Once a week since August, Ishma Alexander-Huet – VP of client advice and management at Initiative, as well as the media agency’s head of learning and culture – has been sharing the lessons she has learned after spending a year asking questions about how to make the media and advertising industries more equitable.
Some of those lessons have offered more nuanced (and much needed) perspectives on subjects leaders in the industry have already been grappling with, but also topics that have been under-discussed in corporate DEI, like colourism and neurodivergence.
Given that there is still a long way to go, the scope of the work to be done and the fact that these lessons are apt for more than just media agencies, we are sharing the full series here, so the entire industry can learn about how to press forward.
Introduction: What I’ve learned after a year of working for change
Lesson 1: We need to do what?
Lesson 2: Self-care is key to change
Lesson 3: The DEI label doesn’t always fit
Lesson 4: The blessing and the curse of light privilege
Lesson 5: Made in Canada
Lesson 6: How being autistic helped me reach my goal
Lesson 7 & 8: The paradox of allyship and how we overcome it
