Build Trust. Navigate Change

When I was starting out, I wasn’t entirely sure where my career would take me.

My dad’s career in public service influenced my early thinking, and for a while I considered following a similar path. But it was thanks to my mum that I found my way into HR.

I became fascinated by employment law and drawn to something that, looking back, has remained a thread throughout my career: fairness and balance in the workplace.

From there, my career took me through recruitment and talent, and increasingly into diversity, equity and inclusion and wellbeing.

It hasn’t been a straight line.

There have been different roles, opportunities, challenges and moments when I’ve chosen to pivot. And then there are the changes in life we don’t choose.

Losing my brother was one of those.

Grief changes you. For me, it changed my perspective on what matters, where I put my energy and how I think about the people around me.

It reinforced something I’ve come to understand through my work too: we rarely know the full story of the person in front of us.

Perhaps that’s why this year’s National Inclusion Week theme — Build Trust. Navigate Change. — resonates so strongly with me.

Change is personal

We talk about change constantly in organisations: new structures, new leaders, new technology, new ways of working.

But change is also deeply human.

People come to work navigating things we may know nothing about. Bereavement. Caring responsibilities. Relationships. Health. Identity. Financial pressures. Uncertainty. Sometimes simply trying to work out what comes next.

Some change we choose. Some we don’t. Some changes us permanently.

We won’t always know what another person is carrying. But we can think about the environment we create around them while they carry it.

For me, that’s where inclusion, belonging and wellbeing come together.

Do people feel seen and heard? Can they ask for help? Can they challenge something or offer a different perspective?

And importantly, do they trust the people around them enough to be honest?

Trust doesn’t require agreement

That feels particularly important in the world around us today.

There is uncertainty and division. We bring different experiences, identities, values, beliefs and perspectives into our workplaces.

We won’t always agree — and inclusion shouldn’t require us to.

But can we stay in the conversation?

Can we be curious about a perspective different from our own? Can we say, “I don’t understand — help me understand”? Can we recognise our assumptions and sometimes be prepared to change our minds?

I keep coming back to listening to understand, rather than simply listening to respond.

Building trust isn’t about making every conversation comfortable.

It’s about creating enough safety to have the uncomfortable ones.

Listen to understand

“Building trust isn’t about making every conversation comfortable. It’s about creating enough safety to have the uncomfortable ones”.

Where I am today

Looking back, I can see connections I couldn’t possibly have seen at the time.

My dad influencing those early thoughts about a career. My mum helping me find HR. A fascination with fairness that led through recruitment, talent, inclusion and wellbeing. The pivots along the way. And losing my brother, which changed how I see so many things.

All of it has shaped where I am today with InConfidence.

Fairness still matters. Representation, policies and processes matter.

But increasingly, I’m interested in what happens between people.

Whether we notice. Whether we ask rather than assume. Whether we listen. Whether we make space for experiences different from our own. Whether people feel they belong.

And when life or work changes unexpectedly, whether there is enough trust around us to help navigate it.

I don’t have all the answers. I’m increasingly comfortable with that.

But I do believe we need more spaces for genuine dialogue and sometimes uncomfortable conversations — not always with the aim of agreeing, but with the intention of understanding.

A conversation to continue

For National Inclusion Week, I’ve created a free Conversations in Confidence guide — simple, practical prompts to help individuals, leaders and teams have better conversations about trust, change, inclusion, belonging and wellbeing.

Use it for your own reflection, take a question into your next one-to-one, or use it to start a conversation with your team.

Because inclusion isn’t something we achieve in a week, and trust isn’t built through one initiative.

But one genuine conversation can be a place to start.