They're just like, "Okay, maybe DEI is one of those kumbaya hold hands leaders that are really soft with their followers and ask people about their feelings all the time. High-trust environments enable a more linear path forward, with leaders setting expectations, assessing the current state of DEI, and distilling data into a compelling rationale for change. Zheng uses evidence and historical context to talk about DEI and how to move things beyond the 101 or beyond "good intentions" which often really don't hit the mark and make things even more awkward/painful for marginalized people. They don't pretend that it is easy, but they do show what is possible while acknowledging that this work is constantly evolving; and we must evolve along with it. But I feel like sometimes really easy for practitioners to spin their gears and to say a whole bunch of really meaningful, powerful things that don't actually mean anything.

Informed by nearly two decades of consulting to Fortune 500 companies, she and her team advised top companies on building cultures of belonging in times of great upheaval and uncertainty. But the ideas that we're talking about are, I think are so much more larger and more important and more universal to human potential and unleashing that.

We at Penguin Random House Australia acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the Traditional Custodians and the first storytellers of the lands on which we live and work. I’ve followed Lily Zheng on LinkedIn for some time so I was excited when this audiobook became available. If you are taking an outcomes based approach to EDI, how will you know when you have achieved your outcomes?

But you also need a shared understanding that something is wrong, that the policy isn't working and that something needs to be made better.I really enjoy Lily’s LinkedIn content and if you do as well, this book will absolutely be useful for you. We've probably participated in making it more of a moral choice versus a good practice versus an equitable practice which enables better organizational performance. If you're not, then we're going to put the hammer on you and put you on blast for not being inclusive. It is a bit depressing to see how easily we accept that something has positive outcomes when there is no proof to back up that claim. Hey, this might make you not almost a better leader, but a better human or parent or partner, whatever.

You can again start a social movement to raise the visibility of certain solutions to say, "Okay, we tap this committee on board, but all of our employees have rallied to say that they want this one solution. I don't like followership necessarily, but I'm still encountering Lily, and I'm sure you are too, people who just don't give a damn and don't want to be bothered.And I think the result is, maybe it's a little dense, but I think it's really high value content because the book treats the reader like they're an adult. I mean, how would you know that if you don't study organizational change and that's not your discipline? Zheng starts by answering the first question through defining measurable outcomes for diversity, equity and inclusion, as we can’t achieve greater impact without being specific about what we are trying to build. Throughout that book the idea that it should be foundational is behind all ideas of how to effectively make change, how to maintain those changes, how to reevaluate and how to do all these things while maintianing the trust of your members so as not to come across as performative or dismissive. DEI can often be a lofty subject without real answers, but Lily Zheng truly breaks down key DEI factors and gives realistic and practical advice in assessing them.