Welcome to Season Three of Reconstructing Inclusion!

A mentor once told me, "It is difficult for people to be honest." I thought he meant my business partners. He meant me. A reflection on Jason Arday, mirror holders, and what happens when someone feels they matter too much.

In this solo episode, Amri looks back at an article he wrote about Dr. Jason Arday, the youngest Black professor ever appointed at the University of Cambridge. He explore why a chorus of support is not the same as a mirror holder, what integrity means when you treat it as integration, and why feeling you matter too much can be its own kind of weight.

[00:01:00] - The Atlanta airport story: "It is difficult for people to be honest"

[00:03:00] - Building the habit of facing your cause in the matter, and why I wrote about Jason Arday

[00:04:00] - My father, the mortician, and a family code of integrity, dignity, and compassion

[00:06:00] - Roland Fryer, Claudine Gay, and Jason Arday: three public intellectuals under scrutiny

[00:07:00] - A choir versus a mirror holder, and integrity as integration

[00:09:00] - Did Arday come to feel he mattered too much?

[00:10:00] - Flett, Nepon, and Scott on mattering, and the gap between assigned and felt value

[00:11:00] - Scrutiny, bad faith critics, and why both things can be true

[00:14:00] - Cracks, anti-fragility, and truth as the bonding agent

[00:15:00] - What was my cause in the matter?

Standout Quotes:

"Enlightenment begins with the acceptance of all realities." [00:05:00]

"What wasn't front and center was a mirror holder, someone who helps you see your cause in the matter, your agency and what advances your growth and what hinders it." [00:07:00]

"The gap between the values others assign you and the value you feel able to deliver may be its own kind of boulder, its own kind of weight." [00:10:00]

Resources:The Anti-Mattering Scale Versus the General Mattering Scale in Pathological Narcissism by Gordon Flett, Taryn Nepon, and Xena Scott

Debating a Race Realist on IQ | The Glenn Show: the episode where Glenn Loury and John McWhorter discussed Nathan Cofnas’ role in Arday’s story.

---------------If this episode resonated, the Mattering and Performance Audit is where the diagnostic work begins. Find out where trust, contribution, and significance are cracking before it shows up in your organization. Explore the audit: https://www.inclusionwins.com/mattering-and-performance-audit

#Inclusion #Mattering #Leadership #Diversity #FutureofWork #AI #Belonging #DEI #ERGs #Trust

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https://inclusionwins.com/

https://reconstructinginclusion.substack.com/

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Welcome to Season Three of Reconstructing Inclusion!Joe Gerstandt on Identity, Structure, and What Comes Next for Inclusion

Amri sits down with longtime friend and fellow Plains-stater Joe Gerstandt, a speaker, author, and advisor who has spent 25 years helping organizations rethink diversity and inclusion, both from inside corporate leadership and from his own practice. They cover why DEI settled for small wins, how the field lost control of its own narrative, why the real problem is structural rather than cultural, what AI means for the work ahead, and why lasting change always comes down to identity.

Episode Timestamps:

[00:03:00] - Joe's story: 25 years in DEI, and why it "was never big enough to begin with"

[00:05:00] - The missed opportunity after George Floyd: too long asking for small improvements

[00:09:00] - The flaw the field never fixed: taking care of its own language

[00:12:00] - How people with no direct DEI experience wrote the public narrative

[00:14:00] - Why practitioners need deeper, more honest relationships with each other

[00:23:00] - Corporate structure as part of the problem, and the B Corp question

[00:26:00] - AI, humans in the loop, and who wins the next decade of work

[00:32:00] - Why real behavior change always requires identity change

[00:38:00] - Lessons on collective identity from the Marine Corps

[00:43:00] - Communityship, Peter Senge, and 20 years of building peer community

Standout Quotes:

"We had been so long fighting for small improvements, a little bit more budget, one more employee resource group. We didn't even know how to think or act big or dream big." [00:05:00]

"I wish I cared about human beings as much as I care about robots." [00:24:00]

"I've come to believe that real sustainable behavior change always involves a certain amount of identity change." [00:32:00]

Guest: Joe Gerstandt, Inclusion Strategist, Speaker, Author

Connect with Joe Gertsandt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joegerstandt/

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone in your organization who needs to hear it.

Let's Connect:

https://inclusionwins.com/

https://reconstructinginclusion.substack.com/

➡️ Subscribe to Reconstructing Inclusion for more unfiltered conversations about the future of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

Welcome to Season Three of Reconstructing Inclusion!

Gamiel Yafai: Why Most Diversity and Inclusion Programs Were Never Built to Last

"After 25 years running diversity maturity audits, Gamiel Yafai has learned that most organizations think they've embedded inclusion. They've barely gotten past awareness."

In this episode, Amri Johnson sits down with EDI consultancy founder, Gamiel Yafai MBE to unpack why so much diversity and inclusion work stalls before it ever takes root, what real embedding looks like versus what only appears to be embedded, and what the rise of Reform means for practitioners on both sides of the Atlantic.

Episode Timestamps:

[00:02:00] - Gamiel introduces himself and his path into the diversity and inclusion space

[00:05:00] - The teacher who shaped how Gamiel sees the world, and why polished shoes mattered

[00:07:00] - Growing up across Scottish, Irish, Yemeni, Indian, Muslim, and Christian heritage in Birmingham

[00:12:00] - Two and a half years in a Yemeni village, and the community that ran on shared crops

[00:23:00] - Why organizations rate themselves at maturity level four and audit at level two

[00:27:00] - The missing foundations behind most stalled diversity and inclusion strategies

[00:33:00] - How a profitable, inclusive culture can still be dangerously homogeneous

[00:37:00] - Evolution versus revolution: reading the rise of Reform through 25 years of history

[00:44:00] - Advice for practitioners watching their roles and budgets disappear

[00:48:00] - Why 85% of organizational change comes down to human behavior

Standout Quotes:

"I actually see the biggest gift I've ever been given is my heritage." [00:08:00]

"You could say the awareness has improved. However, the embedding is still way off." [00:23:00]

"I've always seen the work that we do around diversity and inclusion as being evolutionary. We evolve. However, we are going to see revolutions." [00:37:00]

"The work that we do is simple. I genuinely believe it's simple. People complicate it." [00:49:00]

Guest: Gamiel Yafai, CEO of Diversity Marketplace

Connect with Gamiel Yafai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedingamielyafai/

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone in your organization who needs to hear it.

Let's Connect:

https://inclusionwins.com/

https://reconstructinginclusion.substack.com/

➡️ Subscribe to Reconstructing Inclusion for more unfiltered conversations about the future of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)