What is this year’s diversity and inclusion month theme, and what impact are you intending to have for the region?

This year the theme is “Celebrate and Accelerate.” We have much to celebrate when it comes to the strides we are taking toward our regional diversity and inclusion ambitions and firm-wide aspirations. We also recognize that there is still work to be done, and collective ownership is critical for us to accelerate our efforts and the impact we want to have for our people, clients, and communities.

This year’s agenda includes a focused training on identity and privilege, a panel discussion on the commercial perspective, a working session based on bringing it to the individual level to drive personal ownership, and several events driven by our affinity networks to facilitate internal connection and meaningful conversations.

What’s next for diversity and inclusion month?

It has already evolved substantially since inception, but we hope to continue expanding the range of events and even expand to other regions. And of course, we always hope for more active participation and engagement during and beyond the sessions themselves as our region grows in numbers.

How have conversations from diversity and inclusion month evolved into creating change in the MEA region?

We receive a lot of ideas during the events themselves, plus feedback on what’s really working and where we can make things even better.

A great example is our diversity and inclusion learning program. We ran an allyship in action training last year and received feedback that it wasn’t sufficiently nuanced to MEA. We have been working throughout 2023 to reconceptualize it and will be rolling out a new and improved pilot program this year in response to that feedback. This is just one example, but it highlights how diversity and inclusion is a journey, and a long-term one at that.

Keep up to date with Kearney MEA on LinkedIn.