What can we learn from the SIC Conference?
Visual problem-solving, the advantage of disabled applicants, and answering serious questions with LEGO models - what can we take away from the SIC Conference?
At the end of June, we held our first in-person conference titled Accessibility in the Workplace. The all-day event took place at the University of Warwick where we welcomed some exciting entrepreneurs, CEOs and senior leaders at the top of their fields to speak to attendees, share their experiences, and inspire the next wave of accessible working.
We even ended the day with a hilarious musical comedy performance by none other than TikTok stars the Sugar Coated Sisters (I was seriously in tears - you can watch a clip here).
But what key insights can we take from the conference that can help us secure our dream career, get that job application submitted, and reach the next step in our working journey?
Image 1: Chloe from the Sugar Coated Sisters speaking into a microphone. Image 2: A person sat at a table building a Lego model. Behind them is a large dark blue backdrop with the SIC logo printed repeatedly over it in white, light orange, dark orange and black. Image 3: A busy seated audience facing a row of panel speakers.
“Creativity is a verb. It’s not a talent that’s thrust
upon us”
Dr Zoe Watson (Founder and CEO of Wellgood Wellbeing) got the room thinking with this statement during our first panel talk of the day all about creativity. The line-up of speakers, including Leon Killin (Head of Inclusion & Belonging at Sumo Group plc) and Emilia Moniszko (Brand strategist and founder of Blunt & Brave) was chaired by Alice Reeves (Founder of Joyfully Different), unpacked what creativity actually is and how this can benefit the workplace for both employer and employee.
Zoe debunked the myth that creativity is a gift which we’re either born with or we’re not. She went on to say that “Creativity isn’t something to be feared. Everyone is creative. It’s part of our nature to create things. Stop telling yourself you’re not creative”.
Most of us can relate to the self-discouragement felt when we compared our still-life oil pastel drawing of a fruit bowl to our fellow classmates’ well-shaded, carefully composed masterpieces.
In most school systems, especially in the UK, the academic is set apart from the creative. You either excel in STEM subjects or Liberal Arts. When choosing your own subjects of study, you pick exclusively the ones which ‘fit’ together, the ones that make sense (I remember doing both Drama Studies and Maths for A-Level was the biggest shocker of 2016).
But as Emilia then pointed out during the talk, creativity is not only something for typically artistic practices, “[it’s also] a problem-solving discipline”.
Emilia then drew attention to how this relates to disabled applicants and disabled employees. She said “Disabled and neurodiverse people have to be creative to be able to function”; it’s a skill that this community has as a default. And with the rising trend of prioritising creative thinking even in the corporate world, creativity is a skill highly valued by most employers, because “when you put different people with different skill sets in the same place, innovation happens”.
Next time you update your CV, have a 1-1 with a manager, or reflect on your professional journey so far, why not take some time to hone the creative skills and practices in your own life? How has your experience of life so far enabled you to approach situations with a creative mindset?
As Zoe highlighted, creativity is something most people think they gave up at school; to have it makes you a paramount contributor to the workforce.
Serious questions and LEGO play
With our creative minds prodded awake by the first panel, we were all excited, if not admittedly ever so slightly intimidated, by a workshop all about LEGO play.
Led by Dan O'Driscoll (Founder of Engagement Consultancy), the workshop took attendees through a series of big blue sky thinking questions. Questions we could only answer in the form of LEGO models.
What I personally took from the experience of building a visual representation of my answer to “What is ableism?” (see below for my masterpiece), was a new found revelation of physically thinking outside of the box.
Responding to a question with my hands instead of purely thoughts, taking the time to break apart blocks, and considering colours, shapes, sizes and construction, meant I could really delve deep into an almost meditative state of collating my answer.
With the notion that the verbal thinker somehow surpasses the visual, this workshop was an effective reminder that creating the space to think visually, especially about very big and very real problems (eh hem - ableism), can lead to answers you would have never considered otherwise.
I’ll definitely be applying this tactic next time I face a tricky question in a job application (recent example: “Why do you write?” - erm… *frantically orders Harry Potter LEGO sets from Amazon*).
Image 1: A Lego model. A white base with white blocks stacked up like a staircase. There is a white ladder leaning against the side. At the top of the stairs is a white skeleton head with an evil smile. At the bottom of the stairs are two Lego people with wheels attached to their torso. Image 2: A person sat a table, holding up a Lego model to the camera and smiling. Behind them stands Dan O’Driscoll who is talking to another group at a table.
Why disability is an advantage in the workplace
As the creative panellists emphasised, disabled and neurodiverse people already possess a creative mindset when it comes to problem-solving.
Later in the day, we hosted our workplace panel, chaired by our very own Alice Hargreaves and featuring equity advocate Julie Reynolds, Robin Christopherson (Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet), Nikki Adebiyi (Founder of Bounce Black) and Sonia Rai (Founder of Nectar HR).
Our speakers dissected what employers who uphold inaccessible structures in their workplace and recruitment processes are missing out on, and highlighted the real benefits of being a disabled applicant.
“Often, disabled people are more qualified for jobs than their non-disabled counterparts peers as they’ve had to work harder” stated Robin. Facing ableist barriers on a daily basis, managing energy, health and finances around a social life, education and work equips one with skills of problem-solving, resilience, and time management - all box-ticking skills for most job roles.
Alice asked Sonia what a disabled employee can bring to an organisation, which sits fittingly at the end of our takeaway summary.
“What can’t a disabled employee bring to an organisation?”
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