Teambuilding Through Small Things
Issues of gender equality, inclusion and diversity have reached the initial stage of maturity, prompting a debate which is both local and international. We should move up to a new level, by supporting and encouraging initiatives that have concrete implications in firms and transnationally. This dual focus can lead to overcoming widespread stereotypes and, in parallel, maintaining a vertical attention on the peculiarities of each country. “From my personal experience despite what one might believe, Chinese society does not seem to show aspects that – in the world of work – are so dissimilar from European society,” says Violante di Canossa, Chief Economist and Head of the Strategic Partnerships and Policy Team at UNDP China (United Nations Development Program). “Of course, gender disparities persist as elsewhere but, among other things, women do represent a growing portion of STEM students and professionals. It is therefore a shame that they seldom sit on company boards, as is also the case in Italy.” In her work, di Canossa is committed to analyzing each project also in light of the contribution to gender equity an initiative can make, because “UNDP China has a major focus on green transition programs but the transition must pay significant attention to the social context, addressing gender issues and other issues such as the protection of the most vulnerable groups in local communities. The magnifying glass on social aspects is applied to various sectors, from construction to manufacturing, and also in various green transition paths, including the protection of biodiversity or the strategy for lowering the dependence on coal in industrial sectors,” says the official.
A Bocconi graduate in Economics with a Master's degree from the London School of Economics, di Canossa previously worked at the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), a Swiss thinktank, and, before that, she worked as economist for Crédit Suisse in London for 10 years. “I had the opportunity to meet many great professionals and some of them became my mentors,” recalls di Canossa from her office in China. “In general, I could say that my personal points of reference are in some cases colleagues, former colleagues and friends, and in other cases persons I reported or I report to.”
They are two distinct groups that fulfill two distinct needs: “I usually ask the former for advice on how to orient my overall career, while from the latter I can get more specific suggestions on the work environment, on how to make it feel more mine and an more cohesive,” emphasizes the Bocconi alumna who has created her way to instill the propensity for exchanging ideas to her own work team (about fifty people, only five non-Chinese). It can be defined as teambuilding through small things and laid-back socializing, like having lunch together or through informal chats with individual colleagues, to have the right kind of privacy and be able to also talk about life outside the office. "My effort goes towards building bridges between people of different ages and genders having disparate life stories and geographical origins," says the UN official.
There is one thing that di Canossa is keen to add: addressing gender issues does not only serve to fill a gap but also allows people to get used to a mindset that usually makes them look beyond the choice of hiring collaborators or selecting speakers from the usual lists. And, if you are in doubt that you were chosen because you are a woman, "it shouldn’t be a major problem. If anything, there is a stronger incentive to transform the situation into a source of new opportunities, without fear of not being up to the role. If you hear back from them, it is clear that gender has nothing to do with it but that an appreciation for the person’s skills has prevailed."
