91: A conversation on enabling culture change with Ricky Forde, Senior Director, EMEA Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, FTI Consulting

The Elephant in the Room

It has not been long since the PR/Comms Industry started to be conscious about the impact of inherent racism, prejudice and discrimination on employees from black, and ethnic minority groups. Moving from talk to taking action for change has been painfully slow. It is important to acknowledge that organisations in the industry are at different stages of the journey. Some have been quicker to authentically address issues to reflect their values and also recognise it as a business resilience and sustainability challenge.

To get a sense of the work being done by agencies, I recently spoke with Ricky Forde, Senior Director, EMEA Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB). Interestingly Ricky is also FTI’s first DEIB lead and has a track record as a culture change expert. Key topics covered in this podcast include:

👉🏾 His career graph and his role as DEIB lead at FTI Consulting

👉🏾 We discussed the apparent fatigue around diversity, equity & inclusion issues; the burning platform metaphor

👉🏾 What orgs can do and are doing to address the disproportionate impact of global events on disadvantaged and underrepresented groups

👉🏾 BAME, BME, PoC, Global Majority, DEI, DEIB, DIB - are acronyms critical building block or is it taking attention away from the bigger task at hand

👉🏾 Groupism, fair pay, and equitable hiring practices

👉🏾 Representation as a tick box; equity and belonging for culture change

👉🏾 Importance of cultural intelligence for designing relevant solutions

We also spoke about the challenges and opportunities for the industry in the short term and long term, biases, micro aggressions, the Elephant in the room, his reading list: ‘Allies’ (Darling Kindersley), ‘How not to be strong amongst; (Alex Scott) other things

To listen, head to the podcast