Current world events have led to an increased awareness of the "rules-based international order"- the system in which countries adhere to established norms, treaties, and agreements to govern their interactions. Although not perfect, it seeks to establish a fair, just, open and predictable system of governance on the global stage.
In NZ and Australia at least, rules-based order felt like it operated in the nature of an established norm; relatively unnoticed - one of those things that "just is". Until it isn’t... When established norms are violated, we feel it at the level of beliefs. And when one belief is tested or feels brittle, it tends to have a pervasive effect; we question “what else is no longer true?”
An example of what felt like a well established (if slow moving) norm, was the mission to improve DEI in the world of work. In many organisations, DEI initiatives were becoming embedded and relatively "noiseless". The odd dissenting voice remained, but they were feeling more and more like the outlier, until now. While the most overt impact is currently in the US, we are also seeing active efforts to influence well beyond its borders – "US embassies tell suppliers to comply with Trump ban on diversity policies” (Reuters, 1 April 2025 - if only it were a joke!).
It’s tempting to fall back on a familiar NZ narrative: "That won’t happen here." But in a hyper-connected world, what happens elsewhere doesn’t stay elsewhere. Consider the spotlight on transgender mice! Within the mirth of another Trump conflation (transgenic-transgender), there are biomedical researchers, who study how genes impact disease and health, and how human diseases and organs might respond to medications, now questioning how they protect their critically important work.
Winsborough are proactively following threads to try to identify the "So what? Now What?" in terms of the work we do. The use of psychometric (personality and cognitive) assessments is an area we are currently focusing on. Fairness, equity and freedom from bias are key lenses that must be applied to the development and use of personality assessments. The US is home to many psychometric assessment providers; given the undermining of DEI, what will be the impact on:
We have always made available the questions you should ask about personality assessments. We will continue to revise and update these as we learn more about the effect of changes happening in our world right now. One of the questions asked by clients, more in the last few months than the last 20+ years: “Is our data subject to the Patriot Act?” Given Assessio (firmly based in Sweden vs. the US), is our primary personality assessment partner, we can comfortably and confidently say “No, it is not.”
Keep asking questions - to ensure the psychometric tools you use continue to meet your expectations and standards regarding fairness and data sovereignty.
Need more information? Contact the Winsborough Team:
winsborough.co.nz | 0800 222 061 | support@winsborough.co.nz
Image credit: Mario Verduzco (Unsplash)