As organisations navigate an era of rapid technological acceleration, the human element of workplace learning and development remains paramount. A recent discussion on the "Future of Learning" podcast from Open eLMS explored the critical distinction between mere compliance and genuine belonging, delving into how leaders can foster environments where individuals feel truly heard and valued. Host Andy Howie welcomed Gamal Turawa from Purple Frog Connections, a distinguished expert with a career dedicated to understanding the true cost of not being able to be oneself in the workplace.
Turawa, who served 26 years with the Metropolitan Police and became the UK's first openly gay black Chief Inspector, shared profound insights drawn from his personal journey and extensive experience in diversity and inclusion. His "Geology" framework, built around belonging, dignity, curiosity, and courage, challenges organisations to move beyond superficial inclusivity towards deeply embedded psychological safety.
Key Takeaways from the Discussion:
- Belonging vs. Compliance: True belonging goes beyond simply being present in a room; it means being genuinely heard and seen. Compliance, conversely, often masks deeper issues of exclusion and can lead to disengagement.
- The "Right-Hand, Left-Hand" Analogy: Many organisations operate from a "right-handed" default, where the dominant perspective is comfortable and unexamined, inadvertently excluding "left-handers" without malice. The goal should be to foster an "ambidextrous" environment.
- Identifying Lack of Psychological Safety: Leaders should listen for who is consistently quiet, whose ideas are overlooked until repeated by others, and whether individuals feel safe enough to speak their truth.
- The Five Bs Framework: Gamal Turawa's framework – Belonging, Before, Beside, Behind, Never Belittle – provides a practical guide for turning good intentions into tangible, everyday behaviours. Organisations often struggle most with 'Before' (preparing the environment) and 'Beside' (supporting without taking over).
- Embracing Ambiguity and Humanity: Progress in diversity and inclusion is fluid, not linear. Organisations must move away from rigid "boxes" and embrace the complexities of human identity, focusing on "what it means to be human" rather than categorising individuals.
- AI's Role in Human-Centred Learning: While AI can enhance learning delivery, there is a risk it could prioritise efficiency over genuine capability building. AI models for leadership behaviour change must be designed to promote curiosity, comfort with discomfort, and ambiguity, rather than creating false certainty.
- Training Human Leaders: Effective leadership training must cultivate emotional intelligence and the ability to sit with discomfort, empowering leaders to foster psychological safety rather than relying solely on rank or position.
Unpacking Belonging and the Cost of Silence
The conversation began by contrasting belonging with compliance. Gamal Turawa recounted experiences in organisations where, despite being a keynote speaker on LGBT issues, he felt like a "visitor, not a member of the community" due to a lack of genuine representation and follow-up. He highlighted how conversations about change often remain exclusionary, even when the stated intent is inclusion.
Turawa introduced a powerful analogy: "If you're a right-handed organisation, everybody who's right-handed doesn't see a problem because everything works for a right-hander. If a left-hander comes in, it's like, 'Oh, okay, but we need to go and have a right-handed conversation with no – you need to have an ambidextrous conversation.'" This illustrates how unconscious biases can perpetuate environments where certain voices are naturally amplified while others are muted.
Identifying a lack of psychological safety, Turawa explained, involves observing subtle cues: "You notice who gets heard, whose ideas are always coming to the surface... You notice that people are always quiet. Why are they always quiet? You're losing good ideas." Such environments lead to individuals merely "treading water" rather than being fully productive and engaged.
The Five Bs: A Framework for Authentic Behaviour
Gamal Turawa's "Geology" framework translates intentions into actionable behaviours through "the Five Bs": Belonging, Before, Beside, Behind, and Never Belittle.
- Belonging: The overarching goal – creating a space where individuals feel truly accepted.
- Before: Considering the existing environment and individual baggage before an interaction. Have we created an ambidextrous environment, or do we expect people to fit into a right-handed one?
- Beside: Working with people, supporting them without taking over or making oneself the story, ensuring they retain agency and voice.
- Behind: What is said or done when people are not in the room? How are groups and individuals discussed in their absence?
- Never Belittle: Speaking to people in a way that preserves their dignity, avoiding condescending remarks.
Turawa noted that organisations most commonly fall short on the 'Before' and 'Beside' aspects. He cited an example from policing where a complaint from a black officer was handled with excessive caution due to fear of racism accusations, inadvertently creating an unequal and disempowering process. "They frame it from their perspective, not from the perspective that matters most," he observed.
The Fluid Journey of Inclusion and the Power of Self-Definition
Progress in diversity and inclusion, Turawa argued, is not a linear trajectory but a fluid, often fragile, journey. Complacency can lead to backsliding, as evidenced by major reports or incidents that expose systemic failures. The world is constantly changing, with evolving understandings of identity and personal expression, yet many organisations struggle to keep pace.
Addressing the sentiment that too much time is spent "talking about what's wrong," Turawa reframed the issue as a continuum. Early efforts focused on allowing individuals to be "their letter" (A, B, C) without emphasising that "you're all part of the alphabet." The current challenge is to bring people back to the understanding that collective humanity is paramount. "It shouldn't be about being black, being gay, being a woman. To me, it's about what does it mean to be human?" he stated.
Turawa’s personal narrative powerfully illustrated the problem with "boxes." As a black, gay man raised partly as a Muslim, he found himself unable to fully belong in either the Black Police Association (which celebrated his race but tolerated his sexuality) or the Gay Police Association (which celebrated his sexuality but rejected his race). "The idea of putting people into nice, neat boxes doesn't work because we don't all fit into nice, neat boxes," he explained. This struggle for belonging can lead to individuals feeling marginalised and disengaged, significantly impacting their productivity and well-being. His journey of self-discovery, prompted by a counsellor asking "who defines you?", underscores the profound importance of self-definition in an individual's sense of belonging and agency.
Effective Training and the Human Touch
Reflecting on his own "monumental" training experiences within the police, Turawa highlighted the value of programmes that "peeled away the onion skins" to get to the core of self-concept. He referenced models like FIRO (Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation) and Gestalt facilitation, which focus on understanding how self-concept drives feelings and behaviours. This type of training helps individuals recognise that their reactions are often rooted in their own experiences and perceptions, rather than solely in the external situation.
A crucial aspect of effective training and dialogue, Turawa stressed, is the role of a skilled facilitator who can create a safe space for difficult conversations without bringing their own "baggage" into the room. Such facilitators help participants move beyond surface-level anger to uncover the root causes of frustration, which often have little to do with identity and more to do with broader socio-economic factors. The power of being truly heard, without judgment, can be transformative.
AI, Humanity, and the Future of Leadership Learning
Turning to the intersection of technology and human development, Gamal Turawa expressed a concern that AI could inadvertently reduce learning to an "efficient delivery machine" rather than a tool for building genuine human capability. In the EDI and human connection space, the risk lies in losing "the humanity within it." AI models, he argued, must be designed with sufficient complexity to recognise the nuances of the human condition, promoting "clarity over certainty."
When asked what he would refuse to let AI do in a leadership behaviour change programme, Turawa outlined five key principles:
- Curiosity over Certainty: AI should encourage questioning rather than providing definitive answers.
- Comfort with Discomfort: It should help users navigate uncomfortable truths.
- Focus over Filtering: Promoting broad understanding rather than narrow perspectives.
- Intent alongside Impact: Acknowledging that good intentions don't always lead to positive outcomes.
- Ambiguity over Absolutes: Embracing the complexities of life rather than seeking simplistic solutions.
"If we could put those five things into that AI package, that would be brilliant," he said, emphasising that the goal should be to raise awareness and generate questions, not just provide answers.
Ultimately, the discussion underscored the need for leaders who are "human," open, and capable of sitting with discomfort without hiding behind their rank. Training programmes must cultivate emotional intelligence and the qualities necessary to foster genuine belonging and psychological safety.
Empowering Human-Centred Learning with Open eLMS
The insights shared by Gamal Turawa highlight a critical challenge for organisations: how to leverage technology to scale learning while preserving and enhancing the human elements of belonging, psychological safety, and authentic development.
Open eLMS understands this balance. As a leading one-supplier solution for learning and development, Open eLMS offers an AI-powered Learning Management System (LMS) designed not just for efficiency, but for effective human-centred growth. Tools like the Open eLMS Learning Generator empower L&D teams to create custom eLearning courses, videos, podcasts, and gamified content in minutes, freeing up valuable time for facilitators to focus on the nuanced, human-centric discussions that drive true behaviour change.
With features such as Skills Monitoring to identify gaps and track competency development, Custom Reporting with Power BI integration for deep analytics, and a comprehensive Personnel Management system, Open eLMS provides the infrastructure to support a culture of belonging. Our 4,200+ CPD-accredited eLearning courses in the Open eLMS eLearning Store cover essential compliance and soft skills, ensuring that foundational knowledge is accessible, while the highly configurable Custom Roles & Permissions allow organisations to tailor access and support to individual needs.
Open eLMS is committed to being a trusted partner, helping EdTech professionals, L&D managers, and business leaders create learning environments where every individual feels seen, heard, and empowered to contribute their full, authentic self.
To explore how Open eLMS can transform your corporate training and foster a culture of true belonging, visit https://www.openelms.com today.