For an organisation, department or team to succeed, they need the right environment for it to be great. As leaders, our success depends on our environment, so it is critical that we make sure what we are surrounding ourselves with the right people who will give us the energy, challenge, insight to thrive. To succeed, we need to surround ourselves with the right people, because you who you spend time with impacts your belief and your mindset.  The interview will look at the impact that diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) can have on the success of an organisation and how organisations can promote better demographic, cultural and cognitive diversity.  In this episode, Tim Hepworth will be interviewing our Chief Psychology Officer - Dr Amanda Potter and Tom Emery, the Chief People Officer at Brooks Macdonald to understand how organisations can create a cognitively and culturally diverse environment that sets the business up for success.  The Chief Psychology Officer website is now available https://www.thecpo.co.uk/  Please like and follow Zircon for more podcasts and articles at https://www.linkedin.com/company/zircon-consulting-ltd/ If you are interested in talking to Amanda about the cognitive diversity, diversity and inclusion practices in your organisation please contact her via LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandapotterzircon or email: [email protected] To contact Tom please message via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-emery-he-him-b8809818/ or to find out more about Brooks Macdonald please go to https://www.brooksmacdonald.com/ For more information about the BeTalent Psychological Safety questionnaire mentioned in this podcast please go to: https://www.betalent.com Timestamps Environment for Success ·       00:00 – Introduction to the Environment for Success ·       00:35 – Cultural Diversity = Success ·       02:26 – Impact of Diversity on the business ·       03:12 – Career History: Tom Emery ·       04:49 – Why talk about Diversity? ·       05:32 – The times they are a changin’ Learning from the past… ·       07:25 – Is it a sin? ·       09:30 – Inclusion is not an illusion ·       09:54 – Dos and do not dos (without being woke) ·       11:10 – Who we hire ·       13:05 – Diverse inclusion vs. inclusion The Lay of the land ·       14:12 – Women in the boardroom ·       15:23 – Gender diversity around the world ·       17:13 – Ethnicity in the boardroom ·       18:40 – I don’t want to stereotype here… ·       19:32 – Women are from Venus & Men are from Mars ·       21:47 – With victory comes sacrifice Managing expectations ·       23:17 – Equality vs. Equity (not the actors union) ·       24:18 – Privilege ·       25:02 – Cultural Beliefs ·       27:22 – Cognitive Diversity revisited ·       29:19 – Microaggression ·       30:26 – Anglicizing names ·       33:17 – Menopause deserves a Menapplause Getting a grip on the situation ·       35:22 – How to improve our diversity ·       37:57 – Zircon’s own research ·       39:11 – Embracing Psychological Safety ·       42:00 – The end.