May 2021

Australians who received with joy and satisfaction the news that same-sex marriage is now legal in our country must have been outraged by a disconcerting legal battle that is taking place in the USA.

At about the same time that the Australian parliament was putting the finishing touches to the law allowing gay marriage, the US Supreme Court was hearing a case between a gay couple and a baker who had refused to bake a cake for their wedding.

In July, 2012 Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins entered the Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado. They were met with a riposte from the owner Jack Phillips who said “Guys , I don’t make cakes for same-sex weddings” .Later Phillips explained that although he was prepared to serve gay people as individuals his beliefs as a Christian would not permit him to bake a cake which would by implication mean approving of a form of marriage which his religion considered to be objectionable.

The baker, Phillips, was held to have discriminated against the couple by the Colorado Supreme Court. However not content, he appealed to the Supreme Court. Here he argued that compelling him to provide a cake for a same sex marriage would violate his constitutional rights to freedom of religion as well as the right to freedom of expression. This second line of argument was based on the contention that producing a wedding cake is an artistic expression like a sculpture which Phillips was entitled to dispense at his will. A decision is awaited.

It appears from reports that the American populace as well as the Supreme Court is divided on ideological lines in this matter. While it is not unusual in the USA for social issues to find their way into the courts, it would be unfortunate and painful for the gay community if that were to be repeated in this country. One can only hope that for Australians the rancour and divisiveness which led up to the plebiscite and which was extended into the parliamentary debate will not be manifested in continued acts of exclusion and vilification of members of the gay community.

The Australian statute permits ministers of religion to refuse to solemnise same sex marriage if it is against their principles and indeed this is the only additional protection which is really required. A trader offering goods for sale to the public should not be entitled to refuse to sell to parties engaging in a perfectly lawful activity- which is exactly what a same-sex marriage now is.

We at Symmetra understand that simply passing a law will not automatically change the hearts and minds of those who are not only implacably opposed to same-sex marriage but  who would  also deny the rights of respect and dignity to members of the LGBTI community which they should be able to expect as matter of course.

Legalising same-sex marriage is a huge step forward but there is still work to be done before discrimination against our gay community is truly a thing of the past

Businesses today have to deal with ambiguous and complex challenges which increasingly rely on harnessing of a range of skills and a reliance upon interdisciplinary perspectives.

Examples are legion. Nanotechnology achieves its spectacular breakthroughs by drawing upon the skills of physicists, biologists and chemists. Disease control efforts bring together public health officials, behavioural scientists and epidemiologists.

Complex issues can rarely be solved by a single expert working alone, no matter how smart he or she is and indeed the same limitation applies to homogeneous teams trained in a single discipline.

Getting beyond this overarching obstacle requires some form of collaboration with people or groups who have different skills. Collaboration is the conscious and deliberate integration of skills, experience and expertise from different individuals and groups who each have something distinct or unique to contribute. Collaboration frequently requires an interaction with individuals who operate in spheres which are separated by one or other kind of boundary. Such boundaries may be geographical, legal, cultural, linguistic, operational or knowledge-based.

“Boundary spanning” – the act of linking individuals and teams across these borders – presents difficulties, because individuals and inward- focussed groups are not naturally attuned to address problems by broadening the scope of their investigations or by inviting contributions from people whose skills they are unfamiliar with. There is also a natural tendency towards increased specialisation to deal with the complexity of the current marketplace, which leads to increased siloing of organisations. These silos eventually encompass self-contained units, between which knowledge does not easily pass.

Management theory and research make it clear that individuals and teams tend to favour the safer exploitation or extension of current knowledge rather than embarking upon an exploration of entirely new areas of knowledge. Learning new things comes at a significant cost in time and effort and engaging with other individuals and teams involves risk and uncertainty. A number of strategies can be employed to facilitate cross-boundary spanning and Symmetra’s experience in helping organisations build inclusive cultures to leverage diversity of thought provides valuable insight that inform some of the issues and mechanics of cross-boundary teaming.

Diverse attributes can be either visible – including such characteristics as race, gender, age and ethnicity – or they may reflect a deeper underlying diversity based upon educational background, work-style, cultural perspectives or modes of thinking. The latter category of diversity can be encapsulated under the mantra of “knowledge diversity”. Leveraging knowledge diversity has become a primary feature of driving innovation and securing competitive advantage for businesses. Diverse knowledge may be located within specific teams or may be spread across a number of teams separated from each other and working independently, often in ignorance of what colleagues are doing and lacking the benefits that cross-pollination of boundary-spanning can bring.

In many ways, the skills required to span boundaries formed by visible diversity are the same skills required to span functional and organisational boundaries. Having a curious mindset which values differences, the capability to adapt to different ways of thinking and working, and the know-how to create environment of psychological safety, are crucial in both cases.

Symmetra has been working over several years with domestic organisations in the Asia Pacific as well as with global organisations spread geographically to imbed an inclusive culture throughout internal teams and across boundaries. Our model and definition of inclusion includes boundary spanning as a pivotal component, as it is one of the key indicators of a leader’s skills to create inclusion in their team as well as deliver innovative outcomes by leveraging diverse perspectives.

Through extensive data gathered via our dedicated inclusion-measuring tools, Symmetra is able to pin-point some of the critical areas which constitute challenges for leveraging diversity and which could stand in the way of successful boundary-spanning efforts.

To hear more about boundary-spanning join us at our next Symmetra Connect Session: Bridges, Tunnels and Pole Vaults on 29 August: 

Australia (as well as other countries in the Asia- Pacific region) could potentially reap massive economic benefits by 2025 if it takes accelerated steps towards gender parity. This is the conclusion drawn from the just- released report by McKinsey Global Institute—ThePower of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Asia Pacific

The report calculates that the region by “advancing women’s equality could add $4.5 trillion to their collective annual GDP by 2025, a 12 percent increase over the business as usual trajectory.“ Australia, it is projected, could increase its GDP by $225 billion (at today’s rate equivalent to AUD 297 billion) which in percentage terms makes it one of the biggest potential beneficiaries in the region to advance gender equality.

The three main economic levers for achieving this very significant extra growth, according to the researchers, are: increasing women’s labour force participation rate, increasing the number of hours women work and raising women’s productivity relative to men’s by adding more women in higher paid sectors.

Fundamental to the report is the premise that equality in the workplace cannot be achieved without equality in society. Accordingly, metrics across a range of societal and economic dimensions form the basis of the report’s calculations.

The report is particularly relevant to Australia because it is one of seven countries that has a specific section dedicated to it. In many areas (such as maternal mortality and education levels) but not all, Australia is a leader in the region regarding the advancement of women. Nevertheless, even in some of the areas where it leads, notably gender equality at work, there is much ground to cover before the full potential of the country’s women can be realised. On the global scale, Australia is lagging the best, but the report notes that Australia has the opportunity to be a leader if the appropriate steps are taken.

Symmetra will be covering the MGI POWER OF PARITY report more extensively in its soon-to-be-released Symmetra Quarterly together with many other D & I issues of interest.

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