It's disability, not inability – that's why I want to be remembered!

I can't think of anything more flattering than having your name attached to an annual lecture series on an important topic. What a way to be remembered! At the last Fiona Woolf Lecture, organised by the Women Lawyers Division (which I chaired in its previous form), as it has been for the last 12 years since I was president of the Law Society, I took the Lawyers’ with Disabilities Division somewhat by surprise by saying that I would like to be remembered for my work on diversity and inclusion in the context of disabilities. 

I could argue that I have had enough accolades not to worry about being remembered for my work on diversity and inclusion. My DBE has it in the citation, I am a patron of Pride and the programme called 'The Power of Inclusion' - which I started in 2013 when I was lord mayor of London - is still running and covering social inclusion. Maybe it is because I don’t feel I have done enough on disabilities or because I am now disabled myself (with adult degenerative scoliosis) but I am more motivated than ever to make a contribution.

Happily, we have the platform of a major study Legally Disabled, led by Professor Debbie Foster of Cardiff University Business School, on which to make progress. Reasonable adjustments in organisations – best practice and easy wins and actions points for disability inclusion have been added by the Lawyers’ with Disabilities Division.

This is an organisation that I have known for years, always building relationships and getting into the detail of how to help disabled people develop their full potential and succeed, which, after all, is what their employers and clients want.

The concept of the reasonable workplace adjustment is helpful. Once it is in place, it provides the starting point for progression. I know from my own physical experience that we need to ask the question 'what would help you realise your full potential' rather than assuming there is some sort of norm that will fit or that it will be exotic and difficult.

As far as progression is concerned, I think that the issues are not very different to those that apply to anyone else in the workplace. The fact of the matter is that we are all different and our development needs to reach our full potential vary. The Legally Disabled website has considerable analysis and useful tools on both recruitment and progression which are easy to read and absorb. They resonate with the work that I did on progression with the Cass (now the Bayes) and the Ashridge Business Schools, under the title 'Unleashing the Power of Diversity – Motivation, Measurement and Management'. A particular worry at the time, which remains, was the loss of diversity in the talent pipeline feeding senior positions.

We looked at how the keepers of leaking talent pipelines were motivated and measured. In the context of the conventional law firm business model, the mid-level team leaders and supervisors were motivated and measured largely through income generation targets (chargeable hours) which gave them very little time or inclination to attend to the needs of their followers and team members. What the followers needed was access to good quality experience and on-the-job support to develop their full potential as they rose in the pipeline. The lack of management and team development skills with no real understanding of inclusive working practices would give rise to significant attrition of talent after a few years of promising progress. People would feel excluded rather than included and leave. This business culture would particularly disadvantage disabled team members, perhaps because of the fear of the supervisor they would take up more very precious time. Attrition rates were not measured on an individual basis, nor were productivity or flexibility.

The importance of good work allocation practices is not lost on law firms now and there have been changes in appraisal systems which are no longer an annual tick the box process. Some training programmes have been disappointing, particularly on unconscious bias and general diversity and inclusion which have not been found to move the needle on the dial. There’s more work to be done on performance management systems and inclusive leadership practices where the supervisor is both motivated and measured on addressing the needs of his or her followers or team members.

Legally Disabled usefully focuses on practices that include a specific disabled element such as targets on recruitment, performance and progression, supervision training and appraisal and measurement practices. There are suggestions for Disability Champions and Disability Supervisors. Empowering and holding to account are important ingredients in organisations that are making a concerted management effort on diversity and inclusion. We need both in our recipes for success.

I am not looking for another accolade, but I am keen to do what I can to champion diversity and inclusion in a better workplace for disabled people. That’s why I have participated in a roundtable on disability inclusion with senior leaders in large law firms, in-house and smaller firms with the Gazette.

I first heard the expression 'it’s disability not inability' when I met the small Paralympic team from the Gambia in 2012. I shall always remember it and the two of them who still inspire me.

Dame Fiona Woolf, DBE, DL, is past president of the Law Society of England and Wales