Why FREDIE Must Be a Boardroom Priority
This piece explores FREDIE—Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement—not as an HR initiative, but as a core leadership and governance framework. It outlines why Chairs and CEOs must move beyond mere compliance to embed these values into the very systems, decisions, and culture of their organisations.
New Year. Better Me. Better Us
A new year always arrives with a familiar promise: this time, I’ll do better.
Better habits. Better balance. Better choices. But what if “better” didn’t just stop with us as individuals?
Why Workplace Diversity Really Matters
For too long, workplace diversity has been treated as a nice to have — a moral gesture, a compliance exercise, or a communications issue. More latterly, diversity is a word that people are shrinking away from right at the time when we need to celebrate it the most – at a time when far right thinking is disproportionately loud and getting silly.
Why FREDIE Must Be a Boardroom Priority – A Chair and CEO Perspective
As Chairs and CEOs, we are ultimately accountable for the culture, integrity, and sustainability of the organisations we lead. While strategy, performance, and risk remain central to our role, there is one issue that increasingly underpins all three: how fairly and inclusively our organisations operate in practice.
The Importance of Fairness in the Workplace: Meeting a Human Need
Fairness isn’t a luxury — it’s a human necessity. It’s hardwired into us. From childhood, we react instinctively to unfairness. When a child says, “That’s not fair!”, they are expressing something deep within human nature: the need to be treated justly, to belong, and to trust that rules apply equally to everyone.
Protecting Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Staff from Violence and Harassment
We are living in deeply troubling times. Across the country, we are seeing a sharp rise in nationalism, hate speech, and racially motivated aggression. The reality is that for many of our Black, Asian, and ethnic minority colleagues, these aren’t just headlines — they are lived experiences.
20 Years of the National Centre for Diversity: A Journey of Hope, Change, and Commitment
In 2005, we started the National Centre for Diversity with a simple idea—that everyone deserves fairness, respect, and inclusion in the workplace, regardless of who they are or where they come from.
Should We Ban the Burqa?
Banning the burqa would be an act of cultural and gendered unfairness. The principle of fairness demands that we allow individuals to make personal choices about their lives—choices that don’t harm others but are deeply tied to identity, belief, and conscience. It is fundamentally unfair to single out Muslim women and ask them to bear the burden of societal discomfort with visible religious expression. Fairness means listening before judging and recognising that one person’s discomfort does not justify another person’s loss of liberty.
The Axe, the Trees, and the Rise of Muzzled Minds
“The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe. For the axe was clever, and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.”