We organised a unique workshop for senior women working in financial roles or in the finance industry on Wednesday 10 February.
Tara Cherniawski, Chief Learning officer for Inspirus Learning (and former Learning and Development Director for Jumeirah Group) kicked off the morning with an exercise to bond the group. We each had to speak to 5 other ladies to find five things we had in common in just 20 seconds. After this short exercise the energy in the room was palpable and we all felt a little more willing to share our experiences with each other.
The morning focused on introducing the SCARF model, a management tool which unlocks the social factors that put people in a threat or reward state. Research has proven that our brains scan our environment for social threats and rewards as many as five times per second. With the absence of real danger from predators, our brains are finding threats in the social situations they are trying to decipher.
The SCARF model introduces the five most common social domains in which we most easily feel threatened and the impact this has on the brain. It is a management tool for thinking about the ways in which we socially threaten and reward the people we interact with. This would provide the basis of our learning for the second half of our morning but before this we were greeted by a very special guest.
Mervyn Davies (Lord Davies of Abersoch, CBE) has been instrumental in addressing the underrepresentation of women on boards in the UK and has championed the correction of this issue for many years. Lord Davies launched an independent review into Women on Boards and that recommended that UK listed companies in the FTSE 100 should be aiming for a minimum of 25% female board member representation by 2015. He also recommended in his report for government that FTSE 350 companies should be setting their own, challenging targets and expected that many would achieve a much higher figure than this minimum.
At just 5’5” tall with a charming smile, Lord Davies shared the obstacles he had found through his research and asked the attendees to share their own personal experiences. He highlighted that the greatest obstacle to most women is a lack of self-belief, and whilst cultural factors vary from one region to the other, this obstacle is consistent around the world. He actively encouraged each and every participant to mentor at last 2 women; as women in senior roles the group represented women who had already broken down many barriers for themselves and each could open the door for more women to follow.
Following this lively debate with Lord Davies, we returned to the second part of the practical training session. Tara had adapted some of the work she had planned to build on the discussions with Lord Davies and we spent the next hour discussing how to apply the SCARF tool in different situations.
We finished the workshop with a lively networking lunch full of enthusiasm for the new tools and advice to sustain the positive impact that women have in the professional workplace.
My thanks to our sponsor White & Case.
[su_box title="Ideas welcome" box_color="#51284F" radius="1"]From an ACTME perspective I am left wondering what I can do for our next Women in Finance event and how we will top such a great morning.
Please let me know at dwilde@treasurers.org if you have any ideas![/su_box]
