Belonging is a choice. Increasingly we choose to belong to places that prioritise inclusivity, have anti-racist cultures, with strong values and behaviours focused on what's important in the world. These progressive organisations become magnets for good people who want to do good work.
I support leaders and teams to evolve their culture, their leadership and their strategy to achieve this. I work directly with clients and also collaborate with other agencies working as part of their team.
In my direct work, the briefs look like
- we don't know where to start with EDI, help us
- we know we are not attracting a diverse community to our business/charity, help us change that
- we want to build a coaching led culture, help us bring more honesty into our relationships
- we have an issue with wokeness, help us become a more caring culture
- I don't know how to lead on these kinds of issues, help me be more confident and competent
- we work too fast paced and there's no time for learning and reflection, help us change our ways
- our clients brands are profiting from black culture, help us to know how to educate and drive change
- help us to be better at building and nurturing diverse teams
- our sector is white and middle class. Help us find out why and create a plan to change it
There are lots of elements to the work. Deep listening, stakeholder engagement, internal audits, anti-racism learning and development programmes, developing/refreshing organisational values, leadership coaching, developing strategy and visions and measuring impact.
I work with alot of charity leaders who recognise the need to drive change so they are genuinely on-purpose. I work with progressive creative agencies seeking to lead the industry, change its white dominance and help their clients see how brands can do more to contribute to social sustainability. I am bought in as a consultant on brand projects when the work of marketing intersects with cultural change and social sustainability, which is a focus area for me in 2022 so I can begin to have more impact. I work with bodies which reach lots of different sectors so that we can amplify our impact by working with those alot of influence and reach.
In my collaborator work, it is a mix of different things. I work with a sustainability consultancy partnering on impact projects focused on people and social sustainability. I collaborate with other consultants working in anti-racism and EDI because it is great to learn how others do this work and have opportunities to grow together through working together. I love collaborations and being part of a bigger community of people wanting to create meaningful change in the world.
Projects credited in
- Celebrating eleven issues of Marketing Society publication, EMPOWERI launched Empower, a digital publication for The Marketing Society, in June 2019. Initially it came out once a quarter. After a few issues I made it bi-monthly. Some of the most popular issues have been the 'community and togetherness issue (May 2020) and 'divided and connected' (July 2020). The picture below is taken from the most recent issue, 'empathy and humanity' (Mar 2021). https://marketingsociety.com/empower-publication