Law Firm HRs: a helpful suggestion
Wellbeing, Learning & Development, Diversity & Inclusion
This is a post about
1. mental health, a topic of eternal interest to law firms.
2. self-expression, because if people can talk and be heard, that can help.
3. allowing everybody to be heard, whoever and whatever they are – to improve diversity and inclusion.
That’s me in the middle, wearing specs.
Starting (and re-starting) a conversation
As you know already, the hardest thing can be starting a conversation about these topics – even at firms where it’s been discussed before, because you have to keep re-starting the conversation.
An obvious choice is to bring in an external speaker.
- But who?
- How to know if you have chosen the right one?
- How do you know they won’t waste the (expensive) time of your audience?
- Or worse?
A lesson from Slaughter and May
Jo Gubbay, head of learning and development at Slaughter and May, told me candidly that it felt like a huge risk to bring in an external speaker (me, as it happens):
Read the transcript, here
A bit about me
Journalist: At the Financial Times, I set up the current Saturday Magazine. I worked for years for The Times and The Sunday Times as magazine writer.
Author: I’ve published six books, in 16 languages, including How To Change The World and (in 2021) A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.
Human being: I had a breakdown in 2018, went into psychiatric hospital for eight weeks.
Artist: In talks about mental health I share drawings I made in hospital.
Speaker: I’ve delivered talks and workshops at these and other companies:
Testimonials
This screengrab shows an email from the head of learning and development after an online talk to a law firm:
Online is even better
Since speaking at Slaughter and May, I’ve spoken at many other firms, including online.
Here’s a taste of the extraordinary interactions I’ve been able to have with participants, preserving their anonymity by using the typed chat:
4mins, 45 secs
If you would like me to speak at your firm, please get in touch. Thank you for reading.