In my career I was regularly faced with the dilemma of whether it is possible to change a broken system from within. There is a deeply embedded culture in the entertainment industry that is committed to maintaining the status quo. Working within that afforded me a platform to connect meaningfully with my community and advocate for positive change outside of the industry, but it also meant working with people whose values didn't align with my own and standing alongside them felt like I was cosigning their behaviour. I asked myself often, was that trade off really worth it? Was the good that I was contributing to my community reason enough to justify staying in a place where myself and other people from marginalised groups were treated so poorly?
Eventually I chose to come forward and lay out the reality in a public forum. I made this decision with the hope that it would contribute to making our industry safer, more inclusive and more accountable. Ultimately I'm proud of that decision.
I definitely feel like who you are is significantly influenced by who you spend time with. If the people around you are exhibiting destructive behaviour, even if you don't agree with it, it becomes normalised. This is how I lived for a long time. When you instead surround yourself with people who demonstrate compassion, empathy, living authentically and doing what's right in action you become empowered to do it yourself. Knowing your values isn't enough to know who you are. Living those values in action is what truly informs your identity.
I am compassionate and open-minded, I like to understand different peoples points of view and approach learning with curiosity. This means I am adaptable to changing my opinions and ideas when given new information.
I am careful and considered in my choices, and make sure to clearly understand what is needed to complete a task before jumping in. This helps with organisation and efficiency, as it means only focusing on relevant work and asking clarifying questions if I need help. I can anticipate and prepare for problems before they arise.
I appreciate the beauty and absurdities of life. I strive to enjoy the process, learn and grow as best I can, and connect and engage with others meaningfully. This leads to healthy working relationships, staying level-headed when things go wrong, and keeping in touch with the big picture.
I will sometimes fixate on a problem if I don't understand it thoroughly, and find it hard to move on to something else. If a simple question is open-ended, I may spend time overthinking what it means.
I struggle with assertiveness and leadership. I'm afraid of being responsible for a process or outcome that affects others.
I can be overly cautious and unwilling to take risks.
I have spent a lot of time working with people who have different values and who had a different vision of what was being created. We would end up debating our points of view over and over, until we both end up compromising and the end result was something neither of us were really proud of.
In the future I would check in regularly throughout the project, to make sure that we agree on the mission and the desired outcome, and share ideas of how we can work collaboratively and utilise everyone's strengths to get there.
Making time to appreciate and celebrate what each person brings to the table, as well as understanding and respecting their limitations is important too.