Designing for Diversity

The session

Designing for Diversity takes an evidence-based look at why talent management—despite decades of investment and good intentions—continues to fail when it comes to identifying diverse talent and enabling diversity at senior levels. In the session, I’ll be discussing how many of the theories, processes, and so-called “best practices” that organisations rely on were never designed to surface difference. Instead, they tend to reproduce the status quo, while creating a comforting illusion of objectivity and rigour.

A key part of the conversation will focus on who benefits from this system. Over time, talent management has become a lucrative industry, with consultancies and executive search firms both shaping current practices and positioning themselves as the solution. The book explores this uncomfortable contradiction and asks why outcomes have changed so little despite years of expert advice. It also takes a critical look at DEI initiatives, including targets, which are often well-intentioned but…