{"id":4604,"date":"2020-04-01T08:02:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T08:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=4604"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:08:11","slug":"rocking-the-boat-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2020\/04\/01\/rocking-the-boat-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocking the Boat for Good"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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WHO IS SHE?<\/strong><\/p>

Ms Lyn Lee is the Chief Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Officer at energy company Royal Dutch Shell \u2014 the first Asian female to ever hold this position. Working with teams in Shell offices across the globe, she strives to accelerate the progress of gender balance in senior leadership and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) roles and is committed to driving workplace inclusion for various under-represented groups.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a0Growing up, Ms Lyn Lee noticed that her parents often made a conscious effort to care for those who were under-represented, including hiring workers with disabilities to run their business. \u201cI remember we had two staff who were on the autism spectrum, although I\u2019m sure nobody in my family knew the official terms back then,\u201d says the 52 year-old. \u201cBeyond just offering them respectable jobs with decent salaries, my mum also took care of their well-being, offering extra money when their family members were unwell.\u201d<\/p>

Ms Lee also recounts how her grandfather, a landowner in Punggol, would generously welcome other families to build houses on his land, without charging them. \u201cMy parents and grandparents were my role models in that sense; they raised me to look out for those who are often marginalised or not as privileged as my family,\u201d she says. Those childhood observations certainly influenced how Ms Lee would navigate her own life, and eventually, her career. \u201cThat\u2019s why I believe in leading by example \u2014 if you truly care and are committed, others will see the impact of your actions and will also want to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>

These days, Ms Lee \u2014 a single mother to two daughters aged 23 and 19 \u2014 champions gender balance, promotes the destigmatising of mental illness and drives workplace inclusion of People with Disabilities (PwD) and different sexual orientation (LGBT+) as the Chief Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Officer at energy company Royal Dutch Shell. As the first person out of Europe to fill this global role, Ms Lee feels privileged. \u201cFor a European multinational to pick an Asian female for the position speaks volumes about what the company stands for,\u201d she says. \u201cI am honoured and happy to be able to give [the role] a new perspective.\u201d<\/p>

BRINGING ONE\u2019S WHOLE SELF TO WORK<\/strong><\/p>

A diverse workforce, in Ms Lee\u2019s view, is one where there are \u201cdifferent genders, ethnicities, generations \u2014 anything and everything that creates a diversity of viewpoints so we are not all thinking the same.\u201d The irony when there is diversity, however, is that some groups get included and others excluded, she points out. \u201cSo my team\u2019s job is to create a culture where it is safe for different people to have different points of view, and \u2014 in spite of those differences \u2014 are still able work in harmony,\u201d says Ms Lee. \u201cPsychological safety is crucial.\u201d<\/p>

One of Ms Lee\u2019s priorities is to get more females in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and C-suite roles. At present, 26.4 per cent of senior leadership roles in Shell are filled by women; the aim is to get to 30 per cent in the short term, she lets on. \u201cAnd yes, the plan is to accelerate and get to 50 per cent eventually, but progress takes time and work, so gender balance will continue to remain our goal here,\u201d says Ms Lee. She notes also that employees of this era gravitate towards companies with values that align with their own. As such, initiatives such as Being Yourself at Shell promote the ability to bring one\u2019s whole self to work and encourage everyone to feel free to speak up. \u201cNo longer should we perpetuate the idea that employees should hide or leave their personal challenges at home; we acknowledge these challenges, in fact, we create structures so that in spite of those challenges, employees can still be productive and perform at their best,\u201d Ms Lee explains, citing staff with physical disabilities or mental illnesses as examples.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Sometimes the law and policy simply needs updating. Speak up with the right intention and be part of the movement to change things for the better.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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THE COURAGE TO SPUR CHANGE<\/strong><\/p>

Similarly, beyond the workplace, Ms Lee says that Singapore has what it takes to be a more gracious and inclusive society. \u201cMany of us are aware and want to do the right thing, but what\u2019s stopping us is the reliance on the Government to take the lead on certain laws or policies before we act,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe are not willing to challenge the status quo for fear of rocking the boat.\u201d<\/p>

That being said, there has been more of a \u201cgroundswell\u201d lately with younger people speaking up for under-represented and marginalised groups and starting social enterprises, she observes. \u201cThe time is ripe; changes happen when more people speak up,\u201d says Ms Lee, citing the recent update in the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP), which makes it unnecessary for employers to ask job applicants to declare personal information such as their mental health condition unless there is a job-related requirement. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge step in the right direction, which took years and many people voicing up and strongly advocating for change,\u201d says Ms Lee, who has persistently spoken up on the issue herself through the heartfelt sharing of her own struggles with bipolar disorder \u2014 a condition she has since managed.<\/p>

She was, in fact, one of the plenary speakers at the Together Against Stigma conference, organised by the Institute of Mental Health and the National Council of Social Services, in October last year. In its ninth year, the conference brought together more than 500 delegates from 24 countries to discuss the issue of stigma against people with mental health conditions. \u201cWe must not be afraid to challenge the norm to benefit the whole society. Don\u2019t be resigned and say there\u2019s nothing to be done because the law says so. Sometimes the law and policy simply needs updating. Speak up with the right intention and be part of the movement to change things for the better.\u201d In particular, more must be done for PwD, Ms Lee stresses. Hiring them should not be about having a token representation in the workplace, but more about recognising the value they bring \u2014 and acknowledging the fact that work can be done differently if accommodated, and that it is society that has put them at a disadvantage. \u201cAs a PwD in Singapore, they have to circumvent many barriers that you and I don\u2019t, so if we just take those obstacles away, they can use that effort to be productive and contribute value to the economy.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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SOME WAY TO GO, SINGAPORE<\/strong><\/p>

A 2019 poll by Kantar \u2014 a data, insights and consulting firm \u2014 on workplace D&I practices surveyed 18,000 people in 14 countries<\/p>

44% of Singapore workers said they are affected by \u201cstress and anxiety\u201d at work, above the global average of 39%.<\/p>

Canada topped the overall inclusion index, with more than 40% of senior roles occupied by women.<\/p>

About 6 in 10 of US workers also believed their employers were actively trying to be more inclusive and diverse, although 17% of them said they were bullied.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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FROM DREAMER TO ROLE MODEL<\/strong><\/p>

Part of the pioneer batch of Psychology students at NUS when the department was first launched in 1986, Ms Lee quips that her peers then would not have imagined being on the path she is on today. \u201cI was such a \u2018blur sotong\u2019 in my student years, always daydreaming and in a daze,\u201d she says. \u201cBut stumbling into Psychology piqued my interest as to why people behave the way they do be it through social, cultural and other factors.\u201d<\/p>

After graduation, Ms Lee pursued her interest in the human psyche, and took a Masters in the same subject at the New York University, before interning and eventually working full-time in the United States. \u201cIt was then that I experienced micro-inequities, which as a Chinese Singaporean I would have not experienced back home,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything fell into place in my 30s \u2014 I found my passion and discovered my skills in organisational effectiveness and organisational development, and grew my career from there.\u201d<\/p>

Both of Ms Lee\u2019s daughters are becoming \u201cchange agents\u201d in their own right. Her elder child is a welfare officer and care champion in her college, trained to intervene should a peer experience distress or be going though a difficult time, Ms Lee says, beaming. And her younger daughter, who is studying broadcast media, initiates video projects highlighting social imbalance, income gaps and under-represented groups in Singapore. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of them,\u201d says Ms Lee. \u201cI have my role models, and they do as well; so having leaders who are inclusive and visible in their actions and passionate certainly makes an impact.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaking up the status quo is at times necessary in order to level the playing field for all people; it has also been a lifelong calling for Royal Dutch Shell\u2019s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Ms Lyn Lee (Arts and Social Sciences \u201989).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-social-impact"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4604"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5085,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604\/revisions\/5085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}