Ripples
Ripples
Celebrating a decade of disability leadership
By Christina Ryan DLI CEO
How do you measure the ripples that a single thought creates?
A decade ago I had an idea. What might happen if we created a space where disability leadership was given the attention it deserved? What might happen if disabled people had somewhere to go for their leadership development that wasn’t just a once off program or a passing government policy, but a constant presence?
What might happen if we put the two words disability and leadership together in a sentence?
Ten years later we are starting to find out, but we’ve only just begun.
It is easy to quantify the hundreds of disability leaders who have attended Disability Leadership Institute programs and coaching. It is easy to count the number of members the DLI has welcomed in a decade. It is also easy to count the growing number of organisations who have come to the DLI searching for disabled talent for their vacancies or asking for an inhouse leadership program, but none of these tell us what change has happened or the impact that the DLI has made.
How far does a ripple go when a small pebble is dropped in a wide ocean?
How much light does a tiny spark create in a very dark night?
The real impact of the Disability Leadership Institute is unquantifiable.
The term disability leadership has gone from nonexistence to being used widely by community, government, business and academia. Using those two words together has also sparked conversations and awareness, leading to more and more organisations delivering in house disability leadership programs and searching specifically for more disabled talent.
Organisations tell the DLI that their disability leadership programs have resulted in growth in the number of people being openly disabled at work. When being disabled is a criteria for participation, people feel valued by their employers and there is suddenly a reason to be open. Rather than disability being all about the organisation and its statistics, it becomes about career paths and being wanted.
How do you measure the career impact for people who have undertaken DLI programs or coaching that changed their perception of their career to understanding that senior leadership was possible for them? Where are they all now?
Something the DLI never planned for is the DLI members community. Ten years ago the idea of having a self funded professional network of disability leaders was laughable. Half of all disabled people survive on welfare and don’t have enough money to live on. The half that are in paid employment are often on low incomes or insecure incomes with little money to spare. Yet, somehow, the DLI membership has grown into the largest professional network of disability leaders in Australia.
The DLI members community stretches across all Australian states and territories, with several international members because there is no other organisation like this anywhere on the planet. DLI members are at all career stages, they come from a very diverse range of professions and industries, and they have one thing in common – they are all disabled people who have finally found somewhere that they can connect with other people like them. People who have gone from being the only one in their workplace to being part of a community of professionals facing similar challenges, a similar sense of isolation, and have faced the same barriers to career advancement.
The DLI members community has become a powerful professional network that has connected people who would never otherwise have met. Those connections resulted in a collaboration that changed the Fair Work Australia resources on disability, produced partnerships between entrepreneurs to work with some of our leading universities on access planning, and provided countless openings for positions on boards. DLI members have introduced each other to organisations and resources that have changed career directions and provided speaking and profile opportunities that led to advancement.
Through the DLI members community there is a growing expectation that disabled people should be appointed to executive level and board positions. DLI members alert each other to opportunities, have coached each other in applying for jobs, and helped each other prepare for interviews.
Disability leadership has also become a field of research, particularly by disabled academics and policy specialists. As increasing numbers of disabled people move into professional spaces and advance to senior positions, there is a growing awareness that the way we do leadership is different. This matters and it needs to be understood and documented.
How do you measure the impact of the ripples created by a single idea a decade ago?
The DLI dropped a pebble in an ocean. Its first ten years saw the ripples created embed the concept of disability leadership, open a space, and establish a community. Now DLI members are riding those ripples into new oceans and changing the way leadership is understood.
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Christina Ryan is the CEO of the Disability Leadership Institute, which provides professional development and support for disability leaders. She identifies as a disabled person.