I love it when a plan comes together. I met Isa Buencamino a couple of months ago as we are both in the Resilient Leaders Elements community of practice. We are both passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and we had a chat about what we could do to help move the conversations we are involved in on.
Isa had watched our virtual Diverse Educators event and asked if I would be up for starting a podcast. I liked the idea of it, but I was concerned that the audio market for thought leadership has become quite saturated, and I personally prefer watching than listening to things to provoke my thinking. We thrashed it out and decided to launch a webcast – a weekly livestream broadcast where you can visibly see the diversity of our guests as well as hearing their diverse voices. Moreover, the recordings can then become a bank of free CPD resources for future reference.
Our vision:
We believe that stretching our D&I orientation to a world perspective enhances our ability to empathise and understand the lived experiences of others; to do something personally about it in a meaningful way.
Our mission:
We wanted to create a safe space to have courageous conversations about what matters. We are committed to holding a dynamic enquiry to deepen our understanding, to develop our learning and to determine our collective agency around Diversity and Inclusion.
Our values:
- Courage – to be uncomfortable and to encourage others to lean into embracing it too;
- Curiosity – to ask the difficult questions and to give permission to others to do so too;
- Authenticity – to be ourselves as we go on this journey and to empower others to be so too;
- Vulnerability – to reveal what we do not know and our own blindspots, and to enable others to do so too.
Our purpose:
We have curated a series of conversations that aim to “fast forward” our D&I orientation, allowing advocates to build from what’s already been achieved, and take the agenda to new heights. We have brought our two worlds together – Isa has contacts in corporate organisations and I have a network in education and academic research.
Our guests:
Episode 1: Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi
Rhodora joined us from the Philippines and we reflected on her career in corporate D&I and the influence she has had in shaping this agenda.
You can watch our conversation with Rhodora here.
Liz joined us from the UK and we reflected on her life as person with a disability and how it led her to the Paralympics and to becoming an activist.
You can watch our conversation with Liz here.
Episode 3: Professor Paul Miller
Paul joined us from the UK and we reflected on his academic research into the experiences of BME teachers and leaders in the school system.
You can watch our conversation with Paul here.
Fran will be joining us from the USA to share her career leading transformation through inclusive cultures.
You can join our conversation with Fran here. Note, due to time zones this webcast will be held at the later time of 3pm next week.
Our pilot series is 12 weeks long and it will run through until Sunday 20th September. If there is interest we will then plan a second series. We are working with UK Youth to curate two panels this season to ensure that we are all listening to the voices of the next generation of D&I advocates and activists too.
We hope that you enjoy the conversations as we unpack the world perspective on D&I through our guests’ expertise and experience in this field. We hope that you find the webcasts humanising, mind expanding and that they give us all permission, as global citizens, to reach outside of the box and to see our world through a different lens.
Please do leave a comment on the impact these conversations have had on you thus far.
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