Equity builds trust and garners success
I’m looking forward to leading a discussion about equity in infrastructure at the Airports Consulting Council’s (ACC) 44th Annual Conference next week. While improvements are being made, there’s more work to do by the industry and organizations like ours which represent private businesses involved in airport development and connecting professionals who empower aviation.
As a 7-year member of the board and chair of the ACC Board, it was clear that an equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) strategy was required for us to help drive transformational change and better represent the communities that airports serve and the professionals who deliver them. Historically the industry is an all-white, male dominated business. We felt we had a responsibility to help move the industry forward in a more equitable, uplifting way across all ethnicities and genders. Over the past year, as the ACC Chair, I led our association on an ED&I journey to create a vision, mission and guiding principles framework through engagement of an ED&I consultant.
I have seen firsthand the positive impact in making diversity and inclusion part of an organization’s DNA.
Years ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to move to the Middle East to help lead a major airport in the UAE. Represented among my staff of about 50 people were more than 20 different nationalities, speaking multiple languages, all coming from diverse cultural backgrounds. Working with them daily, and delivering this awesome project over years, I realized we were not that different. Yet the project benefitted from the diversity and different viewpoints we all brought to the table – and I was better for the experience, too.
Building a culture of inclusion provides the workforce an opportunity to actively listen and understand one another. When people feel heard, connections are made creating empathy, which I feel, helps build trust. Trust in your workplace and with partners and clients is an absolute for success.
At AECOM, we are passionate about equity in infrastructure, as a part of ESG strategy. As an industry leader, we have taken the responsibility to embed social principles into everything we do and partner with our clients and communities to advise on their efforts to advance these initiatives. AECOM has set an industry-leading, near-term target of women comprising at least 20% of senior leadership roles and at least 35% of the overall workforce. Its efforts extend to include developing project teams that reflect the clients and communities it serves and partnering with small and medium enterprises to generate social value through positive community investments.
AECOM is also focused on delivering inclusive, accessible projects that proactively improve social value outcomes for individuals, communities and society. ED&I are core to AECOM’s vision – a world where infrastructure creates opportunity for everyone.
It’s precisely this spirit that supports ACC’s commitment to help ensure equity in how we design and build future airports and working with minority and women-owned firms. The value of diversity and inclusion is in acknowledging different perspectives. We can do so much more if we release bias and focus on putting together great teams of people, no matter where they are from, to transform our industry.
If we are to build the future of aviation by creating structures not only best in the world, but best for the world, we need collaborative approaches to solutions, authentic and inclusive leadership, diversity of decision-making and a focus on social and economic community benefits. It’s time for our industry to build a better future than it has sometimes done in the past.
Ask yourself: are you working with a diverse team? Are you embracing equity, diversity and inclusivity, allowing you to invite everyone to the party? If not, you are missing out on building authentic, empathetic, caring workplace and industry communities that can only strengthen partnership and delivery. It takes courageous leadership to do that.