Tears of the chief executive

Thursday, 16 August 2018

Spark's Simon Moutter fought back tears as he spoke of the company's journey to being a better, more inclusive employer.

Last year, it was tears of regret.

In September, Spark chief executive Simon Moutter had fought back tears at the Global Women's One Day for Change Summit when he revealed how the departure of several senior women had led him to face 'uncomfortable truths' about how inclusive Spark really was.

But at a Global Women event in Auckland on Wednesday evening, Moutter returned to the podium to speak about how much had changed at Spark.

'Shortly before the event I found myself in an awkward position when I discovered that despite all our investment and good intentions, many Spark people still felt excluded by our leadership approach and through the ways we speak, interact and behave,' said Moutter, recalling his September speech.

* Millennial voices stifled by employers, Global Women research finds**

'Hearing those uncomfortable truths about the gaps between these good intentions and the way they show up hit me very hard and made me think deeply about my own leadership around diversity and inclusion.

'In my speech that day, I admitted to those people in the room and then subsequently, via the media, to all of New Zealand that our previous target-driven approach had not worked, and that I felt I had let many of our people down.'

But, he said: 'I'm pleased to say that over the last year, whilst we do still have a way to go, I feel we can be proud of the progress we've made.'

Spark's approach a year back had been 'mind-led' putting in place diversity and inclusion programmes, but the approach had lacked heart.

'We learned is that it has to be a 'heart-led' over a 'mind-led' approach. By that I mean we have increased our focus on values and behaviours more so than metrics and processes.

'The cornerstone of this 'heart-led' philosophy is fairness, rooted in the belief that proactively building a diverse and inclusive workplace is simply the right thing to do. Because it gives everyone a fair and equal opportunity to participate and benefit.'

His speech last year had 'lifted the cover off the issue and created space for real discussions to happen publicly, out in the open, instead of in private between small groups of concerned staff', Moutter said.

The reaction of the Spark workforce surprised him.

'Since then, some of the groups or communities at Spark who were less visible before, who perhaps may have felt marginalised or excluded in some way, or even frowned upon, have stepped forward and found their voices.'

More than a dozen cultural and support groups such as mental health, had formed and established programmes and events with Spark's backing, he said.

'My admission last year was all about gender, but it has unlocked many other cultural changes,' he told the mainly female audience.

'We've always celebrated the many nationalities we have at Spark with events like Diwali, Eid and Chinese New Year but what we'd not given enough focus to was our own national culture. So, there has been a huge push from our people to embrace Māoritanga.

'We've adopted a number of traditions and are supporting the revitalisation of te reo Māori, ensuring it plays a much bigger role at Spark.'

Staff led the creation of the Blue Heart pledge.

Now the majority of Spark staffers wear a small blue heart on their lapels, or lanyards, signifying to their colleagues their commitment to being a respectful colleague.

'Once the action started, the momentum has snowballed organically. I didn't need to prescribe any initiatives or load action points into the business plan. The change materialised from within. People did amazing things I would never have imagined.'

Miranda Burdon of Global Women invited Moutter to speak on Spark's quest to become a more inclusive employer.

And in one case, they did something quite surprising without even telling him.

'Who would have thought a year ago that Spark would run a TV campaign featuring two Dad's and their baby? Or that no one would ask my approval to run it first? I certainly didn't. The first time I saw the 'Thanks to You' campaign was when I was watching TV in my living room.

'I was thrilled with the fact that our people had felt empowered to combine a powerful ad campaign with such an important message without needing 'approval'. I realised that we'd made it OK for them to own the decision.'

Moutter was convinced Spark was a better company for the change.

A blue heart is worn by around 3000 Spark employees to show their commitment to being inclusive.

It had recently reorganised to a new 'agile' way of working, a shift so large it was forecast to deeply unsettle the workforce.

But, he said: 'Since last September our employee net promoter score has lifted by nine points despite undergoing one of the largest organisational changes in New Zealand, which would normally have the opposite result.'

And then, as he closed his speech, the tears came.

'It's humbling to discover what untapped potential was hidden in my organisation just waiting for permission to act. I've made my stand to lead from my Blue Heart and make my voice heard in the spirit of what is right in our lives and the lives ahead for our children and all New Zealanders.'