenyard was one of 101 event partners from across the grocery industry, from Amazon to Unilever. Each one of these were represented by either attendees, or session speakers alike. The sessions allowed various companies to present their findings, and results when applying various strategies to promote diversity, equality, and inclusion within their respective businesses. Full share here, I was expecting the day to be massively tedious, a real ‘snooze-fest’! How wrong was I?

Each company had a small stage area in the large presentation room, each stage area was colour coded. We were handed a set of headphones each, the sides of which glowed in the colour that represented that stage. This allowed all attendees to only hear the dialogue from their chosen speakers. Like a huge silent disco without the banging tunes, and day-glow clothing!

The first session I sat in on was Nestle – Creating Inclusive and diverse teams in manufacturing and logistics. (Yeah, I know, sounds horrific!) It wasn’t bad as it sounds, but included things like, inclusive hiring practices, measuring staff engagement, and promoting respect in the workplace. It was all a bit too much for my tiny mind to be honest, as it was very HR heavy for my tastes. 

What I did learn from it all though was, there is no such thing as “one size fits all” as they put it. Meaning the strategies they put in place do not work across all departments, what might work in one environment may not work as well through the other areas in the business. They overcame these challenges by creating localised executions, while also starting small and building up. Nestle also used Anonymous, online surveys to examine how well the strategies were performing, just as Greenyard currently does.

Cheers Nestle, good chat! 

Oh … and keep up the excellent work in the KitKat Chunky department!

There was probably more free coffee at this point too, it’s all a bit blurry now, I do remember hearing my heart beating in my ears, and some lovely swirly colours though.

Right, next!

My next session was with Mars – How to Start an ERG? A Neurodiversity at Mars Case Study.

What ‘the frozen pea’ is an ERG!? I thought.

Well, it’s an Employee Resource Group. Their group was tasked to look at how the business handled Neurodiversity. If that is another word you’re new to then the best way to describe this is perhaps ‘Non-standard brain functionality’ whatever ‘standard’ means!

Neurodiverse people are likely to have a different approach to education, ability, and are likely to interact with the world differently. It includes such things as; ADHD, Autism, or Dyslexia.

I do know of one or two team members that are neurodiverse, but it’s not clear to me just how we support them as a company.

My key takeaway from this session was, Sponsors! Specifically sponsors within the Senior Management Team. Getting SMT buy in, and sponsorship has been key to the success of their ERG roll out. In fact, they cited it as;

1 - Critical

2 - Critical!

and 3 – Critical!!

So, pretty important then eh Mars?

Thanks Mars, Good chat!

Oh, a little bit more chocolate on the Mars bar please. You know, like in the 1980s?

Ok, you guessed it … Free coffee! What is a safe resting heartbeat again?

My next one was a networking side room event with BrewDog – Create and Nurture, a Supported, Safeguarded, and Engaged Mental Health First Aider Network.

I got there a little late (Blaming the coffee). This one was the one that I was most interested in, because as I am part of the mental Health First Aid Team at work, I was keen to hear how other companies were doing it.

It turns out extremely well, and better than us too. The key difference though was the fact that they have created a ‘Wellbeing’ role within their business, her role is dedicated to managing the MHFA’s, looking after their welfare, as well as creating a structure for the team to work in. 

BrewDog clocks up around 50 hours per month of mental health related referrals. I personally have spoken to a member of our staff once in the entire time that I have been appointed!

So, what does that mean? Are our staff less in need? I doubt it. So, what is the problem? And more importantly, how do we change this?

BrewDog invited me to email her afterwards so that they might send me some information that could help us further as a business. I have done this. After a week or so, they have sent over some great information, tips, and forms that I believe will be a great help to us.

My favourite takeaway from this session was the fact that they have “Oh Shit Kits” to give out to people. These contain things like panic attack leaflets and fidget spinners. What a cool idea!

Thanks Brew Dog, good chat!

Oh, nice to see you do a Punk IPA in gluten free too!

Now, I’ve no idea if I consumed coffee here. It’s all just running into one big caffeine hit now.

Next was Molsen Coors – Think this was called Skills Based Hiring. (There is definitely a Choco/beer thing going on with my choices!)

This again was a bit HR for my liking, but I still found it quite interesting. It turns out they do not look at CV’s anymore when looking to recruit fresh staff. Instead, they run a Game-ified application process, this cuts straight through to the candidate’s core abilities relevant to the job being applied for. So far it is very successful. They also removed the jargon from the job adverts they place.

What I found most interesting was that they have a 100% retention rate of new staff, and in some cases the CV never gets viewed at all.

Right, free lunch! 

Finally, it was back into the main stage area for the final chat with Mastermind Clive. He brought on Mary Portas as a keynote speaker, who, in my opinion, was not on board with the D & I ethos at all!

I mean, OK, she was funny, but spent more time ripping Harvey Nichols to shreds, and no time at all actually helping poor old Clive round up the day discussing Diversity and Inclusion. Read the room Mary!

After the event had ended there was a networking hour from 4pm, we had to leave to get across town for our trains. 

I did some speed networking as I raced across the floor though. Grabbing and downing a red wine, I then stopping and said “HI, I’m Andy Wallis, pleased to meet you” while shaking the hand of the nearest poor innocent victim. 

And so, with my networking done, and the day complete we left for home.

To be honest, I was absolutely knackered, but buzzing. Was it from all the coffee? Maybe. Could it have been from the quick shot of red wine at the end? Perhaps.

Was it from all the inspirational people and stories I heard during the time spent in the O2 that day? 

… Absol-bloody-lutely! 

Did I find my thing, my angle? Yes, I think I did. Mental Health. It was always going to be that way, I think. It just feels more accessible to me than the other more Human resources based stuff our team deals with, but I’m going to do what i can to assist, maybe even crack less Dad jokes … Actually, no, I’m not sure I could stop that.