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Employee Perspective: Celebrating Diversity of Thought and Action
August 22, 2021
In my role on the leadership team for our employee resource network group supporting women working at Alnylam (iThrive), I interact with colleagues across the globe. And even though we represent different diverse functions and jobs, the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced us out of comfort zones to confront issues in more direct and inclusive ways. We have all had to come together, trusting each other to come up with solutions that celebrate diversity of thought and action.
Over the last year, Alnylam has adapted to a pandemic worldand done so at speed. It’s one of our core company values – we act with urgency because patients are waiting for us to provide treatments that may help them fight their rare diseases. And through these extraordinary times we have found new ways to demonstrate such responsiveness so we can continue to provide personalised solutions.
The first way we can do this is at work. Through laptop cameras, we have learned more about each other’s individual circumstances in these past months. We’ve met our colleagues’ children parents and pets, seen each other struggle and helped each other laugh, provided support and found it in return.
The pandemic digital window has shed light on who we are and why we matter to each other. By seeing in sharp focus how different we are from each other, we have become stronger through being more accepting of such diversity.
Our challenge now will be to continue demonstrating that commitment as we return to some sense of normality. We must take the learnings of the past year and adapt them again to inspire greater innovation, daring and collaboration – ensuring that inclusivity remains as valued as diversity.
The so-called ‘Zoom effect’ has compelled us to be more empathetic at work – to lead teams in more collaborative ways so no one feels excluded, despite not being in the same room. Pre-Covid, we didn’t really question our biases. Now, having experienced such profound change, we are beginning to positively reassess thought processes and behaviours that may have stymied inclusivity.
The second way we can provide new solutions is amongst our partners and patients, where the Alnylam mantra - Challenge Accepted – is most prominent. Our challenge is to embed these transformational learnings into our culture so that we can better serve patients’ needs. So that no matter where we are, who we are, what our skills and backgrounds might be, we can be more responsive.
Like the mother of a six-year-old patient suffering from primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) who I met recently. Her child’s devastating auto-immune illness means she might need a liver and kidney transplant at some point in the future. We listened to her story and immediately responded just as we do at the start our internal meetings: ‘As a biotechnology company, how can we offer support that’s even more meaningful than what we do already?’
That’s what this pandemic has taught us above all – that we must always strive to find a better and more inclusive way of doing things.
The greatest resource we have at Alnylam is our people. Even though we’ve suffered from being apart, we’ve grown closer because of our insights into each other. For a company like ours - which relies upon collaboration within laboratories and across borders, inside our offices and amongst support groups - this period has seen us understand the value of inclusive individuality even more.
The more diverse our skills, insights and backgrounds, the stronger our networks and the more effective our solutions. For each other and those we serve every day – our patients. Their lives depend on it.
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