You’re the average of the five people you compare yourself to.
Did it ever occur to you that you’re comparing yourself to the wrong people?

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Why starting with borrowed benchmarks sets you up to fail.
2. How to tell if a benchmark is applicable to your setting.
3. How to choose benchmarks that inform decisions.

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Bad Benchmarks Start With Bad Comparisons
   • "A benchmark that reflects their priorities won’t help you track your progress."
2. Insight is more valuable than performance scores.
   • "What would we do differently if this number changed?"
3. Benchmarks must help you steer, not just score.
   • "If it doesn’t help you decide what to do next, it’s not useful."

Check out these resources:

• Progress You Can Prove – The new programme mentioned in the episode

Most DEI metrics are just a pantomime.
They’re not tracking things that matter.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Why most DEI efforts fail before any work has begun

2. Why “quick wins” often become long-term liabilities

3. How to test your inclusion project before investing in delivery

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Outputs don’t prove progress: outcomes do.

   • "Training is not an outcome."

2. Specific problems demand specific solutions.

   • "You can track how many people turned up to an event. You can count how many policies you updated. You can show how many people completed a training course. And none of it may be relevant."

3. Focus on preventions instead of a cure.

   • "You’d be surprised how often I see strategies full of goals that sound good, but don’t translate into day-to-day actions."

Check out these resources:

• Business Case in a Box – A course that helps you build a business case your CFO can trust
• Progress You Can Prove – A course to help you track and show how your organisation is becoming more inclusive (coming soon)
• Evidence Based Inclusion System – A course to help you implement a repeatable, systematic process for inclusion (coming soon)

Every organisation has its problems.
But not all of them are worth solving.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. the 5 point feasibility test we use with our clients

2. How copying others’ inclusion strategies leads you off course

3. Our shortcut to reveal which workplace problems are fixable

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Solvable problems build inclusion

   • "A solvable inclusion problem isn’t something that feels important. It’s something that stands up to scrutiny. It passes what we call the Feasibility Filter: If a problem isn’t Clear, Connected, Commercial, Credible and Causal, it’s not ready to solve."

2. Business alignment isn’t optional; it’s essential.

   • "You don’t need a generic business case for diversity. You need your business case for diversity. What does your problem matter to your specific organisation? If the problem doesn’t link to the business, you’ve got no business talking about it."

3. Without cause, there’s no effect.

   • "If you can’t explain how the problem happens, you can’t fix it. A solvable problem needs a clear explanation of what causes it, when it shows up, and what it leads to if ignored. That’s where a logic model comes in. It maps the cause-and-effect chain that links daily experiences to measurable outcomes."

Check out these resources :

• • Business Case in a Box – A course that helps you build a business case your CFO can trust
  • Progress You Can Prove – A course to help you track and show how your organisation is becoming more inclusive (coming soon)
  • Evidence Based Inclusion System – A course to help you implement a repeatable, systematic process for inclusion (coming soon)

This is episode 400 of the show.
I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about supporting you.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Why the podcast now focuses on high-impact inclusion work
2. Why narrowing my focus increases my overall impact
3. Some resources I’m building to help you

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Element of Inclusion has hit 400 episodes
   
   • “I notice this in the milestone episodes like this. I can be really tough on myself. The title of Episode 300 was ‘I’m Sorry I Let You Down’... But this year. I’ve made it happen.”
2. We’re creating a product ecosystem to help you achieve your goals
   
   • “I’m building out a product ecosystem to help you if you want to implement this yourself... These are things I’ve already tried and tested in our Inclusion Ready Leader Program. But it’s going to be more affordable because it’s self-paced.”
3. Check out the shownotes to get on the waiting list
   
   • “If you want Business Case in a Box. Or to get on the waiting list for the other products. Check out the shownotes.”

Check out these resources:

• Business Case in a Box – A course that helps you build a business case your CFO can trust
• Progress You Can Prove – A course to help you track and show how your organisation is becoming more inclusive (coming soon)
• Evidence Based Inclusion System – A course to help you implement a repeatable, systematic process for inclusion (coming soon)
• Episode 300 : Sorry I Let you down
• Episode 1: Pilot :

Do you have a system that proves your inclusion work is making progress?
IF NOT
I’m going to give you 7 tips that we use with our clients so they show people that that they are becoming more inclusive.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. How to choose problems your leadership actually cares about

2. How to design actions that actually improve inclusion

3. How specific outcomes make your work easier to defend

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Solve problems your organisation already cares about.

   • "Too many of you waste effort and energy on issues leadership doesn’t prioritise."

2. Clear success metrics make your work harder to ignore.

   • "Without specifying exactly who you’re supporting and what measurable success looks like, it’s impossible to prove progress."

3. Plan inclusion actions like business interventions.

   • "Without targeted actions tied to clear outcomes, inclusion work is random."

Check out these resources :

Business Case in a Box: Build a Business Case for Inclusion your CFO will take seriously.

Free 2-minute audit tool: Check if your business case for inclusion would make sense to your CFO. (Get Access Here)

I Know You’re Afraid To Talk About Inclusion.
I’m Afraid Too.

That sounds weird coming from someone who talks about Inclusion everyday.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Why speaking in context protects your credibility.
2. How relevance reduces risk when discussing inclusion
3. How to test if someone is open to evidence.

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

• Relevance gives your words more power.
  
  • "When you talk about inclusion or diversity or race. Is in context of the space you’re in?"

• Context protects you and builds trust.
  
  • "It would be out of context if I started giving you travel tips. Or if I started giving you dating advice. Or if I started talking about gardening. Those things are out of context."

• Reasonable people change when shown the evidence.
  
  • "One of my tests of if a person is reasonable is if they change their mind when presented with new trustworthy evidence. "

Check out these resources :

• Confronting My Personal Fear of Speaking Up About Diversity and Inclusion
• Free 2-minute audit tool: Check if your business case for inclusion would make sense to your CFO. (Get Access Here)

I have some very strong very unpopular opinions about the so called business case for diversity.
I’m not going to change them anytime soon.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Why the real business case is already inside your organisation
2. Why business case for diversity is like shouting at sunset
3. 3 reasons why the wrong business case leaves you exposed

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. Reveal your business case don’t rip it off
   
   • "What I’m saying is. It’s not something that you introduce to the business. In fact, your job is to reveal the business case that is already there. It’s hiding in your inbox. It’s camouflaged in the conversations you have."
2. Your business case is hiding in plain sight
   
   • "This isn’t about changing minds. It’s about surfacing the logic that already exists. There is a business logic that is screaming at you."
3. Be careful with DEI Guru’s talking about McKinsey Reports
   
   • "They use the McKinsey Report as evidence. Guess what. Anyone who reads the report has to acknowledge that the reports want you to believe that. However, they don’t know if Diversity leads to greater profits. Or greater profits lead to diversity."

Check out these resources:

• Free 2-minute audit tool: Check if your business case for inclusion would make sense to your CFO. (Get Access Here)
• Pilot Episode : The Diversity Advice No One Will Give You.

• How Cultural Heterogeneity Relates To A Business Case For Diversity

There’s a group of people who are going to struggle to build inclusion over the next few years.
I’m going to explain who they are so you can avoid becoming one of them.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode:

1. Why emotional appeals fall flat with business stakeholders.
2. How structured conversations build real-world credibility.
3. Why inclusion must align with a measurable business problem.

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Key Takeaways from This Episode:

1. I want to make the next logical step easy for you.
   
   • "This is where most People Leaders freeze. The ask is too vague ('more support'), too broad ('change the culture'), or too ambitious ('overhaul everything'). Instead, make the next step: logical, specific, aligned with business priorities."
2. I want to help you stop guessing and start leading.
   
   • "Your business case isn’t complete until it’s been pressure-tested. Not in a focus group. Not in a steering committee. In real conversations—with people who don’t already agree with you."
3. I want to work with leaders who are ready to stop ticking boxes and start leading with impact.
   
   • "If you don’t have a business case for diversity or inclusion, one will be given to you. It probably won’t be yours. It will belong to someone else. It will be provided by someone who does not have your best interests at heart."

Check out these resources:

Business Case in a Box. Everything you need to build a business case for inclusion your CFO can trust.