We are giving women the opportunity to speak their truth

COMMENT: The best stories, well told, are like an onion – they are multi-layered, they enhance the flavour of other things around them, and they make you cry. Let’s start with multi-layered. This past year, Helen, our EG Future Female Leader, embarked on a journey to find her voice, at the same time as I embarked on a journey in a new role in a new sector, with the aim of helping Arup, too, to go on a journey to find its own voice for the future, particularly for its people and culture. Our decision to participate in the EG Future Female Leaders programme was, like many of the best ideas, prompted by a chance conversation at a time when we were actively exploring options around doing more to support our female leaders and create more visible role models, and also having conversations about doubling down on our efforts to expand our network in the wider built environment sector. At Arup, we are employee-owned, purpose-led and values-driven. We are in business, ultimately, for the flourishing of our members and we understand that it is by supporting our people to unlock their fullest potential that we will thrive and be able to deliver brilliant designs, solutions and opportunities to our clients. Helen’s flourishing throughout this programme – and my goodness, she has flourished – has been to her huge credit, and to the great benefit of all of us at Arup. The Future Female Leaders programme is ostensibly about building women’s confidence in public speaking. But of course it is also about so much more than that. Helen says that one of the first learnings for her on the programme was simply the realisation that she does, in fact, have something to say, and is really excited to have been given the platform and the support to say it. This makes me think of one of my favourite stories from the Judeo-Christian tradition about the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is being repeatedly and brutally punished by a regime that does not want him to continue causing trouble by prophesying. When reflecting on why he won’t just opt for the easy life by keeping quiet, he says: “The truth is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in.” By giving women the support to access and use their voice we are giving them the opportunity to speak their truth. A key learning for Helen in this respect relates to authenticity – speaking from the heart, and trusting that your knowledge will shine through. She says that it’s about being yourself and being as comfortable with that as you possibly can. One of our founding aims at Arup is to be a humane organisation. We’re currently having lots of conversations about what it means to be fully human at work. There can be a tendency sometimes for super-smart professionals to think of themselves as just brains on sticks, but we want people to bring their whole selves to bear in their work and their relationships with one another, our clients, and the communities we work in. Learning to tell our story helps with that. Of course, when we give people the opportunity to speak, we also give ourselves the opportunity to listen. I love that in the Eastern spiritual traditions, the throat – the voice – is synonymous with the expression of who we really are, and also with our capacity to connect with others by listening to them. Helen says that the EG Future Female Leaders programme gave her the chance to experience in a microcosm the pluralism and diversity of views and experience within the built environment sector. Cross-sector collaboration is a critical theme for the sector if we are to deliver a sustainable built environment that truly serves society, and collaboration in turn depends on us understanding one another. Helen also points to the opportunity for thought leadership, and for the importance of bringing other under-represented voices to the fore in this way. That’s a lot of learning for one programme. And there has been more – I haven’t even mentioned, for example, how much the programme demands that participants face their inner fears, and learn to harness them. Multi-layered… Helen has learnt a huge amount, and so have I – watching her, and reflecting on how to apply the lessons she has learned more widely across Arup. Enhancing flavour… Above all, I am delighted by all that the programme has given Helen and Arup, proud of the journey she has been on, inspired by all she has learned, and excited to see what she will do next. And yes, of course that makes me cry. Jenni Emery is global people and culture leader, Arup