Building inclusion – it’s your professional obligation

“The change we need to bring about is partly about structures and regulations… but the necessary change is also one of culture and behaviours. Change on this scale needs to be owned and led by those of us working in the sector. 

“It is not enough to pass an act of parliament and to sit back and think the work is done. Without change in behaviour, and a recognition that the needs of the people who use our buildings must be placed at the centre of our work, the lessons of Grenfell will not truly be learnt in full.”

These are the words of Thouria Istephan, an architect and panel member on the Grenfell Inquiry. 

The inquiry’s final report is a massive wake-up call on so many levels for the construction industry – and this call to fundamentally change culture and behaviours is at its core.  

Changes in attitude and culture for our sector do not come from thin air. And it is not as though people in the sector have not been fighting and pleading for this forever. 

If you are not consciously building inclusion into our world, you are probably unconsciously building in exclusion. Are you deliberately setting out to create inclusive, welcoming, safe, accessible places – or not? 

How can we prioritise these matters, when the first response is: “Do we have the budget?” Fixed-cost projects and the ramping-up of materials prices, late payment causing cash flow issues, and the government changing taxation and subsidies all mean that firms throughout the supply chain right up to tier-ones are struggling with pitiful profit margins. 

When deciding how to prioritise your organisational spend, inclusion work appears, on the surface, to be an obvious one to cut.

Success in inclusion is predicated upon treating, progressing and retaining diversity, creating inclusive design, products and services, and engaging a range of users, customers, clients and communities

Women Into Construction was forced to close last month after the industry failed to fund Kath Moore’s 16-year effort to change the face of it, despite seeing the organisation’s benefit. Rebecca Lovelace’s Building People CIC is still doing important work, the constant challenge being to attract financial backing. Nicola Mathers, the Future of London team and their inspiring programmes for emerging leaders are another example of an initiative employers should be falling over themselves to support. 

Everyone says this work is important, but no one wants to pay for it, because everyone asks, “What’s in it for me?”, rather than recognising what will not happen for anyone when we don’t. How is this level of support for those organisations working to diversify the industry and tackle the skills gap expected to bring about the necessary change if this attitude remains? 

And that is just talent attraction. Success in inclusion is predicated upon treating, progressing and retaining diversity, creating inclusive design, products and services, and engaging a range of users, customers, clients and communities. The latter being particularly important if firms want to avoid lengthy, costly planning battles and litigation. 

It is not an exaggeration to say that this is also a matter of life and death. The Grenfell report stated this fact clearly when it said: “From the earliest days of the inquiry there have been those who have asserted that discrimination on the grounds of race or social background played a significant part in the tragedy that befell Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017.”

Investing in inclusive cultures should be your organisation’s most important priority – and make sure you hire the expertise to help strategise your delivery, just as you would any other areas of business development. Invest now; dividends are paid later. 

Then you must follow through with support. The existence of policies, procedures and practices does not guarantee their use – it is the behaviours and discipline to do so which do that. And so it will take a shift in leadership and organisational behaviours – which costs less money but requires greater effort, yet yields the best results. 

To consciously build inclusion into our world starts with supporting those already doing the work. This isn’t about sitting comfortably – it’s about standing up to take action

Albert Einstein said: ‘We need a new type of thinking if humankind is to survive and reach higher levels.” We cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Individual organisations delivering piecemeal actions, ticking boxes and making stereotypical gestures are not going to change things. Strategic inclusion planning should be delivered alongside a holistic approach for the sector. 

The closure of Women Into Construction, the rolling-back of Building People services, the lack of willingness to prioritise engagement in planning, the paucity of policies to support women in the workplace, the struggle of so many of the networks and groups created to fix the diversity and inclusion issues of the sector, mean that all sizes of firm, all areas of the industry and all individuals who have the authority to do so must invest in the opportunities of inclusion and ward against the risks of diversity mismanagement. Otherwise, who is to say that the sector will not be responsible for yet another disaster? 

To consciously build inclusion into our world starts with supporting those doing the work. This isn’t about sitting comfortably – it’s about standing up to take action, relieving the people whose shoulders at the wheel are already bruised and bloodied from the hard labour of pushing against inaction. 

Support – moral and financial – is something that you can prioritise today. The question is, can you afford not to?

Marsha Ramroop is an inclusion strategist. Her book, Building Inclusion: A Practical Guide to Inclusion in Architecture and the Built Environment, is published by Routledge. She was the inaugural director of inclusion and diversity at the RIBA