Cultural change rarely starts with policy. It starts when people talk, often quietly at first, about what is not working.
In fire services and other male dominated workplaces, discussion is sometimes dismissed as a distraction from the real work. Talking is framed as soft, uncomfortable, or unnecessary. But cultures do not shift without it. Every meaningful change has begun because someone named a problem and others recognised it as true.
Discussion is how hidden norms come into the open. It shows what behaviour is protected, what gets excused, and who is expected to put up with harm. Without conversation, exclusion stays invisible. It becomes just “the way things are done.”
For women and other marginalised groups, discussion is often the only way lived experience enters systems that were never built for them. When people speak about isolation, bullying, or safety, they are not asking for debate. They are describing what daily work feels like from the margins.
Pushback against discussion is rarely accidental. Calls to move on, stay professional, or not make things divisive tend to protect existing power. Silence keeps things comfortable for those least affected, while the cost is carried by those with the least room to speak.
From an Indigenous perspective, discussion and storytelling are central to learning. Knowledge is passed through kōrero, through listening and reflecting together. Story is not an opinion or an anecdote. It is how patterns, harm, and impact are understood over time.
Good discussion does not require agreement. It requires honesty, safety, and the ability to sit with discomfort without shutting people down. It asks leaders to listen without rushing to defend the organisation or explain the problem away.
Fire services already know this. They debrief incidents. They talk through what nearly went wrong, not to assign blame, but to prevent harm next time. Cultural discussion serves the same purpose.
If change is the goal, discussion is not a side activity. It is the work.
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