Supporting Closing the Gap at Work: What Helps and What Harms

Supporting Closing the Gap at Work: What Helps and What Harms

Over the past few weeks, we have been listening closely to the many questions arising regarding Closing the Gap. One major theme continues to emerge:

Often, good intentions alone are not enough to create cultural safety. It is built through everyday behaviour, the language used, and a genuine willingness to keep learning.

Recently, Aunty Munya Andrews and I joined Hamish Macdonald on ABC Radio to discuss how to navigate tough conversations. We shared a practical framework from Evolve Communities known as R3 Culture: Reflect, Relate, Reconcile.

Understanding the R3 Culture Lens: Choosing the Right Action

The R3 approach is a practical way to stay grounded, reduce negative impacts, and keep moving forward together.

1. Reflect

Reflect means identifying the issue and testing your assumptions before you speak.

• What Helps: Test your own assumptions. Build your own personal literacy first so that you are not constantly defaulting to First Nations colleagues to explain everything.
• What Harms: Making immediate assumptions or going straight to a First Nations colleague just to ask them to “explain” the situation for everyone.

Key Questions: What am I assuming here? What do I actually know? What do I need to learn first?

 

2. Relate

Relate means staying curious about another person’s perspective without judgment or shaming.

• What Helps: Maintain a sense of genuine curiosity. Ask for permission before offering your view, for example:
• What Harms: Shaming, correcting harshly, or trying to win an argument. Turning a conversation into a debate where someone has to lose.

In the workplace, defensiveness shuts down learning, while curiosity keeps the door open.

3. Reconcile

Reconcile means choosing an action that reduces harm and cultural load, then checking the impact.

• What Helps: Prioritise impact over intent. Choose actions that reduce the burden on others and be willing to course-correct your steps if needed.
• What Harms: Making unilateral decisions on behalf of others without a feedback loop, follow-through, or a willingness to adapt.

Allyship is a lifelong learning journey. The goal is not to be “perfect”, but to stay accountable and keep learning.

A grounded workplace example

A situation we often hear in senior leadership sessions goes like this:

We don’t have an issue here. We’re culturally safe. Our First Nations team members are happy.

A gentle next question is: How do you know?

Have you asked First Nations staff whether they feel culturally safe in the room with your leaders or yourself present? Have you measured it, or are you assuming?

Training can be a strong step, but training alone is not proof of cultural safety. Cultural safety is experienced by the person, not declared by the organisation.

If you feel stuck, start small

If Closing the Gap feels complex or you worry about getting it wrong, start with one small, practical shift:

• Reflect before you speak.
• Relate with curiosity, not certainty.
• Reconcile by choosing one action that reduces harm, then check impact.

And if you have a workplace “freeze moment” you’d like help navigating, write it down. These real moments are where cultural safety is built.