At Ecowize, we’re passionately accelerating our transformational leadership journey.
We never shy away from any case for cleaning or sanitisation. We just roll up our sleeves and get the job done. That’s exactly our approach when it comes to tough, but necessary conversations and, even more necessary interventions. It’s about talking honestly and openly, then acting impactfully and fairly. This is how we are tackling transformation at all levels in our business.
You see, we are serious about our responsibility as a business in South Africa to make a meaningful impact in our country and in our communities. We believe that our commitment to bringing Ecowizers along on the journey with us is just as important as our commitment to the top standards of service.
To accelerate this journey, we have kicked off a transformational leadership journey aimed at enabling new ways of thinking and acting to drive a values-based evolution towards a more inclusive organisation for the future.
The path began with engagement workshops, including a cross-section of Ecowize management, because change starts from the top, and it is important that our leaders have a shared understanding of where we are coming from and deep insights into the need for diversity and inclusion in our South African context.
These early workshops that set the scene for our continuing walk towards further transformation were led by Professor Jackie Naude, author of “Finding the Rainbow – a personal journey in the new South Africa”. At this beginning phase, we set a vision for us to work towards. Sonke Siyavikela – or Together, We Protect – is our transformation DNA, linking to our purpose and our values of Teamwork, Respect, Open Communication, Honesty and Integrity, Accountability and Service Excellence.
But good intentions require ongoing action to see them to actualisation. As we continue looking to a transformed horizon, we continued with monthly workshops. One, also hosted by Jackie, focused on unconscious bias and how we can change our perceptions, prejudices and behaviours once we are aware of them. Malan Laubscher spoke to us about understanding power, looking at different empowering and disempowering approaches and styles to transactional relations, while Arnold Shkaidy held a workshop focused on social intelligence, to guide us in our understanding between the difference between feelings and behaviours and the importance of emotional control.
Pretty eye-opening stuff. But the journey doesn’t stop here. Our series of workshops continues with new themes as we move forward in the year. We’ll also host annual workshops to bring new leaders into our inclusive culture. Sonke Siyavikele – Together, we protect!
But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what some of our managers had to say about the life-changing and impactful experience:
“I learned many interesting facts and I think it is vital to engage with our peers, to learn and experience different scenarios. I have also started sharing these values with my team.”
‘’I can say that there is more value added with understanding the employee’s well-being, working in the direction of the company values. Getting to know and/or understanding employees’ behaviour with the work and personal related issues. I can also say a mouthful how the training has added value in work related relationships (Clients, Employees and Management) when it comes to approach, managing conflict and service excellence delivery. Not forgetting how privileged we are with these sessions, also when it comes to personal life, helping a lot with patience, anger management and conflict management.”
“This is adding value to me as person, it has assisted me on how I look at things and how to deal with challenges that one faces in everyday life. It will be great if we all practice what we have learn in our everyday lives, both work and home front.’’
‘’The candid but gentle discussions about race, privilege, and other people’s experiences without having selective reasoning when engaging has really assisted in shaping the manner in which we engage and treat each other within the organisation. I have personally witnessed improvement in how we engage at all levels and understanding that we are individually responsible in contributing to our current transformation journey, it is also pleasant to see that we are learning to hold each other accountable for behaviour unbecoming of an individual committed to our transformation journey. There are many positives that I have taken away from each session and it does not only improve my behaviour and the way I engage within the organisation, but the sessions have also had a positive contribution in my social life. “
“We started the journey as the foundation for our mentorship and coaching initiative as believed it was essential that we needed to ensure we coached and developed from a place of common understanding. We are openly addressing the “Elephant in the Room” in that these sessions talk about our different perspectives of Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Language, Disability and Culture and its encouraging the mature manner in which these conversations are held.”
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