Breaking our 'Groundhog Day' loop

Bill Murray celebrated his 70th birthday on Monday, with fans across the world sending birthday wishes to the actor dubbed “the funniest man on the planet”.

There's no shortage of films to choose from when thinking of Murray's most memorable roles, from Ghostbusters to Scrooge. But his best ever performance surely has to be in Groundhog Day, when he finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.

I can’t believe this classic comedy is 27 years old, and just like any great comedy, it also has a serious message. His weatherman character, Phil Connors, goes through every emotion during his time in the loop: changing from an arrogant, self-absorbed cynic to an optimist who embraces life and helps others.

In the end, after exhausting the options that hurt himself and others, he finally chooses to use his life to love himself and those around him. At this point, he is mysteriously freed from the endless time loop. 

We talked about that sense of ‘Groundhog Day’ frustration and sadness at our board diversity workshop last week, as we met with the chairs from our BAME, LGBT and disability staff networks. We all have a strong commitment to addressing inequalities and removing the systemic barriers that create inequalities. But despite the commitment, and lots of national and local discussion about this, we still see awful examples of discrimination and inequality.

Why is this? Why, if there is an intent for something different, have we been unable to really change things?  

We have to break our own very real ‘Groundhog’ loop. We can’t go back and start a new beginning, but we can start from today and ensure we achieve a better ending.

At our diversity workshop, Tara Hewitt, inclusion and engagement manager at the Northern Care Alliance, talked about the work they were doing on equality, diversity and inclusion, which was excellent. And it was good to hear from our staff networks about the experience of our staff and have a discussion about the work we need to do together to improve things.

The workshop closed with a strong sense of hope and I felt that we got to a positive place, with the future feeling brighter. But we do need to ensure we translate good intentions into behaviour change and concrete actions for improvement. And we’ve agreed some important actions from this workshop which we’ll share when we have detailed them all.

What really struck me from the workshop was how much positive change in this important area depends on us understanding ourselves and making personal change, as well as understanding others and our impact on them.

Bill Murray in the film is gradually, over time, forced to explore his own personality and his impact and place within the community. And as he does so, he starts to develop a different perspective on life; and begins to behave differently and treat people more kindly and compassionately. So, we all need to be up for understanding ourselves and being prepared to explore our own biases and the impact they have on individuals.  

My experience is personal and unique to me. I recognise my privilege and, whilst I may share some experiences with others, I can never walk exactly in their shoes. It is only through listening to others experiences and really taking the time to understand them alongside an appreciation of whether my own experience brings unintentional and unconscious bias in my actions.

Bias is normal - it is a product of our own upbringing and life experiences. But countless studies have shown that unconscious bias and the translation of these into systemic barriers is one of the main reasons why, despite equalities being enshrined in law, things are still so unfair. 

Our biases are woven through culture like a silver cord woven through cloth. In some lights, it’s brightly visible. In others, it’s hard to distinguish. And our position relative to that glinting thread determines whether we see it at all.

If we work hard to be aware of our biases, if we work hard not to act on our biases, and if we try to understand others, then we stand a chance of ensuring our behaviour does not impact negatively on others.

Hearing about your experiences extends beyond our staff networks of course. And it was really helpful to listen to people’s experiences during our first corporate services Q&A session this week. As well as see so many faces on screen of course, which makes you feel more connected to colleagues.

We want and need to know about the things you are anxious about: whether it’s about keeping safe, especially if you or loved ones are shielding; the corporate services redesign; working at home or the office; or this dreaded second wave. So, I appreciated people sharing their perspectives and welcomed the opportunity to share information about key areas of development.

Through the chat function on teams, Alicia in the communications team did a sterling job of theming the questions, but I especially loved seeing colleagues answering each other’s questions!

One of the main downsides for those of us who are able to work from home is the relative isolation of not bumping into our colleagues. We all miss the camaraderie that you feel when you see each other every day. So, from my perspective it was great to see so many people and get a sense of connectedness and being ‘in it together’.

Best wishes

Claire

You can follow me on Twitter @ClaireMolloy2