A few weeks ago the Netflix documentary film My Octopus Teacher won the Academy award for Best Documentary. The film breathtakingly captures the unusual friendship between a free diver and an octopus living in a South African kelp forest. For nearly a year filmmaker Craig Foster documents his daily underwater visits while sharing lessons from his observations and interactions. It is a stunning depiction of how being immersed in an environment can allow someone to develop a new way of thinking and completely shift paradigms.
In market research, fishing-related metaphors are common in conversations related to diversity and inclusion. Often there is talk about “casting a wide net” when it comes to inclusion matters for recruitment or “maximizing the pool of respondents”. At Lux, we believe that inclusivity means ensuring that we are taking every effort to include a diverse set of voices at all points within a project life cycle. Like My Octopus Teacher, we acknowledge that there’s greater value in swimming in the sea to experience a change in perspectives, and it is our goal to make sure that every project is a bit more inclusive than the one before it. Below we share a few lessons we’ve learnt over the past year:
Inclusivity across industries – We are seeing demand to seek out more accessible, inclusive, and innovative solutions from our clients across industries, from tech and real estate to retail and health care. From assessing the quality of living in BC to experiences of discrimination in the province’s film industry, from the impact of COVID-19 misinformation within cultural communities to designing more accessible grocery store experiences; we are helping our clients address topics that touch a variety of equity-seeking and historically marginalized groups.
Minorities in methods – It is imperative for us to adapt our methods to ensure the accessibility needs of our research participants and clients are at the forefront of our research practices. We have conducted research with people who live with an array of both physical or cognitive disabilities and have learnt how to adapt more traditional qualitative methods to ensure the quality of our research is not compromised.
Vocalize our values – The importance of inclusive research reinforces our core values – integrity, courage, optimism, and curiosity. We invest in staying up to date with industry best practices by attending conferences, conducting our own research, and sharing knowledge to constantly improve. We have and are inviting guest speakers to discuss not just the benefits of inclusivity, but also educate us on the damage of systemic inequality and injustices.
We strive to continue the conversation surrounding inclusive research practices. For more information on how Lux can help your organization using an inclusive research lens, please email Jeff Jefkins, SVP at jeff@luxinsights.com.
