# inclusion
38 moments across 33 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
53:23Workplace Surgery — disappearing EDI valuesLeanne Elliott: Let Jake go first. No, let Jake go first Al Elliott: Jake Jake Tuber: I have often asked people to consider whether or not their company's values are just wall art. In other words, are they just the thingEP 290 · 7 Apr 2026·workplace surgery· 53:23–59:0649:39Final takeaway: inclusion is system designLaura Dean: I think it's inclusion is about system design. It's not about special treatment. It's about creating systems that allow people to be themselves Al Elliott: That was Dr. Laura Dean, and I think the canary framEP 289 · 2 Apr 2026·interview· 49:39–51:1919:43The rule: unless everyone's laughing, it's not funnyAl Elliott: I like that. I like that. So I think there's, unfortunately, in almost any office of any size, there's going to be one person who thinks they're funny, but they're not. First of all, why are they not funny?EP 269 · 22 Jan 2026·interview· 19:43–19:5716:40Story 3: Mattel launches its first autistic BarbieLeanne Elliott: Yeah Al Elliott: Moving on Leanne Elliott: You go gooseEP 266 · 13 Jan 2026·news roundup· 16:40–24:2130:13Prediction 5 — The death of assimilation (Sonia Thompson)Al Elliott: Yes. So let's hear from Sonia Thompson, who's the host of the Frictionless Marketing podcast and an inclusive growth and customer experience strategist Leanne Elliott: Sonia spends her time helping brands undEP 263 · 1 Jan 2026·other· 30:13–36:0011:19Why bringing on more team members with learning challenges matteredLeanne Elliott: Yeah Christian Laing: He makes, he makes a brew, he makes the staff a drink when they come in. He trained all the staff, um, and, and people didn't think that was possible, you know Leanne Elliott: Why waEP 253 · 27 Nov 2025·interview· 11:19–13:3416:22What employers misunderstand about people with learning disabilitiesLeanne Elliott: What is it that other business owners, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employers misunderstand about people with Down syndrome and learning disabilities? What are they not getting? Christian Laing: I jusEP 253 · 27 Nov 2025·interview· 16:22–27:0717:23Making fun inclusiveAl Elliott: Yeah Joel Zeff: But, you know, I think people are genuinely good. That's, I, that's just my philosophy on life is that people are genuinely good and overall good. And, you know, you hopefully made the right hEP 225 · 21 Aug 2025·interview· 17:23–20:5214:14Creating environments of inclusionJohn Michel: Yeah, I think it's important to create an environment where people feel included, right? So an environment of inclusiveness or belonging where people feel like they're part of something that they all identifEP 223 · 14 Aug 2025·interview· 14:14–18:4315:51Why Pride Month Feels Different This YearLeanne Elliott: Do you know what? It's more what I haven't really seen. Um, it's Pride Month, June. I don't know about you, but it feels a bit different this year. It feels like everything's been a bit quieter. I've not EP 206 · 17 Jun 2025·news roundup· 15:51–21:4540:07Q7 — Keeping remote and hybrid workers includedAl Elliott: Yeah, love it, love it. Okay, so question number 7, how do we ensure that remote or hybrid workers feel included during the summer? Great question. I think a lot of the— I think particularly if you're in the EP 203 · 5 Jun 2025·other· 40:07–44:3334:45Where real change startsLeanne Elliott: And that's the point. Inclusion isn't about getting everything perfect. It's about building a culture where people feel safe enough to show up as they are and supported enough to keep showing up, even wheEP 199 · 22 May 2025·interview· 34:45–35:1541:46Prediction 6 — Sonia Thompson: Gen Z's workforce takeoverLeanne Elliott: Sonia Thompson is an inclusive I think 2025 is going to be another reckoning in that organizations are going to have to deal with people's differences in who is in the workforce, right? And right now in tEP 157 · 26 Dec 2024·other· 41:46–46:0214:58Story 3: Fortnum & Mason's diversity failLeanne Elliott: Well, going from one blunder to another, Fortnum Mason. I know, I know that maybe you have shopped there, actually. You're quite posh, Al. Shopped at Fortnum Mason? Al Elliott: No. Waitrose is about the hEP 146 · 19 Nov 2024·news roundup· 14:58–18:5223:05Diversity and inclusion: how far have we really come?Leanne Elliott: Annabelle is a young female professional in what might be seen as a traditionally male-dominated industry. We had to ask her if she had felt any kind of discrimination at work. No, I don't think so. I've EP 141 · 31 Oct 2024·other· 23:05–23:4018:58Hot Take: Sonia Thompson on inclusion vs. assimilationLeanne Elliott: Welcome back to our brand new segment, this week's Hot Take, where we uncover the truth and lies of work with the help of thought leaders and influencers. We are asking them for their boldest insights, thEP 134 · 8 Oct 2024·hot take· 18:58–31:4528:22Workplace Surgery: feeling excluded from an office cliqueLeanne Elliott: Sure Al Elliott: Hi, Leanne. This is, this is already informal. I like it Leanne Elliott: Hiya, you alright?EP 126 · 10 Sept 2024·workplace surgery· 28:22–36:1532:29Inclusion and introverts in team eventsLee Rubin: Introverts doesn't necessarily mean that you're completely unsocial. You just prefer to be with a smaller team. You prefer to have more intimate conversations or relationships. You prefer to have an experienceEP 119 · 30 Jul 2024·interview· 32:29–34:1723:09Tip 5: Inclusion Requires Intention (Catherine Garrod)Al Elliott: So inclusion for me is the important word. Whether you use EDI or D&I or whatever, inclusion is the important word. So inclusion is, you know, as human beings, I think it's universal, right? We want to be valEP 102 · 30 May 2024·other· 23:09–27:5024:55Workplace Surgery: Diversity in rural areasAl Elliott: Have you? Leanne Elliott: Yeah, I've got one for you Al Elliott: Okay. All right. Well, here we go. And this, we've been talking about Sonia Tunson from Inclusion and Marketing. This is probably more of a queEP 101 · 28 May 2024·workplace surgery· 24:55–30:4611:37Tip 2: Neurodiversity Is Your Competitive Advantage with Professor Nancy DoyleLeanne Elliott: Yeah Al Elliott: Um, I was hospitalized at 14. I simply couldn't cope with it, and I spent the last 2 years of my secondary education working from home on a Monday, going into school on a Monday, picking EP 100 · 23 May 2024·other· 11:37–15:1914:18Workplace Polarization and InclusionAl Elliott: So the lessons here seem to be that in the old days, Gen X, me, would complain about work or our manager or laugh at someone, something stupid someone did at work in the pub at the end of the day or on a FridEP 85 · 28 Mar 2024·interview· 14:18–21:3822:32Diversity and inclusion: the target is mediocrityJohn Amaechi OBE: There's many people who think, and I hope you haven't had to deal with any on your show, but there's many people who think that this whole thing about gender equity has gone a bit far, hasn't it? I meanEP 82 · 14 Mar 2024·interview· 22:32–26:5725:53Why D&I needs to reach the 95% who don't careSophie Wood: It was East Midlands Regional Group of Forces. I was there speaking about my journey, and I like a bit of audience participation, so I threw it out and said, why are you here today? And a police officer at tEP 77 · 8 Feb 2024·panel interview· 25:53–27:3631:19Belonging Base's approach — beyond the 'painting by numbers' D&Imidroll (Phil Agnew, Nudge): And 2 out of 3 of us are devilishly good-looking Al Elliott: And you're not gonna say which. Phil, host of No UK's number one marketing podcast. It's brought to you— we need to do this in thrEP 77 · 8 Feb 2024·panel interview· 31:19–34:3635:26The feeling of not belonging — and what real inclusion looks likeDanielle Wood: The feeling that we had when we first went through the transition was that we didn't feel like we belonged anymore. We felt like we were kind of like outsiders. And the people that have made our experienceEP 77 · 8 Feb 2024·panel interview· 35:26–37:3224:32Age Diversity at Thrive LawJodie Hill: It's a bit of a mixture. The, um, so we've got probably about 50% over the age of 30, um, and 50% under. So yeah, it's a bit of a mixture, to be honest. Um, but I'd say as well, we've got people who've come aEP 73 · 11 Jan 2024·interview· 24:32–26:4623:26Prediction 6: Social Mobility and DiversityLeanne Elliott: When I was researching Ruth before our chat, I noticed that she talked a lot about social mobility and the impact this has on diversity. And the more I looked into this and thought about the implications EP 72 · 4 Jan 2024·interview· 23:26–29:5818:15Priority 2 — Create inclusive workplacesLeanne Elliott: So our second priority, if you were, if you would, if you were a snowflake hater that was triggered by mental health, then strap in, friend, because priority number 2 is to create inclusive workplaces. InEP 63 · 2 Nov 2023·other· 18:15–27:1818:06What does Kanarys actually do?Leanne Elliott: Is there? Yeah, there's a place for them, sure. But I think it's recognizing their constraints and their limitations, as you, as you said. I think the key thing is if you collect any kind of type of data EP 53 · 24 Aug 2023·interview· 18:06–23:1823:32Diversity without inclusion is a revolving doorMandy Price: Because what we'll see is some workplaces that really focus on diversity, Again, because that is the easiest to measure. And so they will want to ensure that there's different faces, different demographics wEP 53 · 24 Aug 2023·interview· 23:32–27:4934:24Clip 9 — Neurodiversity: the recurring themeLeanne Elliott: So on Truth and Lies, from very early on, Al and I always said we wanted to talk about things that were trending, things that were popular in the media, and debunk some of the truth and lies, or lies and EP 52 · 17 Aug 2023·other· 34:24–39:2044:55Clip 11 — EDI 101 for Leaders: positive discriminationAl Elliott: So that was episode 45, EDI 101 for Leaders Leanne Elliott: So I picked that clip on positive discrimination because Al and I, believe it or not, we do actually do some research into what people want to hear.EP 52 · 17 Aug 2023·other· 44:55–45:246:42Is neurodiversity a disability?Nancy: So neurodiversity is the broad concept that, um, humans are as diverse in the way we think as we are in the way our faces look or our fingerprints. We are kind of all unique and distinct, um, and that kind of diveEP 41 · 31 May 2023·panel interview· 6:42–22:0542:47Lesson 3: The power of diverse perspectivesLeanne Elliott: Intention, commitment, follow-through, enforcement. People and culture takes work. You have a culture whether you know it or not. That, that is not intentional, that just exists. But in terms of shaping aEP 38 · 10 May 2023·interview· 42:47–48:5553:11Being the only woman in the roomAl Elliott: I don't know what— if you're at this chapter yet where I do talk about You know, only being one woman in the room, one woman at the table, a sense of competition. I will be completely honest and transparent. EP 32 · 29 Mar 2023·other· 53:11–55:3850:29Building diverse teams — moving beyond clonesLeanne Elliott: I use the word intent a lot on this podcast, and I think this is another example of intention. What, you know, having a clear intention as a leader being really important. Yes, we can read a study and seeEP 31 · 22 Mar 2023·other· 50:29–57:0121:18Prediction 11: Diversity and inclusion: the next chapterLeanne Elliott: We are. And my prediction, uh, my number 11, um, is diversity and inclusion, uh, will continue to be a very important topic of conversation within businesses. Um, but I think again that, that focus is gonEP 19 · 4 Jan 2023·other· 21:18–32:00
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