GUESTS OF THE PODCAST

“When you're bringing people with you and organisational change, it is head, hand and heart. You have to understand it intellectually. You have to be able to demonstrate that it will work, but you also have to believe in it.”

“Creating a wide sense of belonging can become a competitive advantage for any company and help create diversity and inclusion.”

“Keeping an open mind, being curious, remaining authentic and listening to our employees helps in making inclusive-based decisions based on employee insight.”

“By acknowledging past injustices, by being honest about where we are and what we have done, that’s when healing can really come, that’s the only we can really move forward - the benefits outweigh the risks.”

“When you think about all that energy that people are putting into just fitting into an environment where they don’t feel included, that is energy and effort that your business is not getting. So, it is incredibly important that people feel included.”

“The roadmap to inclusion and diversity is about progress. It's about moving forward. It's about changing and making change one conversation at a time.”

“Remain true to yourself and your values. Do right by the people you are supporting and working with. Be responsible for change in everything you are doing.”

“Don’t be afraid of the word “No”. It’s just a few letters. The word no could just mean “not right now” or “talking to the wrong person”. Learn to advocate for yourself, speak on the value of your worth, don’t doubt yourself, know and push for what you are worth and go for the job that you want.”

“The data is in now and we know now that diverse companies commercially outperform their non-diverse competitors.”

“You cannot have a D&I target without having something sitting beneath that to back it up.”

“Diversity and Inclusion takes time. Work has to be done internally in the culture of the firms where people are more accepting of people from different backgrounds.”

“Open your mind and be open to engaging people from a different background because that enriches and informs you. It makes the inclusion work easier because you’ve got a wide understanding.”

“What fuels me with D&I is about inclusion. It’s about making sure that at every single level, we see people that look like us, that have commonalities that we can share, have the same lived experience.”

“I would want to see a fully diverse organisation where you can look across the organisation and see people who look like you in senior roles. You see a diverse group of people who represent the communities that they live in, and this would be a really good place.” 

“We've almost dropped the 'D'. For us, it's all about Inclusion. If you create a really stong and inclusive culture then diversity will happen as a result.” 

“Leaders have the ability to influence and driver culture and behaviour. Working with leaders so they can understand the impact that they can have and the positive influence they can make is important.” 

"We are not all homogeneous, we are different, and we need to embrace those differences, and provide services and media around those differences to make things more diverse and inclusive.” 

“We need to go beyond box-ticking D&I. What achieves a sense of belonging is when we start looking at authentic identities, the intersectionality and what is important to each individual.” 

“Equity is the key in reaching equality. We need to go beyond symbolic gestures. We need more action to sustain momentum."

“Having allies and mentors s critical and having trust in leaders who hold an element of power but recognise that change or diversity adds value to the organisational proposition gives the workforce hope that they can be the best that they can be, that they can come to work just as themselves. It’s important to motivate and give trust to the workforce.”

“Diversity is something that is really good for the boardroom not only from a “right-thing-to-do perspective” but also in creating a more innovative organisation, creates higher profits and overall, more diversity of thought” 

"What gets measured gets done. So if you don't put a target out there, you're probably not going to make any progress."

“It's not necessarily about taking pieces of the pie away from others. It's about working together to make more pie." 

"Race Equality is part of an organisations fabric. It should not be a bolt-on to DE&I".

“Think about what your organisation is doing to tackle race equality. We need more action. The time is now.” 

"If you don't have the climate for change already, it's very difficult to make any changes, and this starts with senior leaders putting Race Equality at the of their agenda." 

“We focus to much on absenteeism, but the bigger problem is presenteeism. Employers should  be aware of early warning signs of burnout and mental health issues to protect  the wellbeing of their staff.” 

“DEI is truly a change management capability and should be treated as one of the primary risk factors for an organisation.” 

“Diversity should be an input into your organisations growth rather than output.” 

“Until we have more women in senior leadership roles, we will never close the gap.” 

“We need to have leaders who not just understand diversity, but who actively engage and role model.” 

“We leverage the knowledge of our ERG's and support them to help us shape our business.” 

“To be a true ally, you have to understand and recognise your privilege.” 

“We don't have enough role models for young people from underrepresented communities” 

“We need to look internally as well as externally to support our efforts in inclusive hiring and build leadership accountability.” 

"My purpose is to be part of the change that we need to see for the next generation."

"It's as much about creating the right environment and culture and then signalling there is space for success". 

"There's always going to be opportunity for us to mess up, but I also think there's an opportunity for us to also not cause as much harm". 

"What has gone from being a fun conversation in the power of how we can change the world has been truly life changing for me personally". 

" If we look back, there's always resistance to change, to advancement of this agenda, so I think for leaders listening, it's about understanding where that resistance is rooted and being willing to have conversations through education about actually why it's important to keep doing this work for the future of your organisation, but also for the well-being of your staff and your customers as well". 

"I have lots of love for Gen Z, because I think they are a generation that is as angry and rightly so, and that believes in equity, even if that equity does not affect them". 

“Stay pragmatic and look for the one little hole that you can go through to open the doors that you need to open to push this topic forward in your own area of influence".

“We decided to put inclusion at the heart of everything that we do. That's our end goal, and ideally, belonging happens afterwards". 

“If you've got a real passion to work in this space, then continue with it, but just make sure you always think about your mental health."

“It is being unafraid to make mistakes, being open to challenge & being able to take acknowledgement when it comes".

“My job is all about growth and opportunity and getting more people feeling, seeing, experiencing rugby and hopefully falling in love with it to hopefully stick around and wanting to play for the long term". 

"I'm very unapologetic about being equity-centered and driven and really driving towards results that create opportunities for social and economic mobility for all people.

“DEI work is not a passion work, it is a profession, because passion, if it is just passion work, it can be like silver bullets and then making all changes. But we really need to work hard, learn a lot, and then change will hopefully happen. 

“It's about fighting against things that have dehumanised us and have disconnected us and that continue to promote disconnection and dehumanising and keeping us separate, keeping us fighting for power instead of sharing power, keeping us confused about who's vulnerable and who needs the most help. 

"Coming into the diversity of space, I realised that there were so many different lived experiences outside of my own that existed within the workplace context that I had to advocate for and in that, it gave me a different survivor's mission because there's an element, of you know, I do experience some privileges and where I do. how do i leverage those to create change? 

“It is less about holding up a diversity quota, but it's, you know, essentially how we actually include underserved communities that have been on the margins for far too long". 

“I think your life story gives you a certain amount of resilience. I do not know any person of colour who's not at this stage and hasn't had to come through some difficult moments and situations”