Secret Musings of a Change Agent 11 - Shirley Woods Gallagher
What makes ordinary people great at making change happen? What characteristics do they share? What path have they followed? What’s their attitude to failure? And what advice would they give to others? I’m continuing my mission to understand more to help us understand how we build change capacity in our organisations for the future. This week, I’m talking neurodiversity in leadership with Shirley Woods-Gallager, Assistant Director of Commissioning and Partnerships at Oldham Council.
Anyone who knows me knows that one of the things I care very deeply about is diversity. I can’t tell you how privileged I feel to be able to dive into the arena of neurodiversity in leadership this week. Shirley Woods-Gallagher is a brilliantly intelligent, visionary leader and she’s very recently had her identify confirmed as autistic. Shirley has taken the brave step to talk about this publicly and true to her “Anna with a Banner” persona (more about this later), she’s determined she’s going to give everything she’s got to make change happen. I couldn’t wait to talk to Shirley and hear about her experiences and where she intends to go next on her journey of fabulousness.
Shirley started her journey into fighting for social justice at a very young age. At just 10 years old, she was waving political banners and began going on marches. Her dad used to call her “Anna with a Banner”. For Shirley “it’s what felt right”. Social justice. Rights. Equality. So it’s little surprise to hear that Shirley was in the first cohort when at university who got the chance to work in the EU Parliament for six months with a further six months in UK Parliament. She thought she wanted to be an M.P. but the whole experience put her off. She talks of people physically turning their back on her because she didn’t fit the mould - she was Northern, working class and female and knowing Shirley now, I would imagine pretty feisty. She tells a story about standing waiting for a lobbyist to arrive and an M.P. sidling over to her and saying “Hadn’t we better start coming to work in a nun’s outfit lady”.
“Anna with a Banner”
Shirley’s fight for social justice started young
Dreams of becoming an M.P. squashed, Shirley changed course and took a PhD in political science with plans of becoming a university lecturer. Her experiences here weren’t much better. She talks of the misogynistic culture where male PhD students were given many more teaching hours that female students. She lost heart. The place she thought she’d found to forward her passion for social justice felt inauthentic and unreal.
After gaining her Doctorate, Shirley took a step back to look at where she could make a difference, took a job with Christian Aid and helped to found Stockport Refugee Support Group. Shirley stayed here for a while. She was making a difference and able to focus on “the right things” but ultimately she found herself in a dilemma. With big debts from all her study and dreams of buying a house and having children, she needed to earn more money. She started to look around and saw an advert for a policy officer job in housing at Manchester Council. With no direct experience, she knew she had transferable skills and felt this would enable her to make a difference. She took a gamble - and it paid off.
Shirley talks of some of the people she met from her very first contact with the council at her interview. Susan Triggs, former Assistant Director of Housing, who she describes as a “powerhouse of innovation” and who saw the potential in her. She believed in Shirley and rather than taking the safe option of employing someone who had done the job before, she saw her values and recognised her transferable skills. And then once in post, she gave Shirley the innovation work. And that was it. Shirley felt at home. She was given opportunities to apply her brain in a way that brought fresh thinking and evidence based practice to areas crucial to tackling social justice such as anti-social behaviour and early years.
Shirley was hugely drawn to the people she met who shared her values. People like Jackie Driver, an out lesbian talking about disability rights, and Jackie Bailey who was powerfully advocating for race, equality and inclusion. Shirley joined the Council around the time of the IRA bomb that rocked the city to its core but then became the catalyst for the transformation of the place. Shirley talks of how the Irish tensions were very real to her. Her father in law, an Irish catholic, married her mum in law, a Yorkshire protestant and was cut off from his family as a result. As the response to the bomb became all about the love of Manchester, Shirley felt the vision in a very real way.
I think by now you’ll be getting a measure of Shirley. She’s absolutely driven by her values. Where she feels a misalignment with her values, she’s not afraid to walk away. Where values align, Shirley gives it her all and flourishes in her ability to bring different perspectives to real life challenges.
When I ask Shirley about failures she’s learned from along the way, she talks about her naivety in believing that everyone wants to make the world a better place and is driven by values. She’s found learning that this isn’t the case to be a rocky road, hard to make sense of. She’s honest in saying that she still struggles with it and manages it day to day by minimising contact with people who don’t share her values.
“Autism is my super power”
Shirley enjoys making sense of complex stuff in a simplistic way
Shirley sees her autistic identity as a gift. In fact, she sees it as her super power. “Diagnosed” (she prefers identify confirmation as she says she is not ill) only this year, it’s helped her to make sense of herself. She says her challenge has been not knowing. She found the transition to adulthood particularly difficult. She was made to feel “weird” and “a freak” by people around her because she’s different. “You can’t help absorb the prejudice and internalise it”, says Shirley. And yet, her autistic identity gives Shirley some huge talents and a fantastic ability to make change happen. Shirley’s got no mental capacity for getting involved in office politics, dramas or game playing. She’s dedicated to applying her brain to making a difference. “I’m here to do a job, to improve things and to embed reflective practice”, Shirley says, “I enjoy making sense of complex stuff in a simplistic way”. And what a skill that is - read any future forecast about the key skills of leaders and this one always features. Shirley is ahead of the game.
“You can’t help absorb the prejudice and internalise it”
Unsurprisingly Shirley has a vision. She’s talking to people about how we have a “Pride for neurodiversity”. We have pride events to celebrate other forms of diversity, so why not neurodiversity? I’m excited to see where this goes because if I know Shirley, she’ll darn well make it happen.
The support that Shirley has received along the way has clearly had a big impact on her journey. As well as Susan Triggs, Shirley talks about Marlene Piper, her History teacher at secondary school who, at a time when Shirley was enduring a dreadful time, saw her potential and reached out to talk to her parents about her talents. Shirley tracked her down and wrote to her when she got her PhD. She also talks with fondness about Kieran McDermott, Chief Executive of One Education, who after hearing her speak at an event for Headteachers on early years old her that she was the first person in a long time to fundamentally challenge her thinking. He went on to become a big source of support to Shirley. He told her he has thought her recent identify confirmation is inspiring.
I end by asking Shirley what her advice would be to aspiring change agents. True to form, she keeps it simple and impactful. Be your authentic self. Think big. Live your values.
What an inspiring conversation I had with Shirley. It leaves me thinking about how we help organisations to create more spaces that value and hear diverse views. I get so frustrated by stories of people feeling they need to “fit the mould” to be successful. Matthew Syed makes such a powerful case in his book “Rebel Ideas” for enabling diverse perspectives in our decision making. Shirley is a brilliant example of why we should do more of this. So I’ll sign off this week with a call to action: Think about what you can do as a leader to create spaces for people who think differently to thrive.
If you’re inspired to dive deeper into what makes ordinary people great at making change happen, check out my Secret Musings of a Change agent series.
