I’m delighted to share our first episode of Craft Politics, which you can expect to receive every Wednesday.
You can subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
This week, Andrew Percy and I kick things off by diving into the big headlines: Justin Trudeau’s resignation and what it means for governance and business in Canada, plus the latest drama from Meta—shutting down its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program and switching gears on content moderation.
But the real highlight? A chat with our very first guest, Ian Robertson, a seasoned strategist and partner at Jefferson Hawthorne.
Ian takes us behind the scenes of corporate boardrooms and helps us unpack why corporate America is cooling off on DEI initiatives.
He shares how businesses can move from virtue signalling to strategic empathy, why understanding stakeholder values is key, and what happens when you don’t have a plan for those tricky political and social issues.
Of course, it’s not all serious—we wrap things up with a pint in hand and make sense of what we heard.
Episode Highlights
Why the Chill on DEI? Corporate America’s commitment to DEI is shifting, with many policies originally implemented in reactive (and not-so-strategic) ways.
Stakeholder Juggling Act: Boards are feeling the pressure to balance shareholder demands, societal expectations, and a million other priorities.
Strategic Empathy > Virtue Signalling: Knowing what your stakeholders actually care about is the secret sauce for staying relevant and ahead.
Frameworks Save the Day: Companies need clear systems to make sense of messy political and social landscapes.
Meta Drama: Shutting down its DEI team and loosening content moderation? Meta’s moves are part of a bigger, global trend.
Consumer Power: Are customers voting with their wallets?
Canada’s Political Crisis? Trudeau’s resignation and parliamentary shake-ups might be local headlines; is this a political crisis?
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