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Allyship in Action
Allyship in Action episodes
- 208: What's Next for DEI with Beverly Jurenko
Beverly Jurenko served as the Director of Diversity & Inclusion for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, and worked in Europe, Latin America, and Russia in energy and finance for Amoco and Enron. She joins us to share how to:
- Demonstrate the value of DEI and get support from top management
- Manage the naysayers against DEI
- Measure DEI at an individual level
Follow Beverly at https://inside-edge-group.com/ and Julie at https://nextpivotpoint.com/
30 min - 207: Intersectionality as a DEI Balance with Nicole Hughey
Nicole Hughey has been leading DEI for 16 years. As the DEI leader at SiriusXM, she joins us to share:
- Why the future of DEI is about embracing intersectionality
- How to broaden diversity to include other perspectives without watering down DEI
- What an inclusive DEI event looks like using your competitive advantages as an organization
Connect with Nicole at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-hughey-061639b/ and learn more about SiriusXM at https://careers.siriusxm.com/diversityequityinclusion
33 min - 206: Let the Room Come to You with Brett Heising
Brett Heising is a highly acclaimed speaker who educates and inspires people around the world about living life with a physical disability. He has mastered the art of talking about the sensitive topic of "disability" in a fun, open, and honest way.
We discuss:
- Tangible, real-world advice designed to help his clients understand the difference between something being "ADA compliant" and truly accessible
- Why people with disabilities are underemployed and how to design workplaces to be inclusive of people with disabilities
- How allyship is about paying attention to opportunities to be helpful
Meet Brett at www.brettheising.com.
38 min - 205: Why Measurement Matters: How to Use Data to Tell Your DEI Story with Chris Jones
Chris Jones is the CEO and Co-founder of Spectra Diversity, the creator of the only DEI assessment which measures the organization and the individual in a single survey.
Together, we discuss:
- What data to measure for a good baseline
- How to dig through the data to tell a story by asking "so what?"
- What the future holds for DEI
As Chris says, measuring DEI improves perceptions of DEI. Follow Chris at https://www.spectradiversity.com/.
36 min - 204: A Day in the Life of a VP of Diversity with Celeste Warren
Celeste Warren is Vice President of the Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence at Merck. Celeste has over 30 years of experience in the fields of Human Resources Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Change Management. Celeste is the author of the book How to be a Diversity & Inclusion Ambassador: Everyone's Role in Helping All Feel Accepted, Engaged, and Valued.
We talk about:
- How awareness of DEI has improved, yet leadership representation continues to lag
- The headwinds affecting DEI leaders and how to overcome them
- Why everyone (especially individual contributors) can impact change
Connect with Celeste at https://crwdiversity.com/.
32 min - 203: Dismantling Whiteness for Emotional Justice with Esther Armah
Esther Armah is an international award-winning journalist, a playwright, an international speaker, and an author. Esther is CEO of The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice (The AIEJ), a global institute working across Accra, New York, and London, and is the author of the book: EMOTIONAL JUSTICE: a roadmap for racial healing. We talk about:
- How white centering harms DEI work today
- The four languages of whiteness, and how to replace them with the four love languages of emotional justice
- Why were are the dismantlers we have been waiting for
Connect with Esther at https://www.theaiej.com/.
33 min - 202: DEI Budget Cuts? Here's Why That's a Bad Idea with Julie KratzDEI work has surged in recent years, yet organizations are bracing for uncertainty in the markets they serve. With this uncertainty comes DEI budget cuts. Here's why that's a bad idea and how to push back.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work has surged in recent years, yet is showing signs of softening as organizations brace for uncertainty in the markets they serve. With this uncertainty, the pressure to reduce costs often results in DEI budget cuts or the elimination of the budget together. Seen more as a "nice to have" than a "must-have," organizations are signaling a deprioritization of DEI at the time it is needed the most.
Read more and access the data at https://nextpivotpoint.com/dei-budget-cuts-heres-why-thats-a-bad-idea/
Connect with Julie at nextpivotpoint.com
10 min - What's Next for DEI in 2023 with Julie Kratz
Julie unpacks learnings from season 10 and shares 10 ideas for 2023 DEI work based on her latest article in Entrepreneur.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/10-ideas-to-drive-your-dei-initiatives-in-2023/442070
Find Julie at www.nextpivotpoint.com
16 min - 201: Michelle Gyimah - The Current State of Pay Equity
Michelle Gyimah is the Director of Equality Pays, a gender and ethnicity equality consultancy dedicated to closing workplace pay gaps. She shares:
- Why all industries have pay gaps
- How to collect career experience stories to help address equity gaps
- Strategies to improve your pay gap that address real root causes
Connect with Michelle at https://www.equalitypays.co/ and her podcast https://bettermoneyconversations.libsyn.com/. Connect with Julie at www.nextpivotpoint.com.
36 min - 200: Lisa Hickey - How to Build a Platform for DEI
Lisa Hickey is CEO of Good Men Media, Inc. and Publisher of The Good Men Project, an online multi-media, cross-platform content site and conversation discussing the changing roles of men in the 21st century. Founded in 2010, The Good Men Project averages 2 million unique visitors a month. Lisa shares with us:
- How she started a successful DEI publication platform
- What topics are resonating with folks on DEI
- Why being open to feedback is important in publishing DEI content
Follow Lisa at https://goodmenproject.com/ and Julie at www.nextpivotpoint.com .
30 min
About Allyship in Action
From the publisher's feed
I left Corporate America because the workplace culture sucked.
That realization was my personal pivot point, and it's the entire driving force behind my podcast, Allyship in Action.
Inclusive workplace culture doesn't happen by accident. It is built through intentional, consistent choices. In every episode of Allyship in Action, my goal is simple. My goal is to cut through the noise, skip the performative shiny stuff, and deliver real, practical tools that turn good intentions into sustainable workplace culture change.
Here is the core summary of what Allyship in Action is all about, and how all leaders can be better allies.
From Performative Statements to Everyday Practice
We've all seen standard corporate declarations like posting a statement on social media or making a grand pledge. While public support isn't inherently bad, true allyship begins when the cameras are off. Allyship isn't a badge you wear or a title you give yourself. Allyship is a verb. It requires continuous learning, unlearning, and showing up even when things get messy or uncomfortable.
In our conversations with workplace culture experts, we repeatedly unpack how real allies move from passive empathy to proactive intervention. That means noticing who gets interrupted in meetings, recognizing whose ideas are credited, and ensuring that opportunities are distributed equitably across the entire team.
Rewiring Workplace Culture for True Inclusion
A healthy workplace culture isn't created by ping-pong tables or free snacks. Inclusive workplace cultures are built on psychological safety, fairness, and trust. For genuine inclusion to take root, organizations must audit the subtle systems that drive daily behavior. How are your meetings structured? How are performance reviews conducted? Who holds the informal power, and how is feedback delivered?
On the podcast, we showcase practical tactics—like rotating an Inclusion Booster role during weekly staff meetings to monitor airtime and ensure introverted or underrepresented voices are heard. When you design everyday workflows with inclusion in mind, you stop relying on heroic individual acts and start embedding equity into the DNA of your organization.
Protecting the Pipeline and How Inclusion Drives Talent Retention
There is both a deep human case and a rock-solid business case for DEI. In today's shifting marketplace, talent retention is one of the single biggest operational challenges leaders face. High performers, especially women, racially diverse team members, neurodivergent colleagues, and Gen Z workers, simply will not stay where they have to mask their true selves or fight uphill against systemic microaggressions.
When employees feel seen, heard, and valued for their unique lived experiences, engagement skyrockets, innovation thrives, and turnover drops. Protecting your talent pipeline isn't about complex retention gimmicks; it's about fostering an environment where people know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they belong.
Engaging People with Power
One of our biggest research insights is that inclusion work stalls when it remains isolated in ERGs or HR departments. Without people in positions of power actively engaged as allies, systemic progress hits a ceiling. Powerful leaders often stay on the sidelines out of a fear of making a mistake or saying the wrong thing.
Allyship in Action serves as a compassionate, pushback-proof invitation for leaders to step up. Allyship isn't about having all the answers or acting like a superhero. It's about having the humility to say, "I don't know, but I'm here to listen, learn, and leverage my influence to help."
Allyship is a Continuous Journey
Allyship is progress over perfection. It's a practice. We are all works in progress. If we want better workplaces, we have to stay curious, challenge our own blind spots, and commit to taking small, consistent micro-actions every single day.
When we do allyship well, we don't just change our teams, we also redefine what it means to lead for all.