Diversity and Inclusion

Tells people about Flexible Working Day on 21st June and what organisations need to do to make it work successfully.

Flexible Working is Here to Stay. The Challenge is Making it Work.

Diversity and Inclusion, High Performing Teams, MatchFit Methodology, Wellbeing /

Bradley Honnor, Managing Director of MatchFit, explores what organisations need to do to make flexible working successful for both people and business performance.

For many people, flexible working isn’t a perk. It’s what makes work possible. It enables working parents to balance family responsibilities, supports carers looking after loved ones, helps people with disabilities or neurodiversity thrive, and allows organisations to retain experienced talent who might otherwise leave the workforce.

The numbers speak for themselves.

  • Around 600 people leave work every day in the UK to care for loved ones.
  • 85% of mothers leave full-time work within three years of having children.
  • Around 1.1 million employees have left a job in the last year due to a lack of flexible working opportunities.

Flexible working removes barriers and opens doors.

It’s also become one of the most important factors in attracting and retaining talent. Recent research from MacMillan Davies found that 87% of employees viewed flexible and hybrid working as the most effective benefit for retention, ahead of salary, career progression and childcare support.

The message is clear: organisations that want to attract and retain the best people need to offer flexibility.

But while flexible working brings significant benefits, it also creates new challenges.

The Culture Challenge

According to the CIPD, today, around three-quarters of organisations operate some form of flexible/hybrid working.

Employees consistently report positive outcomes, including:

  • Better work-life balance
  • Improved wellbeing
  • Greater autonomy
  • Increased productivity

Yet many organisations are discovering that flexibility can come at a cost if it isn’t managed effectively. CIPD research shows employers are most concerned about:

  • Managers’ ability to lead teams effectively
  • Employee connection to organisational purpose
  • Collaboration and creativity
  • Maintaining organisational culture

Experience tells me that these challenges aren’t caused by flexible working itself. They’re caused when organisations try to operate with new ways of working but old leadership habits.

 Why Culture Matters More Than Location

A strong culture isn’t created by being in the same building. It’s created through shared purpose, trust, communication and consistent behaviours.

Without deliberate effort, hybrid or part-time working can create:

  • Silos between teams
  • Reduced collaboration
  • Communication gaps
  • Lower levels of trust
  • A weaker sense of belonging

Over time, people can become disconnected from the organisation’s purpose and from each other. Performance and wellbeing often suffer as a result.

A strong culture requires deliberate leadership, clear behaviours and a shared sense of purpose. As we explore in our article on building high-performance cultures, organisations that succeed create the conditions for people to perform, collaborate and thrive—regardless of where they work.

 What Organisations Need to Do

The most successful organisations don’t leave culture to chance. We recommend you focus on three areas.

  1. Help Managers Lead Differently

Managing a hybrid team requires different skills and leaders need to be equipped to:

  • Build trust remotely
  • Communicate with clarity
  • Manage performance fairly
  • Support wellbeing
  • Create opportunities for development and progression

The organisations that succeed are those that invest in leadership capability, not just technology.

  1. Create Stronger Connections to Purpose

When people are not physically together every day, organisations need to work harder to connect employees to the bigger picture.

People need to understand:

  • Why their work matters
  • How they contribute
  • What the organisation stands for

Purpose creates alignment, engagement and commitment, regardless of location.

  1. Build Intentional Team Cultures

Culture no longer happens by accident. Organisations need to create opportunities for meaningful connection, collaboration and shared learning.

This means being intentional about:

  • Team communication
  • Relationship building
  • Knowledge sharing
  • Recognition
  • Collective accountability

The strongest cultures are built through everyday interactions, not occasional events.

It’s also important to provide training to managers on how to manage flexible and hybrid teams effectively and fairly. This means giving support around performance management, remote communication, collaboration and relationship-building, and employee development and progression.

Supporting Flexible Working Successfully

The organisations that make flexible working successful don’t focus solely on policies or technology. They focus on helping leaders:

  • Create clarity and trust
  • Strengthen communication
  • Build psychological safety
  • Improve collaboration
  • Align people around a shared purpose

The challenge is creating a culture where people can perform, connect and thrive whenever and wherever they work.

Through our CLIMB to Align programme, the team at MatchFit help organisations build high-performance cultures that work in the reality of today’s workplace, focusing the behaviours, relationships and team dynamics that drive both performance and wellbeing.

Final Thought

Flexible working is no longer a temporary response to changing circumstances. It is a permanent feature of modern working life.

When flexibility is supported by strong leadership, clear communication and a shared sense of purpose, everyone benefits:

  • Employees gain greater balance and opportunity.
  • Organisations gain stronger engagement, better retention and access to a broader and more diverse talent pool.

The organisations that will thrive are those that learn how to lead, connect and build culture differently.

Sources:

CIPD Report 2025 8909-flexible-working-report-web.pdf

Find out more information about the author, Bradley Honnor, MatchFit’s Managing Director

https://matchfitclimb.com/bradleyhonnor/

Contact bradley@matchfitclimb.com if you would like to know more about how our programmes can help improve workplace stress and develop a high-performance culture in your organisation.

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

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Represents how DEI meets culture for inclusion to work

When DEI Meets Culture: Where Inclusion Really Happens

Diversity and Inclusion, MatchFit Methodology /

Bradley Honnor, Managing Director of MatchFit, shares his perspective on whether culture is replacing DEI — or revealing where DEI, as it is often practised, has fallen short.

For me, the real question isn’t whether DEI matters — it’s whether our cultures are actually designed to make people feel included.

Introduction: Why This Question Is Being Asked Now

Over the last few years, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has rightly moved from the margins to the boardroom. For many organisations, it has become a moral imperative, a reputational issue, and a strategic priority. And that matters. The intention behind DEI — fairness, opportunity, belonging is important and necessary.

Yet at the same time, I increasingly hear a quiet question being asked behind closed doors: Is this actually working?

Not because people no longer care about inclusion, but because many organisations are struggling to translate good intentions into lived experience. There is fatigue. There is defensiveness. There is confusion about return on investment. And in some cases, there is a sense that DEI has become polarised, symbolic or disconnected from day-to-day reality.

Alongside this, another conversation has been gaining momentum — about culture. Culture is increasingly cited as the real driver of engagement, belonging and performance. Not what is written in policies or values statements, but how people actually experience work.

And this is where the real tension emerges.

Not whether DEI should exist — but whether culture is the missing link between DEI intent and DEI impact.

What DEI Was Meant to Achieve and Where It Struggled

At its core, DEI was designed to address inequality, underrepresentation and exclusion. It sought to give voice to those who had historically been marginalised and to create fairer access to opportunity. That intention remains valid.

However, in practice, many DEI initiatives have struggled because they have been treated as programmes rather than systems, often owned by HR rather than leadership, and frequently measured through metrics that don’t capture lived experience.

One of my longstanding concerns is that diversity and inclusion are often addressed in a way that unintentionally divides people into categories and boxes — gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age — and then asks those groups to speak about ‘their experience’.

The problem is that no group is homogeneous. A white, heterosexual woman will experience the workplace very differently from a disabled woman or a woman of colour. When we talk about ‘women’s experiences, who exactly are we talking about?

And just as importantly, when conversations are framed around groups, those outside the group can feel excluded from the discussion altogether. As a man, if we are talking about women’s experiences, I may feel I have nothing to contribute — even though inclusion is something we all participate in, every day.

When we move away from the individual experience and towards polarised group identities, conversations can quickly become defensive rather than curious. That is rarely the foundation for meaningful change.

DEI can set goals. But culture determines behaviour.

What Do We Really Mean by Organisational Culture?

Culture is often reduced to posters on walls, purpose statements and values decks. In reality, culture is much simpler and much harder.

Culture is how things really get done around here.

It shows up in everyday moments:

  • Who gets listened to in meetings
  • Whose ideas are challenged or dismissed
  • Who is trusted with opportunity
  • What behaviours are rewarded, ignored or quietly discouraged

Culture is not neutral. It either amplifies inclusion or undermines it.

From a psychological perspective, this matters because humans have a deep, innate need for belonging. We are social beings. We want to feel part of a group, a community, a ‘tribe’. When we feel excluded, even subtly, our nervous system responds with threat. Engagement drops. Creativity shuts down. People protect themselves.

Inclusion, therefore, is not just a moral concept. It is a human one.

 

Why Culture Is Where DEI Succeeds or Fails

Inclusion is not created by policies. It is created by behaviours.

I often reflect on how little we are taught about listening. In school, we learn to debate. We learn to defend a position. But we are rarely taught to listen openly — without preparing our response before the other person has finished speaking, without relating everything back to ourselves, and without judgement.

The psychologist Carl Rogers used principles such as unconditional positive regard in conflict mediation, even between deeply opposed groups. His work showed that when people feel genuinely heard and understood, polarisation softens and new understanding becomes possible.

This is deeply relevant to organisations today. When people do not feel listened to or psychologically safe, trust erodes — and without trust, inclusion cannot exist. The Edelman Trust Barometer 2025 highlights a growing trust gap between leaders and employees, with clear implications for engagement, retention and performance. I explore this in more depth, along with practical steps leaders can take, in my latest blog on closing the trust gap.

If leaders cannot create environments where people feel safe to speak, to disagree, to be different — then no amount of DEI policy will create inclusion. Culture is where intent becomes reality.

From Representation to Experience

Much of the DEI conversation has focused on representation — who is in the room. Representation matters. But it is only the starting point.

The more important question is: what does it feel like to be in the room?

Belonging, trust and fairness are not abstract ideas. They are experiences. And when people don’t experience them, they leave, quietly or otherwise.

One of the most honest measures of inclusion is not hiring, but retention. Diverse talent does not leave organisations because of a lack of policies. They leave because of culture.

There is also a tendency to frame inclusion from a deficit position: ‘How can we be more inclusive?’ That question subtly implies that we are failing.

An alternative and more constructive approach is to ask:

  • Where does inclusion already work here?
  • When have people felt most valued?
  • What behaviours created that experience?

Culture change is often about amplifying what already works, not endlessly focusing on what doesn’t.

Leadership: Culture Is Not Neutral

Leaders shape culture whether they intend to or not. Every reaction, every decision, every silence sends a signal.

Leaders are often promoted for expertise, results or technical competence — not for their ability to create psychological safety or foster belonging. Yet those capabilities increasingly determine whether teams thrive or disengage.

Culture is not an HR initiative. It is a leadership capability.

Inclusion becomes sustainable only when leaders are accountable not just for what is achieved, but for how it is achieved and how people experience working with them.

A Practical Example: Age Diversity and Culture

Age diversity offers a useful lens for understanding why culture matters more than categorisation.

Today’s organisations often include employees in their 20s working alongside colleagues in their 60s and beyond. Each group brings different expectations, shaped by their social and technological context.

  • Baby boomers may value loyalty and hierarchy
  • Gen X independence and pragmatism
  • Millennial’s purpose and feedback
  • Gen Z inclusivity and rapid development

Trying to manage this through labels alone creates division. Culture, however, provides the unifying force.

A shared purpose —one that helps people see how their work contributes to something larger, transcends generational differences. When people understand why their work matters, they engage despite different personal expectations.

A growing body of research shows that organisations with strong, inclusive cultures deliver better business outcomes. Companies with diverse leadership teams are significantly more likely to deliver above-average profitability, while inclusive cultures have been linked to greater innovation, agility and better overall performance. Source: McKinsey insights

Is Culture Replacing DEI — or Completing It?

Culture is not a substitute for DEI frameworks, data or accountability. Representation still matters. Equity still matters. Measurement still matters.

But without culture, DEI becomes fragile. Transactional. Vulnerable to political shifts and fatigue.

The most effective organisations do not choose between DEI and culture. They integrate them:

  • DEI sets direction and accountability
  • Culture embeds behaviours
  • Leadership sustains both

Culture is not an escape from DEI. It is what makes DEI durable.

Conclusion: Culture as the Next Evolution of DEI

DEI is not going away. It is growing up.

If the first phase of DEI was about awareness and representation, the next phase is about experience and behaviour. About how inclusion is lived, not just stated.

Culture is where intent becomes impact. Where belonging becomes real. Where performance follows.

Organisations that focus on culture do not abandon DEI. They finally give it the conditions it needs to succeed — moving beyond initiatives to embed inclusive behaviours into leadership, decision-making and everyday interactions.

This is the focus of our MatchFit CLIMB Programme: supporting organisations to build sustainable, high-performing cultures by aligning leadership behaviour, trust and inclusion with real business outcomes. When culture is treated as a strategic capability rather than a side project, DEI stops being fragile — and starts driving lasting change.

Find out more information about the author, Bradley Honnor, MatchFit’s Managing Director

https://matchfitclimb.com/bradleyhonnor/

Contact bradley@matchfitclimb.com if you would like to know more about how our programmes can help manage successful leadership transitions within organisations.

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

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The New Employment Rights Bill: Opportunities for Leaders, Teams and Performance

Diversity and Inclusion, High Performing Teams, MatchFit Methodology, personal performance /

Bradley Honnor gives his view on how organisations can optimise the impact of the incoming legislation changes to drive performance at a leadership and team level.

The New Employment Rights Bill has now gained Royal Assent, marking one of the most significant shifts in the UK employment landscape in recent years. Much of the early discussion has focused on compliance such as updating policies, revising contracts and preparing for enforcement.

But for organisational leaders, the real opportunity lies beyond compliance. This Bill represents a cultural shift in how work is experienced day to day — particularly within teams, where employment rights are most visibly lived or broken.

For organisations that respond intentionally, the Bill can become a catalyst for stronger trust, clearer alignment and higher performance at every level.

What the Bill proposes – a brief overview

At its core, the Employment Rights Bill strengthens protections and formalises rights around fairness, security and voice at work. Key themes include:

  • Greater safeguards around dismissal and workplace fairness
  • Expanded rights related to flexible working and family leave
  • Stronger whistleblowing protections
  • Higher expectations of transparency and consistency in employment practices

While implementation will be phased, the direction of travel is clear: employees should feel respected, protected and treated consistently, not just contractually, but culturally.

What this means for organisational leaders and teams

Employment rights are rarely experienced at board level. They are felt within teams, through day-to-day leadership behaviours, decisions and conversations.

As rights become more visible and enforceable, team leaders sit at the intersection of policy and practice. How managers interpret, communicate and apply new rights will directly influence:

  • Trust within teams
  • Psychological safety
  • Engagement and retention
  • Performance under pressure

This reinforces a crucial truth: culture is not shaped by policy alone; it is shaped by people.

As employment rights expand, modern leadership must evolve from directive to empathetic, from control to clarity, aligning organisational values with a culture of fairness and psychological safety. Leaders and managers who model fairness, consistency and transparency create environments where teams feel safe to contribute, challenge and perform.

At the heart of this is alignment. Every team member needs to understand the organisation’s mission and values, what success looks like, and how their role contributes to it. Without this shared direction, even well-designed policies can result in confusion, frustration and disengagement.

Embedding compliance as culture; starting at team level

Organisations don’t need to wait for full implementation of the Employment Rights Bill to act. In fact, the most effective changes start with how leaders and teams work together today.

Team leaders are the daily translators of policy into behaviour. They sit at the point where organisational intent becomes lived reality. Investing in their capability, particularly in communication, decision-making and emotional intelligence is critical. Leaders need the confidence and skill to navigate sensitive conversations fairly, apply policies consistently, and model the behaviours the organisation expects others to follow.

Equip team leaders, not just HR

This is why compliance cannot sit solely with HR. When legal changes are treated as a technical exercise, they rarely influence culture. But when they are integrated into leadership development, performance conversations and everyday decision-making, they become part of how the organisation operates.

Embed rights into everyday team practices

Culture is reinforced through operational habits: how team meetings are run, how performance is discussed, how flexibility requests are handled, and how concerns are raised and addressed. Embedding change requires conversation, not broadcast. Creating a two-way dialogue within teams strengthens ownership and reduces resistance.

These everyday moments shape trust far more than policy documents ever could. When they consistently reflect fairness and clarity, compliance becomes embedded into culture rather than bolted on as an afterthought.

As employment rights expand, teams will closely observe how leaders respond. Organisations that use this moment to reinforce transparency, consistency and respect will see stronger alignment, higher engagement and more resilient performance.

As the saying goes: compliance shouldn’t be a tick-box. When legal protections are woven into organisational values and leadership behaviours, teams align more naturally and culture becomes a genuine competitive advantage.

At MatchFit, building high-performance cultures starts with a discovery phase. Through staff interviews, surveys and gap analyses, we identify the disconnects between leadership intent and team experience, ensuring interventions address real, lived challenges.

The future of flexible, secure work

The Bill also signals a decisive shift toward more flexible and secure ways of working. Provisions affecting zero-hours contracts, alongside strengthened parental and flexible working rights, reinforce the expectation that work should adapt to people, not the other way around. For leaders, this requires more than policy awareness; it demands judgement, consistency and trust at team level.

The workplaces of tomorrow will reward leaders who can balance commercial goals with genuine employee wellbeing and flexibility.

MatchFit helps organisations develop this balance through leadership and team interventions that bring clarity, accountability and care into everyday practice. When leaders are equipped to have better conversations and make fair, confident decisions, flexibility shifts from a concern to a genuine performance advantage.

Why this matters for organisational performance

High-performance cultures aren’t built through isolated initiatives or reactive compliance. They are built through consistent leadership behaviours that shape how people think, collaborate and perform.

Peer-reviewed research published via SSRN in 2023 The Role of Leadership in Organizational Development confirms that leaders act as “cultural architects”, shaping organisational values, norms and behaviours. When leaders at every level are aligned, teams become more adaptable, innovative and resilient.

MatchFit’s CLIMB programme  supports senior leaders in understanding how their communication patterns and leadership style influence teams. By linking self-awareness to real-time business challenges, leaders learn how to embed cultural change in a way that feels authentic and sustainable, cascading clarity and trust through teams.

The Employment Rights Bill reinforces what high-performing organisations already know: fairness, clarity and consistency are performance enablers. When teams trust their leaders and feel secure in how they are treated, engagement rises, alignment strengthens and results follow.

Looking ahead

 The organisations that will thrive in this new landscape are those that view the Bill not as a compliance burden, but as an opportunity to lead better at every level. Because when rights are embedded into leadership behaviour and team culture, performance doesn’t need to be forced. It emerges naturally, through trust, alignment and shared purpose.

If your organisation can integrate fairness, clarity and transparency into everyday practice, you’ll not only stay compliant but be able to outperform those that do not.

Contact bradley@matchfitclimb.com if you would like to know more about how our programmes can help embed trust within organisations.

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

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Shape your future around your aspirations

Diversity and Inclusion, High Performing Teams, Interview, MatchFit Methodology /

Welcome to the final in a series of articles based on a recent OxTalks podcast in which Chris Oxley (Managing Director, Oxley & Partners) and Bradley Honnor (MatchFit Managing Director) discuss leadership and development training.

In this sixth episode, Chris and Bradley discuss the analogy of campers and climbers and the need for both in successful organisations. To conclude they discuss how to take control of your future and make your dreams become reality.

 

Chris: Moving onto something we’ve spoken about on this podcast before, which I thought was super unique, was your analogy about campers and climbers. Could you explain what that is?

Bradely: Of course. Campers are individuals, individuals who tend to reach a certain point of comfort or success, and they camp there. They’re not pushing for more or the next thing. Climbers are the opposite almost, in that they are looking constantly to strive for the next thing, for improvement, for personal growth, for the next challenge. They’re motivated by more, becoming more or doing better. What’s interesting is that sometimes it’s easy to assume that we might position one as more important than the other. But that’s not the case. We need campers and we need climbers. And they’re both very, very important to our business. We need people whose sense of purpose is to do a fantastic job in what they’re doing. They get take pleasure in the detail and getting it right and doing it on time and understanding it inside out. And that is their sense of purpose. But at the same time, we need people to want to grow and develop and move on to the next step. So it’s again an analogy that people can really relate to. And we can be at different stages of our lives, whether we’re camping or climbing, and we may camp outside work, but in work, we’re a climber. So it’s just an analogy. It’s not a perfect science, but it does resonate with people, and leaders really understand those within their own teams when they look for it through that lens.

Chris: Because you need both right, campus and climbers.

Bradley: Yes, and it’s really important because it’s easy to think that we need everybody to be a climber. But not everybody can be the MD. Not everybody can be on the leadership team. So we really do need people that are very content to work where they are and to perfect where they are. And you often find that a lot of campers really are motivated by mastery. So I may be in the same job for 15 years, but it doesn’t mean I don’t get better at it, and that I don’t make it easier for the people that rely on me to do my job. Camping isn’t just about sitting still. It’s just not so much about climbing. You can be very busy camping, right? You can be on pace camping. You can be doing lots of stuff that’s very fundamental and important. So it’s good to be clear about that, because in our training sessions years ago, I can remember people feeling that if they were camping they weren’t as important, or that they were doing something wrong. And that really isn’t the case. They’re both very important roles, and I would advocate having both types of people in the same team and business.

Chris: I certainly know that, in terms of the type of search I’m quite often involved with, when we have conversations or initial assessments with the client we don’t want somebody to move out of this role too quick. It’s that retention consideration – finding someone who can come in and embed into the role for quite a bit of time. So whilst it’s great that somebody’s got all that drive and they want to improve, they still need to do and have an interest in the job they’re doing today and make themselves amazing at it.

So just coming to the end of the podcast, I’d like to grab your insights around recipe for success. From your experience, what does the recipe for success look like? And are there specific elements or traits that consistently lead to success in people and organisations?

Bradley: I give that question a lot of thought. I’m fortunate to work around people where we’re discussing this a great deal. It all starts from mindset. There’s no doubt about that in my mind whatsoever. You need a positive, strong mindset, because everything stems from that. Whether it’s the direction you take or the confidence you have in yourself, or the belief you have in what you’re doing, or the actions you take. It’s very much around your mindset. If we didn’t think something was possible, we wouldn’t even begin. So that, for me, is the fundamental under pinner. What I also see in really successful people is that they have an innate capability to see the opportunity. It’s really quite interesting to be in a room with three sales people and two of them don’t see a bigger picture and wider opportunity, but one does. It’s the same conversation, but that successful salesperson is the one that is able to see that there’s a bigger picture here, and maybe the opportunity is wider than we first thought. So seeing or creating that opportunity is the second thing for me. And thirdly, people skills. And that’s a broad-brush term, but however good we are, we can’t grow a business on our own. We need people to believe in us and get on board with the plan and contribute to the plan and engage with the delivery. And people that are successful generally have a really good, strong capability of that people management piece, or at least people around them that pick that up on their behalf. So for me, they’re the fundamentals of success. If you want to recipe those three things, it’s mindset, seeing the opportunity and delivering that opportunity through people.

Chris: Finally, if there’s one key takeaway or message you’d want listeners to walk away with, what would that be?

Bradley: That’s a good question. I think it’s about not being defined. Don’t be defined by your perceived limitations. Shape your future on your aspirations. Aspirations can be a dream. Turn your dreams into goals. Turn your dreams into targets. Dream big and chase it.

 

We hope that you enjoyed this conversation. You can listen to the whole conversation here The Transformative Impact of Personalised Development with Bradley Honnor

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

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Goals-Decision Making-Collaboration-Avoiding Paralysis

Diversity and Inclusion, High Performing Teams, Interview, MatchFit Methodology /

Welcome to the fifth in a series of articles based on a recent OxTalks podcast in which Chris Oxley (Managing Director, Oxley & Partners) and Bradley Honnor (MatchFit Managing Director) discuss leadership and development training.

In this fifth episode, Chris and Bradley discuss the importance of clear goals, decision making and some of the pitfalls to avoid. In organisations with high performance culture activities are clearly linked to the company vision, and decisions are made at the right level – quickly.

 

Bradley: One of the things I often say to a leader is: if you were to walk around the office at any given moment in time, and freeze time, and you looked over your shoulder at your people and what they were doing, would you be able to associate what they were working on in that moment to the overall vision or objective of that team or organisation? Or are they lost in auto pilot, responding to emails and working on what’s coming up rather than really understanding the reason they are doing that particular thing right now is because it feeds into another thing that will ultimately achieve our vision or goals. And if you have a whole team that are always operating on that understanding of why they’re doing what they’re doing, you have a massively powerful machine. If you don’t have that, you’ve got a bunch of headless chickens running around doing lots of stuff, maybe being  efficient, but not very effective. And there’s a big difference in those two things.

Chris: That leads me on quite nicely, actually, because I remember you talking about the worst decision being indecision. I was just wondering if you might be able to explain why that is so detrimental, especially within a leadership role.

Bradely: Indecision leaves you where you are right now. So you might be oscillating between what do I do? Do I do this? Do I do that? But what I’ve really learnt over the last few years working with some very senior people is that decisions generally are time sensitive. And there are lots of expressions, aren’t there, like: strike while the iron’s hot or make hay while the sun shines. There are lots of sayings that support ‘carpe diem’. Carpe Diem isn’t about seizing tomorrow or seizing next week, it’s seize the day today. So Indecision creates a risk in that, by the time your decision is made, it’s irrelevant, the opportunity is gone, the iron is now warm, and there is no point striking with that. You’ve missed the opportunity. I’ve found, for example, that in an organisation I’m working with at the moment, their decision-making process is quite slow. So what actually happens is, by the time an individual gets that decision off of a leader, they’re in a position where their client has moved on or got it done by somebody else or doesn’t need it anymore. So that’s why indecision creates a paralysis and loss of opportunity. Leadership is about being decisive, not foolhardy, not knee jerk reactions, but making the decision and seeing where that takes us and dealing with the new reality and probably the next decision following that. So that, for me, that’s the key reason. It’s something that is a time sensitive thing, something that you don’t have forever.

Chris: What strategies can people use to overcome indecision effectively within that leadership space? Is there anything quite simple, quite basic that they could look at.

Bradely: This comes up a lot. Sometimes that decision doesn’t need to be your decision. Trust the people that work for you as a leader. If you’ve got a head of client resources, let person make the decisions about client resources. Especially because sometimes that comes up to you as a board member, and operationally, you don’t understand the client or the dynamics or the culture as well as the individual running that area. So making sure we’re making the decisions that we need to make, and not the decisions that other people could be making is one thing. And that’s not an opinion. That’s something I see coming through in lots of businesses. I’m pretty sure that people listening will be aware of that dynamic, where things get escalated to a higher degree possibly than they need. And if there was more trust in the individuals in those positions, I think decision making would be quicker for sure. I think we need to think about how much we collaborate when we make a decision. We often see collaboration to the point of paralysis. We think to involve people, which is important, but also we need to understand what we are leading personally and what our scope for decision making is, and make that decision as a leader. So collaboration is good, but we’re seeing lots of decisions made by committee, and that’s slowing things down enormously. And I think lastly, be bold. Believe you can deal with the outcome. If it’s not the perfect decision or perfect solution, believe you can get the outcome that you’re looking for. So we see those three things happen an awful lot.

Chris: I love the collaboration to the point of paralysis comment. I’ll definitely steal that! But again, it falls back into what you’ve said before. We’ve moved back a little bit again, into that point that you made around everybody has their part to play. And I guess that feeds into letting people do their jobs, right? Have that trust in them. Let them play their role. Seems like a lot of the time there’s a lack in trust in individuals and that can really slow up a business and make things quite clunky. So that’s a super-useful thank you for sharing that.

 

We hope that you enjoyed this conversation and remember look out for Episode 6 soon. You can listen to the whole conversation here The Transformative Impact of Personalised Development with Bradley Honnor

 

 

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

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How to resolve issues and overcome obstacles to a high performance culture.

Diversity and Inclusion, High Performing Teams, Interview, MatchFit Methodology /

Welcome to the fourth in a series of articles based on a recent OxTalks podcast in which Chris Oxley (Managing Director, Oxley & Partners) and Bradley Honnor (MatchFit Managing Director) discuss leadership and development training.

In this forth episode, Chris explores the MatchFit CLIMB model, how it can be used to resolve issues, remove obstacles and help build a high performance culture.

 

Chris: Part of the MatchFit suite is your CLIMB program. I wonder if you could walk us through that in more detail?

Bradley: CLIMB is based around what we consider to be the five pillars of performance psychology. CLIMB is an acronym, one that is very useful for thinking about people wanting to progress – a climb is a good analogy as much as an acronym. But the acronym is about ‘What is it you need to do to move from where you are to the next level?’ So C is about commitment. You need to decide what you’re going to do and really commit to that.

The L is for leadership. You need to have the leadership qualities to get yourself and or your team to do the things that you need to make that commitment happen.

And then you have intensity, which is the spark, the passion to begin something and to feel the enthusiasm and the drive you need to work towards that commitment.

And then motivation is the M. Motivation is interesting. It’s different. It’s different from commitment. Motivation is very much about sustained behaviours and finding what you need to find in yourself and others to be resilient and do the thing we talked about earlier, where you’re pragmatically and systematically approaching something for a period of time.

And the B is about belief, and then we’re down to a mindset. We need to believe in what we’ve committed towards is possible and we have the skills and tools and resources to get ourselves there.

So we shape our methodology around that commitment, leadership, intensity, motivation and belief, and if all those things are in place for an individual, team and organisation, then there’s a very good chance they’re going to get themselves to where they want to be.

Chris: Typically, what is an objective for a business that you see, what are people looking to improve?

Bradley: That’s a good question. What we find is that leaders drive success. And behaviours drive leaders. So the type of things that seem to be in the way of really effective Senior Leadership Teams (SLT) or leaders are operational issues. Things like systems aren’t integrated effectively because there’s been a merger or an acquisition and two cultures have come together and the processes and procedures are different.

Of course, there are operational aspects and efficiencies that can be tweaked and done differently to make the organisation more harmonised and effective. But it’s people that do all of those things. It’s people that will make that stuff happen, and it’s people that will implement your strategic plan, and it’s people that will work towards your overall vision.

So we find that very often, some of the most profound inhibitors of achieving greater success or growth or whatever the objective might be for an organisation—which could be financial or acquiring other businesses—often what gets in the way of doing that most effectively is the communication between the people involved and their understanding of their role within that.

So if I break that down a little bit, if there are tensions between certain individuals or different functions within the business, or people not collaborating or sharing information, then clearly that’s going to inhibit that harmonious move forward as a team that you would like, because people are working in silos. So we do find that one of the key focuses areas for SLTs is often what the relationships are like within the team. We look at how they can communicate better with each other, how they can resolve differences that are inhibiting how people work together, how they collaborate or share, what fears people have that are not making them more open and transparent with the information they have or the information that they need. We find at MatchFit that our work very much has a people focus. The collaboration between senior teams very often is quite difficult because you get lots of egos, very senior people with lots of experience and their ways of doing things. They have operated like that for many years and there’s a real clash of methodology and often personalities.

I heard an expression the other day, and thought, wow, that absolutely sums it up. It was: ‘disagree and move on’. Let’s unpick what it means. When we’re having a board meeting, for example, and something is being discussed and we need to come to a consensus and make a decision. As an individual I do, of course, have the right to be—and really should be — very clear about my view on a particular direction that we’re going to go in as a team. And if I disagree, I should make that known. But then what I should also do is, if the majority of the board want to take a certain direction that I don’t agree with personally, disagree and move on. What I should not do, is sabotage it or communicate it to my team in a way that makes them not want to engage. I need to fully embrace the board’s direction and engage with delivering that. For me, that’s a real maturity in leadership, and it is sometimes lacking. People feel that their personal opinion is more important than the team’s decision in terms of the direction they’re taking. And I think it shows real maturity for leaders if they can disagree and move on. It’s a wonderful phrase.

Chris: That’s really interesting. You bring up the M&A side of things, and in particular, the lack of transparency that can happen when two businesses come together. I’ve had these conversations before because quite often I’ll have people reach out to me who are looking for new positions, and the common reason they’re looking for a new position is because there’s been a merger or acquisition, and it’s not going how they’d like. And much of the time it’s because, whilst they might now be one entity, there still seems to be significant rivalry within the business and a real lack of sharing information or even wanting to collaborate. That’s certainly an area that needs developing and it sounds like you’re touching in that space now.

Bradley: Yes, we’re doing a lot in that space, and you’re bang on with what you’ve outlined there. That often happens. You get two completely different cultures coming together, two different ways of working coming together. And what can you do about that, why does that happen? I think no one on this call would disagree that very often, change isn’t managed particularly well. We have expectations around how the communication should be. Very often it isn’t like that. Sometimes we’re missing aspects of why things aren’t being communicated. So, for example, we can’t always share who’s buying who or when or how much for or what’s going to happen and so on because it’s confidential and can affect share prices. That said there are things that can be communicated that sometimes aren’t.

So how those transitions and mergers and acquisitions are managed is certainly an issue. In reality it will always will be an issue because you have that individual experience of what that transaction was like specifically for me. And it’s impossible to get that right for everybody. That dynamic will always exist but it’s then what do you do with that when you have two different cultures working together, and different ways of operating, and people not sharing information. It’s often left to circumstantial chance that things will settle down in the end, and people and teams will find their way. And what that does is allow norms to form, and some of those norms will be effective and work for the business. But some won’t be, like people working in silos or not sharing information.

So what we need to do in that situation is drive more productive norms. We need the norms to be formed deliberately, as opposed to taking place due to time and circumstances and letting events take the lead. Why doesn’t that happen? It doesn’t happen because people are doing their job. They’re working hard to deliver what they’re meant to be working on. And what they’re not necessarily doing is stepping back and looking at the dynamics between the different cultures and teams, and thinking about specifically, how do we engage with these people to bring them together in a more cohesive and collaborative way? Which is why MatchFit works. Because that is our focus, and that’s what’s interesting. So it’s a very good example of why a consultancy like MatchFit can be so effective. It’s not that we know more than everybody else. It’s the fact that everybody else is actually doing their job and everyone’s really, really busy, but what people aren’t doing is taking that step back and going, right, let’s look at how everybody’s getting on and how everybody’s feeling about the merger or the acquisition. And what can we do to make people feel more secure or clear or how do we eradicate duplication and so on. That’s, the stuff we’re working on. And I think that’s a great example you highlighted – where people feel a lack of clarity in their role. They’re in a team they weren’t in before; they’ve got a leader they didn’t have before, the objectives and vision of the business are different. It’s a completely different existential event for people generally, to really go through something so significant. And that piece of, how am I in that and how do I operate within this new world order is very often lost and left to chance. Some people navigate that more effectively than others, but it should be picked up and dealt with deliberately as part of the process.

Chris: I couldn’t agree more. I’m in quite a unique position, and the super-common phrase that I always hear is ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen’. But it seems almost a simple fix, like to send out some reassurance to the business and individually. Can a business not sit down and highlight the positives of why this merger might be happening, and start to work with people and what they are feeling about it. And engaging with the employees more instead of exactly what you’ve said, just leaving it to chance – those who fall out, fall out, those who don’t, don’t. Because the reality is, you’re always going to get a few people who were just one nudge away from moving anyway. And it might not even be anything to do with the business. It might just be they’ve been somewhere for 15 years, and they don’t want to finish their career there. They want to see how another business runs. Maybe I’m being ignorant here, but it seems almost like there’s a simple approach, like just having that human conversation with somebody to try and understand their feelings about the potential merger and trying to maximise the positives of why this might be happen. But then at the same time showing empathy about why somebody might be feeling negative about the situation. And I want to really focus on this, because I think it’s super relevant, especially in wealth management, because there is so much consolidation going on at the moment. But what are the key things that companies are just missing? Is there anything basic that’s just being missed?

Bradely: It’s definitely more complicated than we might imagine at times. If an organisation has 10 people, it’s pretty easy to communicate to those 10. But when you have 4,000 staff, they might be in different countries, speak different languages, the culture might be very different, there could be different levels of seniority involved that can be in the know to a greater or lesser degree, or to no extent at all. It’s much more difficult to communicate in that way, and certainly to have those personal conversations.

So what we see is almost an over communication, where I receive email after email or newsletter after newsletter about what’s going on about every single detail within the business, including the merger. And I’m busy. I’m doing my job. So I don’t read it all, or I can’t read it all. So I miss a lot of this communication. So one of the considerations is how does an organisation do better and more targeted communication so that Bradley receives stuff that’s relevant to him specifically. So if I get communications, it’s definitely relevant to me, and I need to read it rather than the wider piece that would be nice if I had time, but it’s not so relevant to me. We see a lot of that and need to think about how we balance over communication with under communication. And how we get that more targeted communication. That’s certainly key.

And then the more personal side of things is that it’s very difficult to do that touch point with people, where you sit down and say: How are you doing? What do you need to understand? How are you feeling about what’s going on? Are you lacking clarity? And let me help you understand in a bit more detail. For that, we need to rely on two things – good leaders communicating that down to their managers and saying: have those conversations, you’re responsible for these individuals, with the expectation that they will do it. And then we need those managers to be equipped to have those conversations appropriately. And again, some people are better at doing that than others.

So what you typically see is pockets of people that have an understanding of what’s going on because their manager is a good communicator, and then pockets of people that don’t, because their managers aren’t so good. So the leadership role really is to ensure that those conversations are taking place. You could critique leadership at times for that, and you could critique the managers at times. But the only scalable model that you could have is to ensure people are taking responsibility for their own teams and creating clarity. And if they’re not getting it, they need to be asking upwards and making sure they are clear. And that would put people in a position where they’re feeling less uncertain and they have more clarity about what’s going on.

 

We hope that you enjoyed this conversation and remember look out for Episode 4 soon. You can listen to the whole conversation here The Transformative Impact of Personalised Development with Bradley Honnor

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

How to resolve issues and overcome obstacles to a high performance culture. Read More »

Managing multigenerational diversity in the workplace

Diversity and Inclusion, High Performing Teams, MatchFit Methodology /

This article was updated in May 2026 to reflect new trends and insights.

Research has shown that the proportion of workers aged 55 and older is projected to reach nearly 25% of the workforce in G7 countries by 2031, reflecting a significant rise in age diversity in the workplace.

As people remain in the workforce longer, today’s organisations are increasingly composed of age-diverse teams. Employees in their 20s now collaborate daily with colleagues in their 60s and beyond. This shift brings new levels of diversity in values, expectations, and attitudes toward work, but also poses a challenge for managers – how to lead in a way that uses this age diversity for high performance rather than letting it create division. 

The key to effective management lies in understanding the lived experiences of team members and using that insight to shape leadership, communication, and culture strategies. A tailored, reflective approach like MatchFit’s phenomenological methodology can help managers work through this terrain effectively.

Understanding generational differences

Managing age diversity in the workplace means understanding that different age cohorts often bring varying outlooks shaped by their cultural and technological contexts:

  • Baby boomers – may prioritise loyalty, hierarchy, and job security.
  • Generation X – values independence, flexibility, and pragmatism.
  • Millennials – tend to seek purpose, feedback, and work-life balance.
  • Gen Z – is digital-native, values inclusivity, and thrives on rapid growth opportunities.

A 2023 Pew Research Center study found that Millennials and Gen Z are significantly more likely to value diversity and flexibility at work, while Baby Boomers and Gen X place higher importance on job security and structured communication. These are, of course, generalisations but they highlight why a one-size-fits-all approach to management is no longer viable.

Moving from awareness to alignment – bridging the generational divide

Awareness of these differences is a start, but sustainable high performance comes from alignment. MatchFit’s CLIMB to Align programme addresses this directly, helping leadership and management develop strategies that support intergenerational collaboration. A Harvard Business Review analysis found that companies with strong intergenerational collaboration practices reported 10% higher employee engagement and 5% higher productivity than those without such practices.

A multi-generational workplace can bring significant advantages to organisations. More experienced Gen X and Millennials can contribute valuable insight, mentorship, and organisational knowledge, while Gen Z employees often introduce fresh thinking and digital expertise. Diverse teams offer a broader range of perspectives and experiences, driving stronger innovation and more creative problem-solving.

By engaging in open dialogue and co-creating plans that respect differing values, work styles and learning, managers can bridge the generational divide and manage age diversity in the workplace more effectively.

Coaching across generations

Developing strong coaching skills is essential in this environment, especially as Millennials who now account for nearly 40% of the working population prefer a coaching leadership approach.

Reverse mentoring can also be beneficial; pairing younger employees with older colleagues in mentorship relationships where both parties learn from each other. Younger employees bring digital fluency, knowledge of emerging technology, communication and collaboration tools, and insights into changing customer and workforce expectations, while older employees can share industry and organisational insights and professional experiences.

MatchFit’s WeCLIMB Coach module equips managers to adopt a coaching mindset, one that replaces assumption with curiosity. Coaching encourages managers to ask, “What motivates you?” rather than assuming what worked for them will work for everyone.

This coaching approach enables managers to unlock individual potential, irrespective of age. It also strengthens psychological safety by showing that diverse perspectives are not just accepted but valued.

Building self-awareness and adaptive leadership

Managers need to be attuned not only to others’ differences but also to their own leadership tendencies. Increasing self-awareness helps leaders understand their own motivational drivers and behavioural patterns. This reflection is the foundation for adaptive leadership, adjusting one’s style to fit the needs of the team.

Communication preferences can also be a challenge. For example, a manager who tends to value face-to-face interaction might need to stretch to accommodate younger colleagues who are more comfortable with asynchronous digital communication. Conversely, younger managers may need to learn how to build rapport and trust with older colleagues who prefer more structured communication.

Creating shared purpose through culture

A unifying purpose can transcend generational differences and help to manage age diversity in the workplace. A focus on culture transformation is critical here. By engaging the entire organisation in a discovery phase, including one-to-one interviews and staff surveys, it is possible to uncover the cultural nuances that influence team dynamics.

From these insights, tailored interventions can be deployed to realign the culture with business priorities. A Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report found that organisations with a strong sense of shared purpose and inclusive culture are significantly more likely to have high-performing teams, regardless of generational makeup.

Millennials, who now make up a significant proportion of the mid-career workforce and are often in leadership roles, place great importance on team alignment with a sense of purpose.

When employees of all ages see how their work contributes to a larger goal, they are more likely to engage and perform—despite their differing personal expectations.

Embedding continuous learning and feedback

One shared trait across all generations is the desire for growth, though how they experience it may differ. Regular feedback, coaching conversations, and opportunities to contribute to strategic initiatives can keep all team members engaged and growing.

Measuring what matters

A multigenerational team can only thrive if progress is measurable. Interventions need to evaluate success on a number of levels, including initial reactions, new understandings of team members, behavioural changes, and ultimate results for the team or business. This ensures that managers not only implement strategies but see a tangible return on investment through improved collaboration, engagement, and performance.

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If you’d like to learn more about our MatchFit leadership programmes, take a look at our information pages here, or why not get in touch? enquiries@matchfitclimb.com

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Workplace bullying – why are we still having to talk about it? Part II

Diversity and Inclusion /

Part II – A minefield of perceptions

In our previous article, our MD Bradley Honnor and Deputy Director of Civil Service HR Casework, Salina Bowen discussed how harassment and/or bullying is still an issue for organisations, and HR departments in particular.

A challenge that was highlighted is how we define what is—and is not—inappropriate language and behaviour. Here, Bradley and Salina take a very honest look at the nuances and complexities that can create a minefield to traverse in the quest to be properly understood.

Bradley begins “In an ideal world, we’d all have grown up conversations, adult to adult. So if I feel you’ve said something inappropriate, I can have that conversation with you. And you can respect my position and not do that again, and I can forgive you because you weren’t aware that I might be offended by that. And that’s the end of it – there’s no grievance, I don’t feel bullied, you’re not harassing me, it’s a conversation. Unfortunately, things quickly get formally escalated to managers because people don’t know how to have those conversations.

There’s a great model, the Transactional Analysis Model, which illustrates how to do this. You have two people with a view, they can understand each other’s perspective and, if for example, one finds a type of humour offensive, then the other is mindful of that. But this doesn’t happen enough at work.”

“I think that’s a little naïve” Salina counters. “You might, for example, think something’s just a joke, but there are some things that aren’t actually a joke or funny. So you need to have baseline?”

“If you look at someone like Ricky Gervais”, Bradley responds, “everything is a joke. He jokes about all sorts of things. It’s comedy unless you’re offended because it impacts on you personally. That’s why we just have to be able to talk to each other.

People make jokes with their friends that they wouldn’t dream of saying at work, even to shock just because part of humour is being shocking” Bradley says. “But does it make that individual sexist, or misogynist or racist or any of those things in a private conversation? I do think this is where we get it wrong sometimes. There’s no forgiveness at work for clumsiness.

“You do have to establish a baseline of acceptable behaviour though” says Salina. “For instance, a customer used an extremely offensive and widely acknowledged offensive word when talking to me. For them then just to say ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was unprofessional to say that’ is just an excuse. Aren’t we excusing poor behaviour by saying ‘anything goes as long as you say ‘I’m sorry. You have to have a baseline of acceptability before you can move on to that adult model.

There are all sorts of things that can be considered as micro aggressions, too. For instance, I’m hard of hearing and find the expression ‘it fell on deaf ears’ offensive, given what the expression implies.”

“That’s a good example, I wouldn’t have even thought of that” Bradley exclaims. “But if I’d said it, and somebody came up to me and said, ‘just to make you aware, I’m deaf and actually that’s a bit offensive’, my response would be ‘I had no idea, and I’ve definitely learned something today. I won’t do that again, I apologise’. But they’re more likely not to do that. They’ll thank me for the session, and then go to the manager and file a complaint. And that’s what’s wrong, that’s the crux of it. But I guess if you’re feeling bullied, you’re not going to go to a bully and have a conversation. If you’re feeling harassed, you’re not going to feel comfortable that you can go and have that conversation. So it ends up with everything being formalised and in my opinion, that’s not a very effective way to deal with things.

Sometimes, we’re going to get it wrong, and that’s the point. I was in a three-way conversation recently where I accidentally misgendered a trans person with the wrong pronoun. I felt really bad about that, but actually, they weren’t offended because it happens. I made a mistake, but I could have been held really accountable in a disciplinary because of that.”

“I’ve had a similar experience” agrees Salina. “Some time ago, I encountered my first person who transitioned from being a woman to a man. I had never met anyone who had gone through gender reassignment, and I didn’t know the correct language to use. I was asked to support him from an HR perspective, and I had to say to him ‘I don’t really know the right wording to use’. And he said, ‘just say it – if it’s the wrong word, I know you’re trying to understand and you’re coming from a good place’. We’re now friends and have been for the last ten years. Another colleague, who’s a Muslim, gave me a good tip. She said ‘if you want to know something about me being Muslim or a woman, or in an arranged marriage, just say to me, ‘do you mind me asking? If I don’t want to tell you, I won’t. But if I want to tell you, I’m really happy to share.’ She also offered how helpful it can be to read about a subject before asking questions.

The takeaway is not to be so anxious about getting it right so that right that you don’t ask. Don’t be afraid of using the wrong words, or even sometimes getting letters muddled – like LGTBQ+.”

“That, by the way, is hell for a dyslexic like me!” laughs Bradley.

“It can be difficult to keep up with language or terminology changes, but we’ve all got a responsibility to try to” says Salina. “I think it’s important that we also keep talking and asking questions of ourselves and one another.  Sometimes we don’t do that because we’re worried how others will perceive us or that we will unintentionally upset someone.

Navigating all this can be hard, because of how things move on, what’s appropriate and acceptable one day, the next day isn’t. LGBTQ+ is a really good example of how things change continually LGBT to LGBTQ+.  But for me, I think the navigating comes from people being bolder and more forgiving. So if I want to know something, I ask. I try to make it easier for the other person to ask me questions about my disability, as well.”

“It’s almost as if we need our own personal working charter, where we describe how we want people to engage with us; this is what we feel is acceptable” suggests Bradley.

“We already have a personal charter when we feel bullied or harassed or discriminated against, it’s because we feel someone’s broken our personal charter, our personal rules, our value system.

It really is contextual, as well. For instance, if we were in Ukraine right now, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, because workplace bullying, harassment and discrimination would not be a priority for discussion. Some of the misunderstandings are cultural, or generational. There are constructs we grew up with, using common language, which actually wouldn’t make sense to somebody from a different generation. For instance, the term ‘hen-pecked’ was common parlance, but now might be considered misogynistic. I remember when I started doing my psychotherapy training, and talking in a group about what we’d be doing at the weekend. When it came around to me, I said ‘I’ll spend most of the weekend with my bird’. The group were shocked, but I didn’t know any different, all my peers used this kind of language.  It led to a really great conversation about derogatory language and the impact it has.

You do have to keep up with the times. But I do think there is room for more conversation and a bit more forgiveness, because most people aren’t doing these things deliberately.”

“Absolutely” agrees Salina. “I really believe that the majority of people don’t actually want to upset anybody.  For example, when I go on a Teams call and a person’s name comes up and I’m not familiar with how to pronounce it, I can actually feel that horrible sense of dread because I can’t say their name.  And then I worry about saying it wrong, and them thinking that I don’t care. You can get yourself in a pickle over it. But actually, if I just say, ‘how do you say that?’ no-one’s going to be offended. But if I keep saying the name wrong again and again, it is rude”

“Actually, all jokes aside, if you’re dyslexic like me, that’s exactly what you do” Bradley explains. “You get it wrong again and again and again. And what’s really interesting is that then I could be accused of not showing any diversity awareness. The irony being that maybe it’s the other party who are not being inclusive and aware, because part of being dyslexic is that processing new, unfamiliar words takes ages. If I’m looking at a screen, with its tiny writing, that compounds the problem.

We don’t always know why someone has done what they’ve done, do we? They might be aggressive because they’re really stressed; their partner might have cancer. Quite often we don’t know what the root cause behind a person’s behaviour is. And there’s no real understanding or acceptance before we jump to accusations of being bullied, discriminated against or harassed. Being online has made it worse, in my view. People hide behind technology – they’re more aggressive over email than they would be face to face.”

“Another reason is the lack of general rapport-building” adds Salina. “I took a call the other day and the person started the call by saying ‘there’ll be no chit chat or jibber jabbering on this call”. And that means you don’t build those relationships with people which allows you to understand and get to know them. You don’t have that five minutes of face-to-face time getting coffee saying, ‘how are you?’ You don’t see the human side of people.

Cancel culture is also interesting. We do seem to be very bad at being non-judgmental and forgiving at the moment. If someone does say the wrong thing (I don’t mean deliberately or repeatedly), people can overreact, and even if the person apologises, it can still lead to a formal complaint.  Surely we should be able to have an honest conversation and say ‘don’t do it again’. We need to break that really vicious cycle.”

“Yes, it’s interesting, cancel culture, because it’s exactly what’s not needed” agrees Bradley. “It shuts down those feelings and views and puts them behind closed doors, which is really unhelpful. People aren’t necessarily going to change; they’re just not going to say it out loud anymore. That defeats the object, as nothing is overt anymore. And then for me also, who actually gave them the rulebook? You know, what makes one opinion so right and another so wrong? For example, I can think of a black comedian that got cancelled based on his act. Most people I’ve spoken to about it found him funny. So who’s doing the cancelling, and where did they get the power?

I think what I find quite disturbing about the whole thing is that it’s not okay to just say sorry. It’s almost as if people are being punished for even thinking the wrong thing, before they’ve even said it or had a chance to reconsider. But the reality is that we all have an unconscious bias. If you take my earlier example, mine led to me misgendering someone because I made an assumption based on how someone appeared to me.

But you know, the thing about unconscious bias is you cannot not have it. You can become better at thinking about what you say before you say it, and why you might think it. But if, for example, you associate a group of young blokes with getting stabbed—maybe because of the area in which you live, or you know someone who has had that experience—unless you do a significant amount of work, your natural inclination is always going to be ‘be a bit careful here’ when you are around a group of young men.

We need to be honest about that, and have those adult conversations in a framework of respect, forgiveness and understanding. The truth is that the majority of people that we will all cross paths with throughout our lives will never intentionally be trying to offend.  Having a conversation will usually not only resolve the situation but allow us all to be that little bit better informed the next time.”


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Bradley Honnor talks NatWest and how great it is to see a large organisation supporting a small business

Diversity and Inclusion, MatchFit Methodology /

With MatchFit’s strong NatWest partnership flourishing, the end is in sight for the development of an online training app that will not only prove hugely beneficial to organisations looking for inclusivity across their employee base, but has also been used as a mechanism to retrain at-risk staff at the bank.

“The idea of creating an online app for the MatchFit programme came about because of that need for inclusivity,” says managing director and MatchFit owner Bradley. “If you’re going to develop a high-performing culture, and want to engender culture and values that everyone can buy into, understand and play their part in, you really need the right tools to do that.”

With MatchFit’s typical client profile being well in excess of 200 staff members, highly inclusive face-to-face programmes can take significant time and resources to implement successfully. 

“The app is a way to bring some of what we do face-to-face to a wider population whilst keeping the content tailored and unique for each individual.”

Accessibility is key and the app will allow participants to consume content that is relevant to them in their own time, in bite-sized chunks. The high-flexibility infrastructure will also enable a client organisation to select what subjects are available to which groups, so the training can be very tailored, yet with everybody being involved and having their own specific journey.

“NatWest’s agenda was to reskill and redeploy a number of at-risk staff into IT roles. And for them to work on a live project of this complexity from start to (almost) finish has been fantastic,” said Bradley. “In the process, NatWest has been able to support my small business, which I personally think is a brilliant thing to do and something larger companies should do more of.”

The app in action

“One of the things I think the app does very well is enable measurement. Managers can see how far their team members have transitioned through their personal development journeys and that’s incredibly useful,” Bradley continued.

With the app driving users to content they need to know more about, managers can see metrics on individual journeys. This provides insight into what developments are necessary for teams and how far each member has progressed.

“The app has been built such that any content can be added, so it’s really flexible, right from the top to bottom. Clients can use the tool to address any concerns their particular organisation has,” he concluded.

 

Ready to ‘go’?

“Right now we’re in a position to go completely end-to-end. So we’ve got all of the content in for the CLIMB with GRIT programme as proof of concept, and clients can start right at the beginning—at Basecamp—and work all the way through to the summit,” according to Bradley.

With the main functionality up and working, including the ability to see where you are in the journey and what you’ve completed, the MatchFit team needed to convert content that was used in a face-to-face environment to work online.

“Now that we’ve been through that difficult process once, we know exactly what the developers need so uploading content for subsequent modules will be that much easier,” said Bradley.

In fact, implementing a technical solution for a non-technical team has been a challenge for MatchFit.

“There were lots of iterations of the content and lots of backs and forth with quite a few lessons learned. But we started to work pretty effectively as the project went on,” said Bradley. “I think what we’ve ended up with is very innovative and market leading, and it’s been great to work with such a supportive partner in NatWest all the way through.”

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