Roy Gluckman

The Future is Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Our world is certainly shifting. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is reshaping the world of work, future work skills, and our understanding of adding value, alongside populism, globalization, and social media that continue to challenge traditional societal narratives around identity, belonging, and social cohesion.

Audience takeaways:

• At the center of these shifts is an existential question around humanity: what does it mean to be (more) human?

Humanity and the Workplace

When I think of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (I promise that this will be the last time I reference this term), I believe the response, or counter-balancing force must be a recommitment to the human or people skill set. While yes, a legal chatbot can draft a final will and testament 100 times faster than a human, will they ever know how to console a bereaved family member? No.

Audience takeaways:

The “soft skills”, the human skills that are the skills of the future and that are redefining the landscape of what successful organizations look and feel like.

Inclusion and Talent

In 2011, the Institute for the Future 1, in collaboration with the University of Phoenix Research Institute, published Future Work Skills 2020. This report analyzed key drivers that will reshape the landscape of work and identifies key work skills needed in the future. Of the 10
future work skills identified, two stands out and are shared in the keynote.

Audience takeaways:

• Cross-cultural Competency: “Cross-cultural competency will become an important skill
• Social Intelligence. How to incorporate the two for success

Inclusive Leadership

Roy works exclusively within the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (“EDI”) space. A field that looks at both the workplace, as well as society, and the intimate interrelatedness between the two. He has come to understand one thing in his work: there is no such thing as an endpoint to this discussion. We never get to a point and say “we are now a fully inclusive working environment”. No.

Audience takeaways:

• So, what are we to do if not drive toward an outcome? We need to develop an Inclusive Leadership skillset
• Creating robustness to deal with workplace uncertainties that will continue to challenge our organizations into the future.

Inclusion on Culture

Progressive thinking around the role of organizations within today’s society calls for a much softer, more engaged corporation. The evolution in corporate governance regulations, calls for organizations to practice good corporate citizenry: a movement away from the sole
the mandate of profit and shareholder primacy toward an inclusive and sustainable growth model.

The Millennial Movement too has challenged corporates to develop their purpose statements: asking firms to reinvent their “why”. Further, the changing workforce (talent) now see an inclusive working culture as a necessity before committing their time and energy, thus challenging the way corporates do business.

Audience takeaways:

• Top-talent attraction;
•  Talent retention and optimization;
• Career/Skills development of employees;
• Personal mastery/growth of employees;