Briefing on Employee Forums
Context
Objective


The Male Champions of Change approach is based on a Listening,
Learning and Leading approach:

Listening to understand the facts, relevant research,
existing frameworks and what has and hasn’t worked in
the past.

Learning through engagement with women peers,
gender experts and our own employees – women and
men – to perspectives on the issue, new ideas and
potential solutions.

Leading through action, starting within our own
organisations.
Proposed
Approach
The Founding MCCs tell us that an important part of their journey
was to add to their existing knowledge base by personal
engagement to:

develop a deep level of insight into the barriers that need
to be tackled within their own organisation and broader
society

Surface 2-3 bold and innovative ideas to be
implemented either within their own organisation or
across the group
Next Steps

The proposal is that each leader complete 2-3 focus groups within
their own company (separately) with women and men with the
goal of:

Identifying cultures and conditions that allow women
to thrive

Generating bold and innovative ideas to be considered
by each company and the Group

Aspiration is for each Champion to “buddy up” with another Male
peer. The Founding MCC Non-Executive Directors have agreed to
support. This will:

Send a powerful symbol of commitment

Bring a fresh set of eyes to the issues within each
company

Secretariat to distribute Guide which will include detailed approach
to groups – including suggested demographics, questions and best
way to capture findings

Leaders to fill out simple templates capturing insights and potential
next steps

A summary of insights and potential actions to be discussed on
DATE.
Example from founding Male Champions of Change group – Focus group script
“Myself and other MCCs are conducting a series of focus groups within our businesses to understand more deeply the conditions and culture that enable women to thrive
and succeed into leadership positions.
We have committed to working together to identify and implement 3-5 progressive and high impact actions to ‘change the game’ on the unacceptably low levels of women
in our executive positions & pipelines. Our focus will be on listening to understand, identify, respond and institutionalise the conditions and culture that will enable more
women to thrive. We will collate the feedback from all of these sessions and develop an action plan that we will commit to within our organisations, while also using our
collective influence to achieve change on barriers that might exist at a societal level.
I have a few questions / thought starters, but this this session is really about listening to your ideas and feedback.”
Questions for Senior Executive women
Questions for High Potential Women
Questions for Senior Male leaders

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Thinking about your career – what are the conditions
and culture you believe have helped you to perform,
develop, progress and thrive? In your life? Within our
business / your team? In society?
What formal policies within our business do you feel
may have supported or inhibited the rate of your
advancement?
Are there any additional barriers within our organisation
that you feel were impediments to your advancement?

Are there any obvious barriers within society that were
impediments to your advancement?

What’s the one or two changes that you believe would
make the most significant difference in advancing more
women –including future generations - into leadership
positions?

Thinking about your career and future aspirations –
what are the conditions and culture you believe you will
need to perform, develop, progress and thrive? In your
life? Within our business / your team? In society?
Who are the role models you look up to in our business
and why?

Are there any obvious barriers within our organisation
or society that may impact this?

What’s the one or two changes that you believe would
make the most significant difference in advancing more
women into leadership positions?


Thinking about the women in your leadership team /
pipeline; what are the conditions and culture you
believe have helped them to perform, develop, progress
and thrive?
What do you perceive are the barriers to meaningful
gains in women in leadership within our business:
Personal? Within our business? In society?
What’s the one or two changes that we could make that
would make the most significant difference in advancing
more women – including future generations - into
leadership positions?