Diverse & Inclusive Leaders & CEO Activist Podcast by DIAL Global

In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Roisin Mackenzie, Chief People officer at Saga PLC

"But ultimately it's it's all about back to listen to your colleagues - How are they feeling? What are they telling you? Because they will tell you if a culture is off, they will tell you if they don't feel like you've got an inclusive culture. So you have to focus on culture as much as you do your processes, diversity and who who you bringing in. If you haven't worked hard enough on making sure that culture is safe, inclusive, that people feel like they can get on, they can feel seen, they can feel themselves, leaders understand what it is, you're pushing water up a hill."

You'll hear about:

- Roisin's career journey and how she progressed to become Chief People Officer at Saga PLC

- How the evolution of the role of the people function, ESG and diversity, inclusion and belonging has played out over the last decade

- Saga's initiatives  involving diversity, inclusion. ERGs and the people function

- How growing education and knowledge within stakeholder groups and investors has impacted ESG within organisations

- The importance of psychological safety when it comes to D&I and performance

- How do people and leaders make decisions when there are so many opinions

- The importance of resilience to get through challenges

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Our third CEO Activist episode features a conversation between Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global and Paul Gerrard, Campaigns, Public Affairs & Board Secretariat Director at the Co-op Group, Board Director at Co-ops UK and Trustee of the Co-operative Heritage Trust.

Paul played a role in shaping what the CEO Activist campaign looks like today especially when it comes to the convening power of the initiative when it comes to business and policymakers.

"A partnership between government, local or central, and business is critical. If you want to help communities prosper then businesses have a critical role to play alongside governments."

You'll hear about

- Paul's strong family background and tightly-knit community which played a large role in shaping his worldview

- Why Paul believes that the intersection between business and the government has such an important and crucial role to play in today's modern world

- The history of the Coop and what makes its sense of community real, focusing on campaigns that have mattered

- Why organisations should care about each other collectively

- How different arts and diversity helps to drive success

- What businesses should be looking at when it comes to managing and measuring data and facts and figures

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In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Katherine Griffiths, the City Editor at Bloomberg.

"But it is the case still that I think in news in particular, it's a problem. If a parent needs to be out of the office, take time off. And I think it's got something to do with the very nature of the job, which is sometimes things need to be done immediately."

You'll hear about:

- A whistlestop tour of Katherine's life including her career history through various newspapers

- Parenthood, particularly her experience of it in the workplace and what's needed for parents to be able to navigate the complexities of working and parenting in a world where gender roles meet company practices

- The importance of investing in talent that exists within the organisation to prevent women within the organisation from hitting the glass ceiling

- The evolution of how talent flows into an organisation, and how important closing off the opportunity gap is

- Time off for parenthood, and how to navigate one's way back into their career

- What organisations can do to support families and drive organisational culture

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Our second CEO Activist episode features a conversation between Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global and Stephanie Mehta, Chief Executive and Chief Content Officer of Mansueto Ventures.

'I think that good now in in my new role looks like creating a place where people really do feel like they are empowered to do their best work and empowered to say when there is something that is preventing them from being able to do their best work.'

You'll hear about

- Stephanie's rich and vibrant career which includes names like Fortune Magazine, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal and a work history that starts with journalism school in Chicago and an internship in Virginia with a newspaper chain that went out of its way to remove barriers for students of colour.

-  Her early life including immigrant parents from different cultures, who were extremely supportive of her choices, her work ethic,  and her experiences with growing up as an Asian-American which led to her awareness of race.

- How this awareness of race crept into experiences of work, where she felt like she had to go the extra mile simply because of who she was

- What 'good' means to Stephanie in terms of her life and future

- How she's seen leadership change over her career, and where 'purpose' sits in that conversation

- How the younger generation who have been taught to think critically at a younger age are accelerating change 

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In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Ruben Alejandro Ramirez, the group head of Diversity and Inclusion for Syngenta Group

"it all starts by understanding the space. For example, we have a global pride campaign as an entire group. However, we understand that in some places, this is illegal. So what we are trying to do this year is to have a low pressure campaign for those countries where pride is accepted and LGBTQ community is accepted, but then have our Respect campaign for the countries where we are not able sometimes even to speak about the topic."

You'll hear about:

- A whistlestop tour of Ruben' life including his heritage, international education and career, which is also how he met his husband, his passion for customer strategy  and how he ended up in D&I

- Intersectionality, and how being a part of the LGBT community also helped him understand other underrepresented groups and showed him how to connect to people, to relate, and make his organisation a better, safer place

- The importance of vulnerability in leadership  to find those points of intersection and make connections

- Corporate life and  strategic planning in terms of D&I as something that can really make a difference to the business and the importance of going from awareness to  accountability

- The role of the global D&I professional as an influencer, often is operating with limited resources  and engaging with different communities in an intersectional way

- What the pride movement means to Ruben, and his experience with it within his role and company

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Our first ever CEO Activist podcast kicks off with a fascinating conversation between Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global and  Shirine Khoury-Haq, Group CEO at Co-op.

"In terms of activism from a from a CEO perspective it is important to be authentic and to really determine what it is that's important to you, that you feel you can actually stand up and talk about with credibility, both inside your own organization, to be able to effect the change within one's own organization, but also outside, whether it's in government or in media or other other places."

You'll hear about:

- Shirine's upbringing including being a world traveller at a very young age thanks to her father's job and growing up in a multi-faith household to her own professional career which included multiple roles in multiple industries

- The culture and the history of the council and the importance of organisations and CEOs to really be following the values and purpose

- The reason behind Shirine's passion for early intervention and the importance of it in childrens' lives

- What CEO activism means to Shirine and the need for CEOs and governments to make the right decisions when it comes to policy and practice

- How to deal with challenges such as culture wars, which can be a huge setback to D&I

- ESG with its narrative shift not just to environmental issues but also to social issues.

- How the Co-op is allowing talent to be able to thrive, no matter what background, no matter what their personal situation through the use of policies and practices

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In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Asif Sadiq, Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Warner Brothers Discovery

"At Warner Brothers Discovery, I'm looking at the internal elements. I'm looking at productions. I'm looking at our content. You know, how do we make it more diverse? How do we tell authentic stories? And that's how D&I should be positioned. In a way that you are really aligning to the internal and the external so that the messaging and what you truly believe in is consistent."

You'll hear about:

- A whistlestop tour of Asif's personal and professional journey including his early experience in different industries, his thoughts on authentic storytelling that is aligned with D&I, his Kenyan heritage, his family, race as a huge element while growing up and his views on disability inclusion

- The need for D&I efforts to move away from alignment with the dominant culture, to give other minority cultures a chance to contribute and explore their own journey with alignment to company values

- The need for safe spaces that allow for open conversation, the fact that diversity does not mean agreement on everything and importance of taking every opportunity to create a learning environment rather than jumping to cancel someone

- How alignment in D&I helps create a sense of belonging within an organisation and a feeling of alignment with organisational values

- The value of having a D&I role that reports to the CEO and has a seat at the table to shape how D&I fits into organisational culture and influence strategy

- Authentic storytelling that represents the richness and diversity of a culture and its success stories

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In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Salma De Graaff, VP People/(CHRO) at Skyscanner

"People that have come from the people function that can lead an organization, they're also leading the people in an organization and finding a way to understand and facilitate both what generates great revenue and what are going to be the key elements that lead the company forward and also how do we create the environment able to thrive."

You'll hear about:

- Salma's rich personal history and her upbringing with an immigrant father and growing up in an Asian family with its educational pressures, through her career in sales into HR

- How her move abroad made her understand privilege from an intersectional lens, but also started her on her travel history, living in the Netherlands, Suriname, Kinshasa, The Dominican Republic, Congo, Ethiopia and finally back to the Netherlands with regular trips to the UK.

-  The importance of a strong understanding of the commercial lens, as well as the fast paced, modern world that we live in to give someone a commercial edge.

- How Diversity and Inclusion, culture and intersectionality fit into Human Resources

- The importance of coaching and mentoring, and how that became Salma's inflection point in terms of going after the role that she always said she wanted and he importance of self-belief in that journey.

- How a company is also a community, and the important role that HR/People plays in creating an environment where employees can thrive.

- What resilience really means in terms of work-life balance and the importance of finding it earlier in life.

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In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Clare Costello, Chief People and Inclusion officer at the Co-op

"How many times have I said to somebody in the last decade, You're a fantastic negotiator. You can pull an RFP together, analyze data in such an immense way, massive thumbs up, humanity, stakeholders, kind of. Okay. But if you can get your people scaled up, you'll go from being a really good buy to being amazing. And it is that is the more people centric side that shifts the dial in terms of how we work together and the outcomes that you can get to."

You'll hear about:

- Clare's professional journey through accounting to procurement and now to people.

- How to grow and develop relationships in terms of the supply chain, and in particular how to manage the more difficult parts of these relationships

-  The importance of transparency and honesty in business relationships as well as creating a spirit of collaboration to make everyone feel a part of the business

- The increasing number of organisations whether corporate, social enterprise or non-profits who are driving initiatives to benefit diverse and minority owned suppliers and communities

- Clare's vision of the future when it comes to the future when it comes to procurement, diversity, inclusion, belonging, equity and also people 

- How social value works, and particularly in terms of ESG value and how procurement fits into people

- How to standardise and measure the S in ESG to ensure it's something that is scientifically tracked and measured 

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In this week’s podcast, Leila McKenzie-Delis, CEO and Founder of DIAL Global speaks to Zahoor Ahmad, Head of Social Mobility, Inclusion and Belonging at Coop and Executive Director at Alchemy Performance.

"Through emotional intelligence you can create a level of psychological safety and then people are accepting of ideas because they are non-threatening. However, if people enter their fight or flight mode when you approach them, you're not going to get much out of them."

You'll hear about:

- Zahoor's evolution through D&I including why he peaked at the age of 11, his Pakistani background, his experience of racism in public schools at a young age, how he's used his degree in psychology starting from social services to race equality to fire services, his career break where he wrote a novel and then continuing on to Royal Mail, the finance sector and finally to the Coop.

- The differences he found within organisations at his various roles and what it means to be a forward-thinking D&I professional in today's world.

-  The big failures of diversity initiatives across Zahoor's experience, particularly bearing in mind the cyclical nature of events leading to diversity fatigue.

- How to elevate the narrative around D&I to use D&I to make things happen where it counts

- Why is it important to step up and put our head above the parapet when it comes to critical issues of our time 

- The importance of the art of storytelling and persuasion

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