How Can You Scale Your Social Initiative in a Corporate Organisation?

My initiative was motivated by nearly 20% of people worldwide, 1.5 billion people, who are hard of hearing or Deaf. I was motivated by my work as a New Zealand Sign Language interpreter and the inequalities that I see every day in my home, New Zealand. It was also motivated by the knowledge that these Deaf/hard of hearing people aren’t a problem - they have a beautiful culture and language. The problem is that we don’t understand them, and our lack of awareness prevents their access. They can’t learn to hear, but we can learn to understand. 

This inaccessibility and inequity are not just anecdotal and are certainly not new. They are well documented. In 2008, New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Disability Convention). This Convention recognises sign language as equal to spoken languages. It requires governments to progressively strengthen the status of sign language in different fields of a person’s life. These steps are necessary to respect, protect and promote the right to dignity, equality, freedom of expression and independence for Deaf people and other sign language users. 

🌎 Human rights are universal, indivisible and interconnected. They belong to all people, regardless of gender, national or ethnic origin, colour, language, disability or being Deaf. Unfortunately, societal prejudices and incorrect assumptions mean that Deaf people’s rights are often overlooked or denied, globally, and certainly here in New Zealand. 

So, I wanted to create a solution. You see, people don't know what they don't know. As Crystal Asige said during her presentation at One Young World 2023 in Belfast, "The ignorant well-meaning ones do as much harm as the evil ones". So, I started in my workplace, Concentrix, a workplace that is global and has over 270k staff, which includes Deaf staff. While we note the inaccessibility of many public services, these also ring true for many corporations. But we must ask ourselves, how do we expect to achieve equity and inclusion if we don’t teach people how to achieve it?

With the support of Concentrix, I created an interactive, online training programme for all 270k+ staff globally. A course that would teach an overview of Deaf culture, history, sign languages, and the Deaf perspective. A course that is narrated by a culturally Deaf person and features Deaf staff within the organisation. Because the mantra “Nothing about us, without us” must always be in the forefront of our minds. 

Catherine, a Deaf staff member at Concentrix in New Zealand noted “Having access to awareness training like this helps to create more inclusive workplaces…. awareness creates a pathway for understanding, which leads to accessibility and one-day equity.”

From this corporate-designed course, the possibilities are endless. Next, my husband (who is Deaf) and I have set up a charitable trust where we want to host readymade courses for ALL New Zealanders to access. These courses will be designed for the general hearing society, including front-line and healthcare workers, and we will market them to large companies. We will also have courses specifically for the Deaf community. They will cover things like how to advocate for themselves, information about their rights, and health-related courses, all in New Zealand sign language. Following our course's success at Concentrix, especially seeing the benefits for Deaf staff, we know this approach to teaching awareness through courses can work effectively.

For young leaders, One Young World Ambassadors and those who see a problem that they want to create a solution for, there is never a better time than now. 

🎯 My tips for you are:

👉 Start small and then scale up; it allows you and your project to grow and evolve. We started with one company, using our first course as a prototype. From our success measures, we then saw the impact and scaled up the project by moving it to external stakeholders. 

Use legislation, company policies and human rights as leverage to get buy-in if you are providing the organisation with a solution to a recognised problem.

👉Know your audience. Knowing the Concentrix training systems and programmes helped me design a fit-for-purpose training programme that fills a need, while also fitting in with the company’s brand and style of delivery.

👉 Grab opportunities that are available to you. For me, the Action Accelerator programme, the One Young World Community and other professional development training available have been invaluable. Having the right planning tools, asking yourself and others the right questions, and being able to put your ideas in a clear plan are all key aspects of any project.

👉 Lastly, don’t forget to bring people with you along the way. Relationships are key, and having the right people with the right knowledge in the right places can make all the difference. As the African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

Anyone has the power to create a solution to a problem, you just need to be brave enough to take the first step, and once you do, you will find a community of like-minded people surrounding you, all trying to make the world a more equitable place.

Learn more about Jaime Brown's work at Concentrix and share this article with someone looking to scale their social impact and initiative within a corporation. 🙌