Operating from a slick and trendy-looking office situated half way up a building known as The Big Peg in the centre of Birmingham’s thriving jewellery quarter, George Rowley, Christina Sarginson and Clenton Farquarhson, are the driving force behind an innovative company called ‘Gallant2000’.
Being based in the heart of Birmingham’s historical artisan district actually seems very apt for a 21st century company whose main business is ‘Diversity’. The success of the so-called ‘city of a thousand trades’ was, after all, built upon the diverse skill base of it’s local citizens who have continued to come to Birmingham from all over the region, the country and the globe for some two hundred or more years. For Gallant2000, Diversity is much more than the latest p.c. buzz-word; what could be at stake as far as George and Clenton are concerned might well be the future of the entire planet, or at least the humans who occupy it:
“We are entering a time of great change and a new understanding of what drives us is permeating through our society. What we are doing at Gallant2000 is promoting the value and the positive attributes of the elements of diversity. From a scientific systems theory and evolutionary perspective, without diversity we have stagnation and shrinkage, and eventually extinction.”
“Our definition of Diversity is the mosaic of people bringing a variety of backgrounds, styles, perspectives, values and beliefs as assets to the groups and organisations with which they interact. We look at all the big issues affecting human psychology and personal development together in an interlinked way. Each one of us is diverse and in reality issues such as race, age, gender, religion, sexuality and disability are actually interwoven like a web”.
Between them, Clenton and George have plenty of experience of Equality and Diversity issues. Clenton became a disabled person seven years ago and he told me how the course of his life has changed since then:
“I had the experience of being attacked and stabbed numerous times. This led me to acquire my disability. Since this time I have gone through an emotional roller coaster, firstly of feeling absolutely desperate and that my world was at an end and that I was completely useless. But over the last four years this has completely turned round and I now have a mission to promote Equal Opportunities and Diversity. I have enormous passion and emotion for this subject”.
In spite of Clenton’s easy going personality and his very natural sense of humility, the long list of his recent activities and accomplishments on paper is impressive. Amongst other things, Clenton has been the chair of the Black and Ethnic Minority Disability Partnership, a director of Birmingham Disability Resource Centre, vice chair of the Birmingham Coalition of Disabled People, a board member of RADAR and most recently has become a co-opted member of the Disability West Midlands executive committee.
In translating how theories of Diversity operate in our lives, Clenton describes his own approach as being very practical and straightforward. He believes that both Diversity and Equal Opportunities should be much more than just bright ideas and good intentions and illustrates his perspective with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”.
Clenton’s approach can also be light hearted and during the course of his conversation he will often break into spontaneous and hearty laughter, especially when something appeals to his wickedly ironic sense of humour. For instance, during a conversation about racial prejudice and discrimination, he told me how:
“A senior manager of one local company confidently told us that they definitely had no racism in their firm whatsoever. When we asked him for his proof he looked totally surprised and told us, ‘How can we be racist? We’re based in Wolverhampton!’”
Clenton’s insightful delivery of this illustrative and amusing anecdote, told in his broad Jamaican-Brummie accent, reminded me for one moment of the comedian Lenny Henry - using the common-place funny story to deliver a more serious underlying message as effectively as any academic thesis.
Clenton’s fellow director, George Rowley is also well-known on the local disability scene. After years spent in senior management with the Automobile Association, George worked throughout the 1990s in disability related projects such as Birmingham Information Federation, running the equipment pool at the Birmingham Disability Resource Centre and helping to set up and run Enable, a training organisation where George worked both as a trainer and coach:
“I worked with people who, for one reason or another, had been given the labels of not being able to do stuff, like education or employment. People are really interesting and helping them gives me a buzz. Seeing people reach their full potential and goals is really satisfying.”
George is an innovative thinker with a love of psychology. During the past ten or so years he has developed many theories around the science and technology of achievement and Diversity - his specialist subjects being cognitive and social psychology, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and his own theories around Representational Reengineering. A typical half hour discussion with George leaves your mind buzzing with interesting new ideas and challenging theories about human interaction in the modern world.
David Blunkett and fellow policy makers would learn a lot from people like George and his colleagues at Gallant2000. In the light of recent media debate around identity, multi cultural society and racial tension in the UK, with television images of the barricades going up on the streets of Bradford and other English cities, reminiscent of the north of Ireland in the 60s and 70s, the time to talk about the challenges and solutions potentially offered by Diversity theory has never seemed so right.
During the next few months Gallant2000 will be running many workshops. Aimed at anyone with an interest in developing knowledge about themselves and Diversity, especially people who have a role in Human Resource Management wishing to work towards engaging with Diversity to eradicate discrimination in the workplace
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