109: The relevance of context, leadership and doing DEIB right: Akin Thomas CEO and Founder AKD Solutions Ltd

The Elephant in the Room

SHOWNOTES:

How does context help up define and be comfortable with who we are?

In a recent conversation with Akin Thomas we spoke the role of context and how it helps us define our identity. We also spoke about his entrepreneurial streak, how the Johnson and Johnson credo inspired him to define it for his business. In this very thought provoking and sometimes difficult conversation we also spoke about 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

👉🏾 Organisational consciousness - the sweet spot, where an organisation’s intention and impact goes beyond their need

👉🏾 Leadership - as an energy and force for change and the need for leaders to have long term vision as opposed to a tactical approach

👉🏾 His optimism about progress on DEI in the UK, and belief that senior leaders are more authentic and genuine than ever before about the desire for change. The recognition of the existing fear (resistance to change) within active resistors

👉🏾 #Tell your story project that was commissioned by UK Sport, Sport England, Sport Wales, Sport Northern and Sport Scotland to research Race and Racism in Sport

👉🏾 The terrible reality that there are more alternative structures in sports now than in the 1950s when our forefathers came to the country.

👉🏾 That nobody, absolutely nobody feels that it is worth investing in the cost of discrimination, the cost of belittling people, the cost of crushing people’s lives.

👉🏾 His advice to organisations seeking to be more authentic ‘stop looking at what others are doing, look within and get a real sense of what it means to you as an organisation.

If you would like to listen more, head to the podcast….👇🏾👇🏾

“And if you don't have context, it's very easy to be pulled in so many different directions. So as a child, I grew up in a place called xxxxxxxx, which was the largest council estate in Europe. I was one of very few black kids. I was the only black kid that went to school from 5 to 16. I didn't see anybody else other than myself. And I was void of context because I was fostered from six weeks old. And therefore I am this black child in the middle of this extremely white space. I knew I was different. I felt different. I didn't get a sense of belonging, but I didn't know what the context was because I just knew I was not within the right context.”

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Sudha: Good afternoon, Akin. Thank you for being a guest on The Elephant in the Room podcast today.

Akin: Yeah. Hi, how you doing?

Sudha: I'm fine. Thank you. Okay. Let's get started with a quick introduction to who you are and what you do.

Akin: Okay. So my name is Akin Thomas. I am the founder and CEO of AKD Solutions. We are an organisation of change consultancy.

Akin: So we focus on three areas of business, which is research, learning and development, which is our core and consultancy services. We have evolved over the years and I've gone from a local brand to an international brand and the planet's become our global brand.

Sudha: That's amazing. So have you always been entrepreneurial? And what made you get on that journey?

Akin: Okay. I think the answer is, it was there. I used to work for local government. So I started off working in Children's Homes and I kind of progressed through the organisation, became a senior manager, but I just had this burn, I had this urge. And I just knew that being within the organisation couldn't satisfy it. I felt quite restricted and also I was doing things on the side whilst I was working as a senior manager. I always had different projects on the side and one day I just jumped. One day I just had an epiphany. And I just said, I said, I'm done.

Akin: I'm not doing this anymore. Went to my director and I said, I'm done, I'm leaving. And he said, you can't. And I said, watch me. 30 days later, I was sitting in my house with no job, no nothing. But it was probably the best decision I've ever made. Well, one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Sudha: Wow. That's amazing. And I guess when you have to take the leap, you really have to believe in what you're doing. There's no hedging or no thinking, Oh, can I do this? And can I do that?

Akin: Absolutely.

Sudha: I went on your website and did some research and I saw that at AKD you have a credo. What is the inspiration or the belief behind that credo?

Sudha: And how does it translate, in every day, because it's standard to see mission, vision purpose, et cetera.

Akin: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for me, what was really important is that I was doing a lot of work with organisations around leadership, and we were doing lots of work in regards to mission, vision, statements, et cetera, values.

Akin: And for me, there was a lot of work that we were doing with organisations and it just didn't feel as genuine as it should do. It didn't translate into the day to day. And for me, one of the things I was thinking about, there's got to be a compelling vision. There's got to be a vision that excites everybody in the organisation. And so, I was searching and searching, doing lots of work, studying different companies. And I discovered the credo written by Johnson & Johnson. And written by the founder in 1943. And to be honest, they have amended it by taking out a few words. It has stood the test of time. So this credo, I mean, Johnson Johnson is well over 100 years old.

Akin: I think they wrote it in 1943 when it became a public listed company. And what I saw was this amazing statement of intent. What I loved about it, firstly, it talked about its customers, it talked about its staff, it talked about stakeholders and then it talked about its shareholders last, because it said if we do all these things well, our shareholders will get a good return and it just inspired me.

Akin: And what I wanted was a statement of intent that really captured who we were and was authentic, and it was timeless. That was what's really important to me. Too many organisations were changing and chopping and changing. And for me, if you think about leadership, leadership should be a long term thing. There should be a long term vision. And often what we're finding ourselves In now is leadership is being really condensed into very short bursts. And so therefore you'll never really get in the best. And that's the same with some of our visions and missions, because you talk to organisations that values have changed after three, four years.

Akin: It's like, why aren't they rooted in terms of who you are? And so for me, that's what it was about. So it's about really kind of capturing the essence of who we are. So when we talk about, we believe in the brilliance of, every individual and every person it means that, what does that then translate to when we talk about, we believe in the power of conversation.

Akin: I say to people, we will never become an e learning company because I just don't, I don't disrespect it, but it's just not who we are. What we see, is that we see transformation in classrooms when people are having conversations. So our job is to stimulate brilliant conversations. And in fact one of the things I've said is that it's got to be fun. We work too hard not to enjoy life. I've said to the team the day it becomes boring and we stop laughing, I'll shut the company down. And so I really want these things to translate on a day to day basis, not only internally, but it infects our clients as well. So that's why we created it.

Sudha: That's so amazing. Especially, talking about the day it stops being fun because we don't realise that we spend most of our lives in our workplaces. And yeah, it shouldn't be that hard or that difficult. And the other thing that you mentioned that really resonates is now we're talking about stakeholder capitalism, and we are talking about stakeholders being the primary people who we need to take into consideration.

Sudha: So, this existed a long time back and we're just coming back to it, but it's also about having a long term vision rather than being tactical because that's, it doesn't sit right changing who you are every other day.

Akin: Yeah. Cause there, I think there's a couple of things.The issue about being authentic. But secondly, I think it's about if you truly want, you know, good things take time. It's like food. Yeah? Okay? You can have a microwave meal or you can have a well prepared meal. Which has taken time, it's been done with love, with care and with passion, yeah? They are markedly different.

Akin: And I think the trouble, what we're expecting from a lot of our leaderships and organisations is kind of popcorn, quick meal, yummy fast meal, fast food type mindset as opposed to actually, if we take time and do this really, really well, the longevity that we will experience will be phenomenal. But people are too scared to make those decisions.

Sudha: Yes, they don't want to stick to one thing or don't want to commit to sticking to one thing.

Akin: Absolutely.

Sudha: Now, so moving on, in a LinkedIn post from last year, you've spoken about the importance of context. I read all your posts and that was so interesting. Is this to do with your identity and how important is your identity to you?

Akin: It is hugely important, and I think it's one of the things, the more that I have grown in age, the more I recognise the importance of context and really embracing yourself. I think one of the challenges we have in society is that most people are not comfortable with themselves. They're busy trying to emulate, copy other people.

Akin: And if you don't have context, it's very easy to be pulled in so many different directions. So as a child, I grew up in a place called Leapath, which was the largest council estate in Europe. I was one of very few black kids. I was the only black kid that went to school from 5 to 16. I didn't see anybody else other than myself. And I was void of context because I was fostered from six weeks old. And therefore I am this black child in the middle of this extremely white space. I knew I was different. I felt different. I didn't get a sense of belonging, but I didn't know what the context was because I just knew I was not within the right context.

Akin: And that leaves massive voids, and when you have no context, the void that that gives people is incredible. So the fact that you can't speak your mother tongue or that you don't know language or you don't know who you are. You don't know friends, family, it just leaves voids and what then people do in my opinion is that they have to fill those voids often with stuff which is superficial, not true et cetera. And therefore what you have is a lot of people walking around who are shadows of who they should be. So for me, when I went to Nigeria the thing about being Nigerian is like, it's in your blood, but you don't understand until you kind of find yourself in a context like, Oh, I get it.

Akin: You understand? So my drive, my thought process, the entrepreneurism, et cetera, yeah? It was when you've put it in context, it's like, Oh, I get it now. And what it does, it gives you a sense of peace, greater understanding. And I think the minute you can become comfortable with yourself because you've got context changes because suddenly you can't be the victim of others.

Sudha: Yeah. And that's not the best way to lead a happy or productive life.

Akin: Absolutely. Absolutely. How many people really have context, especially in the UK right now know, we're very diverse, I see so many people I talked to them and they say, yeah, my mom and dad didn't speak their mother tongue to them. Why? Yeah. Okay. Why? All of these things are so, so important. I mean, we change our name so it's more palatable to other people. It's not right.

Sudha: We change our name, we change the way we dress, the way we behave, the way we talk or laugh, I think in public, you don't want to be too loud, don't want to get the focus of attention on yourself.

Sudha: Yeah. That's so interesting. Akin, what does leadership mean to you? Because you said you have done a lot of work around leadership.

Akin: What does leadership mean to me? I think for me leadership is the energy and the force for change. And I think that's really, really important. It is the energy and the force for change.

Akin: It is incredible the impact that one individual can have over 10, 20, 100, 2 million. It is incredible that one person and their leadership can literally change history. Change the focus of a nation, change a community. And if you think about that level of power and influence. You have to recognise that, I think there's a couple of things. Firstly, it is a huge privilege to have leadership ascribed to you, but it's also a massive area of responsibility when you're leading an organisation. Like for me, okay, my organisation, we have about 40 individuals, both kind of full time and associates, but that bears a weight in terms of I'm responsible for these people.

Akin: But also I think the excitement in terms of, for me, great leadership is like, do you know when you take people on a journey where we've never been here before, we've never navigated these waters before, we're creating something new, we're creating something innovative, we're creating something that creates change. It is an incredible force for, good, but also if handled badly for evil as well. And so for me, the more I look at society, the more I look at kind of individuals, governments, sporting organisations, families, the importance of leadership, it is right through society. And I think when we understand and respect leadership and utilise it properly, profound change is possible.

Sudha: There seems to be a vacuum in leadership across actually business and politics. I don't think we should even discuss politics.

Akin: I think one of the things I would say to you is this year is that I think one of the things I believe is that we have a lot of good managers in leadership positions. And we do recognise leadership and we're not saying one is better than the other or more important, but what we are saying is that actually the quality of leadership, that we are experiencing is actually really quite concerning.

Sudha: I agree with you. In the course of like doing the background research, I read another article where you spoke about organisational consciousness. What is organisational consciousness and why is it important? So the organisation is like a living being.

Akin: I wrote that article in regards to, how do we learn as organisations? And the premise was this. The initial premise was this is if we have no idea what society is going to look like in the next 5, 10, 15 years, how do we create learning platforms which are fit for purpose that will help us to create the right type of future?

Akin: And one of the things I've seen in terms of the evolution of organisations is one thing is where we go from what we call ego to eco. So we go from the selfless, the selfish to the kind of more selfless. And one of the things you look at in organisations is this. So if you think about an organisational need being that prime reason for existence.

Akin: So if we look at an organisation, let's take, for example, Ikea. Ikea's prime business is to sell furniture in a particular mode. Yeah. But that's the prime drive so it's a profit making organisation. Yeah. Now, if you were to roll back, say 20, 30 years, all the learning would be geared towards that function only.

Akin: So if it didn't impact upon the bottom line in terms of upskilling people to be better at their jobs, organisations wouldn't have done it. There has been a shift now in terms of how society functions and businesses function. So organisational consciousness is basically where an organisation's intention and impact goes beyond their organisational needs.

Akin: Okay, so there are three elements that are required. So I've already spoken about organisational need. So therefore, what is our core purpose? But then you've got two other elements. You then start to bring in individual needs. So suddenly in an organisation will start to be more conscious of where and to address individual needs.

So let's look at well being. Again, 20, 30 years. it wasn't on the table. You were expendable, you didn't have the luxury of mental health challenges, it was just not on the table. Now we're much more conscious about well being. You can see there was a mutual benefit, but we're now starting to think about individual needs when you're looking at development now, we're not developing you for where you are today, we're developing you for where you want to be in two, three years time. So there's an organisational need. But the third element, which is the really important element, is what we call the societal needs. Now, societal needs are quite complex, it's because a societal need is basically where there is a fundamental disconnect between what is right and what is going on in the world. And an organisation says, we need to engage with this societal need. Let's look at domestic violence. It is a fundamental curse on our society.

Akin: Again, 20, 30 years ago would never be part of the narrative of any organisation. But now there are organisations...