Marissa Ellis (CEO and founder of Diversily) led a Masterclass and Mentor Session on:

• The lack of workplace diversity and inclusion
• What does this mean in terms of a strategic business risk?
• What can we do about it?

Event Takeaways

Masterclass and mentor sessions include a 20-40 minute presentation followed by a 20-40 minute open, private and intimate discussion with the audience

Marissa Ellis, the founder and CEO of Diversily, opened up the discussion looking at the difference between diversity and inclusion. Diversity is about encouraging the differences between people, whilst inclusion is about making sure that you include these people in your discussion. Marissa asked her audience to think about diversity and inclusion more inclusively – not about giving women men’s jobs; rather, getting people to embrace their differences and encouraging an environment where this is welcome.

Marissa encouraged participants to rethink leadership. She used empowerment and trust as productivity levers to drive performance, and defined leadership as about bringing people together and encouraging them to solve problems and find solutions.

Marissa explained how important it is for companies to embed diversity and inclusion into their organisations. It needs to be brought into the risk conversation, as if it viewed as a business risk, it can be measured and managed.

Marissa asked the audience to think about the risks of a lack of diversity and inclusion; what the controls are. She also discussed how aspects of people’s lives such as being a parent or carer can also be considered in diversity. Marissa encouraged the audience to broaden their horizons and make genuine connections – invite other people into their world consciously and proactively.

In the mentor session, the audience took part in an interactive session to look at

• Why there is a lack of workplace diversity and inclusion
• What the consequences of a lack of workplace diversity and inclusion are
• What we can do to mitigate risk

The audience used shared e-whiteboard to offer their ideas.

Thank you, Marissa Ellis, for opening up this discussion. Please visit Marissa’s social site and website to learn more about Diversily and how you can incorporate this to your company.

Written by Klara Hansen, WiRC Coordinator and Data Insight Analyst and Acin

Marissa Ellis

Marissa is a strategist, advisor, speaker and best selling author. She is the founder of www.diversily.com and the creator of a number of business frameworks, including The Change Canvas, that are gaining widespread adoption and driving positive change around the world. She is a thought leader in ‘inclusive intelligence’ with over  20 years of experience driving transformational change in the tech sector. From well-known names such as Reuters, Barclays, SWIFT, lastminute.com to high growth start-ups and accelerators, Marissa has led teams, launched market leading products and delivered complex programmes.    In 2018 Marissa realised that the way we do business needs to change. Now her focus is on helping leaders to shift mindsets to think inclusively and helping businesses to broaden their horizons to focus on people, impact and purpose – not just profit – in order to drive business success. Marissa is hugely passionate about creating a fairer, more equitable future for us all, where technology can help us solve, not create, some of the world’s greatest challenges.