黑洞社区

How do you make sure that your campaigning message is not merely going to people who already agree with you?

This is a question a rather pensive and thoughtful-looking Lara Oyedele asks as she sits down with 黑洞社区 to discuss her long-time push for greater diversity in boardrooms and leadership teams across the UK.

鈥淚鈥檝e done loads of talking at conferences, seminars, webinars, you name it and what I find is that I tend to be speaking to the people that already support what I鈥檓 doing 鈥� it鈥檚 like preaching to the choir,鈥� she says.

鈥淎m I speaking to the right people, am I getting invited to the rooms where they are all white? Because there are plenty of all white-male boards. No, probably because they will think, 鈥極h my gosh she is going to come and tell us off鈥�, says Oyedele.

The 56-year-old is a figure well-known in social housing circles but has her sights on a much more fundamental change to the make-up of the UK鈥檚 boardrooms across the built environment and indeed the whole economy.

This is a key reason, along with her Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) presidency this year, why she was invited to become a commissioner on 黑洞社区 magazine鈥檚 12-month long 黑洞社区 the Future Commission project, to advise primarily on our workplace, culture and leadership stream.

We join Oyedele the week before she is due to address the CIH鈥檚 annual conference in Manchester, when again she will be talking about her twin life-long passions: inclusivity and social housing.

For the uninitiated, Oyedele worked for various local authorities and housing associations before founding Black on Board Ltd during the height of publicity about the Black Lives Matter movement in 2021. The company provides mentoring and training to equip young black and minority ethnic people to become board members.

Many people, not just black and Asian people, can鈥檛 see themselves in a boardroom because it is not something they鈥檝e thought about or thought they needed to know about

Before that she was chair of BME National, a representative body for housing associations who define themselves as BME (black and minority ethnic) organisations 鈥� meaning they cater predominantly for people from particular communities. Many of these organisations were created in the 1970s and 1980s to raise awareness of issues of race and diversity and to tackle the lack of quality housing for BME people.

She knows about this better than most, having been homeless herself as a young black teenager in Bradford. She says: 鈥淚 was homeless as a teenager, then eventually got a council flat. And that鈥檚 where my passion for social housing came about because that enabled me to go back to do my A levels.鈥�

While her love for social housing and greater equality for those from BME communities is born out of her life experience, so too is her work founding Black on Board Ltd.

She says her own first board experience 鈥� at large housing association developer Southern Housing Group between 2009 and 2012 鈥� which she secured through a personal connection, was 鈥渨asted鈥�.

鈥淚 had no idea what I was meant to be doing, I felt intimidated and I was just sat there thinking, 鈥極h well, can I ask this question?鈥� It wasn鈥檛 productive,鈥� she says.

This for Oyedele is why training is important. Her courses focus on topics such as how to read board papers, the role of the company secretary and understanding financial concepts.

鈥淚 genuinely believe that many people, not just black and Asian people, can鈥檛 see themselves in a boardroom because it is not something they鈥檝e thought about or thought they needed to know about,鈥� she says.

鈥淚t is not the cleverest people in the world that are in the boardroom currently. It is about being able to read papers and ask difficult questions, that is it.鈥�

I know from experience, if there鈥檚 two or three non-white people in the room, then you feel more comfortable about having whatever discussion you want to have because you are then speaking just as another board member rather than as 鈥榯he black board member鈥�

Organisations that have all-white boards are problematic. But there are also negative issues connected with having just one BME person on a company board, Oyedele says. When you have one black person, their achievement level is often higher than their white counterparts as they have had to work harder to get there, she argues.

鈥淗aving one black person on a board is not fair, it鈥檚 tokenistic. And it鈥檚 not fair on that one person because then I feel like they carry the weight of everything 鈥榥on-white鈥� on their shoulders.鈥� Sometimes this one black person doubles up as the token female also.

鈥淚 know from experience, if there are two or three non-white people in the room, then you feel more comfortable about having whatever discussion you want to have because you are then speaking just as another board member rather than 鈥榯he black board member鈥欌�漵he says.

Oyedele says she is 鈥渟tarting鈥� with housing as it is a world that she knows. There is also the fact that e, so arguably the pressing need for more representative boards is more evident in social housing than in other industries.

Her CIH presidency campaign, In My Shoes, has seen her launch a whole range of activity to challenge the lack of ethnic and racial diversity in the housing sector鈥檚 boardrooms, all while raising money for Shoe Aid, a charity that distributes shoes to people who need them.

But Oyedele clearly does not want to stop at housing, with her sights set on improving BME representation in boardrooms in other parts of the built environment and beyond.

She mentions her recent reaction to coming across promotional material for a property event as an example:

鈥淭hey will usually have four white men on the cover of the brochure and you look at that and think, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to go there, they will just think I鈥檓 there to serve coffee.鈥�

Oyedele says her perception from what she has heard from various people is that construction has similar issues. So what is the solution?

This is where things get interesting. Oyedele believes raising awareness of the need for inclusivity can only take you so far.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been talking about this for at least the 30 years that I鈥檝e been in the housing sector and just hoping that people will do the right thing hasn鈥檛 worked,鈥� she says.

Instead, she believes a stick is needed, and is planning a petition calling on the government to ensure 鈥渄iversity in leadership, particularly in the boardroom, is regulated and mandated鈥�.

She wants the 黑洞社区 the Future Commission to ultimately recommend regulations stating that a minimum percentage of board members and executive team members are non-white and female, probably set at 33% and 50% respectively.

Oyedele points to new Financial Conduct Authority requirements for listed companies to report on the diversity of board and executive teams with new board targets on a 鈥渃omply or explain basis鈥�.

鈥淚f its good enough for FTSE 100 companies, why is it not good enough for housing? Why is it not good enough for the whole country, for all boards across all industries?鈥�

Oyedele鈥檚 suggestion of leadership diversity enforced for all by government would obviously be a massive step change in regulation, but what would it mean for smaller firms, whether developers, contractors or suppliers?

鈥淚t would be challenging for them and would force them to think out of the box, because as long as it鈥檚 not mandatory it will never happen, that is for certain,鈥� she said.

鈥淧eople are generally lazy in the sense they want to take the easiest route to get someone on the board as quickly as possible.鈥�

But what about smaller firms that operate in relatively white, more rural areas of the UK? What if recruiting non-white board members is too difficult?

If it [regulation of boardroom diversity] is good enough for FTSE 100 companies, why is it not good enough for housing? Why is it not good enough for the whole country, for all boards across all industries?

Oyedele has little sympathy with this argument. Speaking quickly, with the passion in her voice, she says: 鈥淢ost people who say they haven鈥檛 got black people in their area just don鈥檛 see them and, while not everywhere is like Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds or London, most areas do have black people hiding in the background.

鈥淏ut I also think companies need to try. People need to make the effort to go out of their way and recruit from different places, instead of using the same three or four recruitment agencies.

鈥淥ften the candidates I work with on Black on Board won鈥檛 register with the main agencies as they think, 鈥楾hey don鈥檛 want people who look like me鈥�.鈥�

How companies do this will undoubtedly be a debating point for the 黑洞社区 the Future Commission over the next few months. In the meantime, Oyedele has a speech at next week鈥檚 CIH conference in Manchester to prepare for. She will of course be banging the drum for equality, diversity and inclusion among the nation鈥檚 boardrooms.

She says firms will increasingly find it more difficult to recruit the people they need if they do not have more inclusive boards and leadership teams. 鈥淭he country is getting more and more mixed, there鈥檚 going to be a lot more young black, brown and mixed people thinking, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to work for that company because nobody there looks like me鈥�.鈥�

She also says diverse organisations will more easily attract funding as investors increasingly look for ESG outcomes.

One thing she has purposely avoided doing is referring to the wealth of statistics and reports showing that more diverse boards make better decisions, as she believes 鈥渢he business case has been made鈥� and yet people have not listened.

鈥淚鈥檓 going to tell my anecdotal story and maybe that will make people change their minds, cos the stats aren鈥檛 doing it,鈥� she says with a smile.

She hopes that her stories and campaigning will achieve more cut-through than simply addressing the usual sympathetic audiences.

One thing is for sure. If her idea of regulatory enforcement of boardroom diversity for all ever becomes government policy, many more people will have to sit up and listen.