Instagram Live with Raylene Whitford

In this Instagram Live, we’re talking about the importance of and value of diversity of thought and integrating diverse perspectives.

We were honored to be joined by Raylene Whitford who shared her extensive knowledge and board experience as the founder of Canative Energy, a social enterprise which supports the economic development of Indigenous communities impacted by the energy sector in Canada and Ecuador; and INDIGI-X, a platform that connects Indigenous Professionals around the world to facilitate international trade.⁠ 

Raylene’s previous leadership positions include being an Executive Director for a company listed on the London Stock Exchange and directing a USD 42 billion capital efficiency project for a national oil company in the Middle East. ⁠

If you didn’t catch the IG Live, we’ve got you covered! Here are our top four takeaways:

Governance is more than just rules

Raylene talks from her extensive experience and says, “I think my understanding of it has definitely evolved because from what I’ve seen, governance is not just rules. Yes, you need to comply with the rules, but there’s also an intention, a spirit perhaps, of the structure. I've been in meetings where the Chair brings the board back to that spirit, back to that value, back to that intention and it’s been really great. A board will work better if everybody’s aligned with the values and intentions and it makes it less sterile”.

Decolonized Governance and effectively integrating Indigenous individuals

Raylene indicates we are just beginning our journey of reconciliation and it’s important to integrate the knowledge of the people that existed long before colonization. She speaks vividly about one of the meetings she attended of a board of Indigenous people looking to buy a piece of infrastructure, Raylene says, “it was very male, very stereotypical, then there was the other side of the table which was this Indigenous group made of Indigenous leaders. At the beginning of the meeting, normally you just dive right into the agenda and start right on the clock. The indigenous leaders stopped everything and said, ‘can we begin this meeting with a prayer please’. I just had tears in my eyes because I have never seen that before, and I think that’s a really important way to again bring that intention into the room, also equalizing the imbalance of power, and it was really beautiful to hear the Cree prayer”. She also mentioned she started to introduce herself in Cree at board meetings in order to acknowledge her ancestors and the generations behind her that lead her to where she is today.

The systems we have in place need to change - we need to be more inclusive

Raylene talked about the importance of being more inclusive on boards and allowing the voices that were typically not acknowledged, or in some cases, not allowed to speak, to be heard. She says, “the next move I’d like to see is those views, those comments, those ideas being actually discussed and really taken on board. What I’ve seen, there's the notion of the token woman on a board or a token Indigenous person on a board and what I've seen is that the same people are being recycled through. So, what I support is having more people for these positions of different backgrounds and being able to participate and give their views and have it really be considered. So obviously to do that you need to have a bigger pool to draw from and I think that's what DirectHER is helping out with. I strongly support that because, either the structure is broken where you have these entities recycling and re-appointing these individuals that are always on these boards or there’s not a pool big enough to draw from and we don’t have enough people putting their hand up and saying, ‘yeah I’ll do it’”.

Find your passion and keep going

Before you join a board, Raylene advises, “find something that you’re passionate about or find something that you care about first. It’s really difficult to show up for something that you do not feel 100% behind. Find something, go to the meetings, join the community and then put your hand up and offer your skills and experience. I think especially for nonprofits, that is such a valuable resource. Professionally, there’s a lot of little companies that need board members. I would just say make sure what you choose in the first instance is something that you feel passionate about”.

Thank you so much, Raylene for joining us today and thank you to everyone for tuning in! We have so many more fantastic interviews coming up so make sure to follow us on Instagram @directhernetwork to engage live at our Social Distance Learning sessions!