Recently, my eye was caught by the release of the annual IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) census. Many people assume creative industries are very diverse, but this survey actually found that fewer people from ethnic minority backgrounds were employed at the Institute’s member agencies this year than last year. Let’s break that down a […]

In many ways, diversity is about labels. Labels pertaining to ethnicity, age, sexuality and gender, in particular. Inclusion is about dissolving those labels. How so? Diversity truly becomes inclusion when we get to a place where ideas flow freely between people from all walks of life, without prejudice getting in their way. When that starts […]

We dearly want the case for diversity to be cut and dried. There are now countless articles that take this to be so, making sweeping statements that assume the centrality of diversity, placing it at the centre of things in a tone that suggests ‘Of course diversity is integral to business success, duh: it makes […]

Like most things that are beneficial, leading a diverse team isn’t always easy. Inherently and by definition, you are not ‘diverse’. Individuals rarely embody diversity. That’s one of the reasons that workplaces ended up so lacking in diversity: we tend to employ people like us. Your listening skills need to go into overdrive You simply […]

Leaders need to be strong in such a wonderfully wide variety of ways. One is the strength to believe in the unknown and unfamiliar. To look beyond discomfort when faced with a personality that has formed in a different way to our own and instead home in on its brilliant potential. Clearing bias and achieving […]