Our Listening Strategy
Our contemporary approach to EDI at the University ensures we underpin all of our policies and practices with research – an evidence-based approach that will lead to transformational change. Central to our growing evidence base is the lived experience of stakeholders across all of our under-represented and minoritised groups – a participatory approach to ensure all voices are heard
Our Listening Strategy ensures that we provide, at an organisational level, a platform for those aspiring to use their personal (lived) experience to cause meaningful change at Lincoln
One of the core competencies of inclusive leadership is empathy. Although empathy, of course, is important, it can only take us so far – it can 'open the door' to addressing the inequalities we observe – it cannot lead us to the best, most effective, solutions. We may believe that we understand what others are experiencing, but in reality our advice, the solutions we offer, are viewed through our own lenses – informed by our own experiences, not by the experiences of those being impacted and disadvantaged.
Lived experience matters for many reasons, not least of which is that only someone who has been through an experience knows the nuances and complexities of dealing with it
Our Listening Strategy ensures that our policies, practices and intervention design is informed through participation of diverse stakeholders and include the voices of people who have been through experiences as different from each other as possible. By listening to the voices of under-represented and minoritised groups, key problems that might have been missed can be identified and addressed, and inclusive policies and practices developed and embedded.
Our Listening Strategy provides a variety of opportunities for staff and students to have their voices heard and participate in change at Lincoln, and is embedded in our EDI Governance.
Hear Our Voices Programme: a series of focus groups to engage stakeholders in discussing a variety of inequalities. To hear (and listen to) what colleagues and students believe will make a difference, is the first step to making change.
EDI Forum: a space for open discussion that brings together the School, Department and College EDI Committee Chairs (across both academic and professional services), the Champions Network, the Chairs of Staff Support Networks and the Students' Union, facilitating a ‘bottom up’, co-creation, approach to EDI.
Student EDI Hub: an open forum for students from across the University to contribute to, and participate in, the shaping of our inclusive policies, practices, interventions and activities.
Get involved – Have Your SayHear Our Voices: the danger of a single story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
19 minutes 