Building Blocks of Inclusion

Inclusion Architecture at the system level means designing the policies, strategies, and governance frameworks that make inclusion a structural feature of how regions, nations and organisations function. Through this lens, my work focuses on building architectures that are coherent across regional, national and organisational levels, so that inclusion is embedded into missions, mandates, and core business objectives rather than treated as a parallel agenda.

By collaborating closely with leadership teams, I develop tailored inclusion architectures that align with each entity’s purpose, operating model, and context, ensuring that strategy, policy, and culture reinforce one another over time. This includes translating vision into actionable frameworks, measurable goals, and implementation pathways that can be owned and sustained internally.

Examples of Inclusion Architecture in policy and strategy include: designing pathways for mutual learning and collaboration in inclusion policies across Europe and China in my role as Visiting Expert at the Sino-European Key Lab; leading the development of a five-year strategy for girls’ and women’s education commissioned by the African Union (2021–2025), “Building Resilience to Foster African Human Capital through Girls’ and Women’s Education for Sustainable Development”; developing a roadmap and action plan to drive Government policy change in the UK for the Institute for Policy and Engagement at the University of Nottingham, funded by Research England, “Creating pathways between research and policy” (2020).

Further Inclusion Architecture work includes a national “Strategy to Promote Female Participation in the Economy” commissioned by the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council in Mauritius (2017), and the development of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy for the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (2021–2025), each crafted to structurally connect inclusion with competitiveness, excellence, and long-term societal and economic value.

My advisory work within Inclusion Architecture focuses on designing the behavioural and structural building blocks that make inclusion measurable, repeatable, and outcomes driven. This means supporting organisations to move from intent to implementation, whether they are navigating cultural shifts or redesigning core processes such as inclusive recruitment, governance, and leadership development.

Through strategic insight and actionable plans, advisory support helps align inclusion with organisational performance, scientific excellence, and purpose-driven impact. The emphasis is on architectures that are coherent across culture, systems, and behaviours so that inclusion becomes part of how decisions are made.

Key areas of advisory intervention include:

• Organisational Inclusion strategies anchored in mission and core business.

• Governance structures for Inclusion that ensure transparency, accountability, and genuine buy-in.

• Embedding inclusion principles into Learning and Development and leadership programmes so leaders become intentional architects of culture.

• Inclusive recruitment practices that widen access to talent and reduce systemic bias.

• Inclusive communication that reflects and reinforces organisational values and belonging.

Advisory clients include leading European and international institutions such as the European Commission (Brussels), the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN, Geneva), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Heidelberg), and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Novartis (Basel), reflecting a track record of Inclusion Architecture at the forefront of science, policy, and innovation.

Inclusive Leadership Programmes are a core expression of Inclusion Architecture: they create a change ecosystem where inclusion becomes the default setting of leadership. When leaders consistently practice inclusive behaviours and redesign the processes they control, they act as catalysts for a culture reset that sustains performance, innovation, and belonging over time.​

These programmes are bespoke, designed to drive both behavioural shifts and structural change, so that what leaders learn is immediately translated into team norms, decision-making, and systems. They address the reality that the skills needed to lead global, diverse workforces are rarely covered in standard leadership curricula.​

Leaders are supported to:

• Build diverse teams by design.​

• Advance inclusion through intentional, practical, and sustained action.​

• Leverage cognitive diversity and collective intelligence for optimised decisions and innovation.​

• Mitigate bias in behaviours and processes, one of the biggest hurdles to inclusion.​

• Generate psychological safety as a foundation for creativity, learning, and high performance.​

A distinctive focus of my Inclusion Architecture work is leadership capacity building in the Global South, using epistemological frameworks from Africa, South America, and Asia to design programmes with powerful, context-rooted outcomes. 

Clients for whom Inclusive Leadership Programmes have been designed and delivered include Cochrane, the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, and the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative funded by the Wellcome Trust, reflecting impact across science, health, and knowledge ecosystems.

Learning and Development is a key pillar of Inclusion Architecture. When leadership programmes are reinforced by learning opportunities at every hierarchy, organisations build a holistic change ecosystem where inclusion is driven both top down and bottom up.​

My work focuses on designing L&D architectures that equip people with the mindsets, skills, and everyday practices needed to make inclusion real in their teams, processes, and decisions. Programmes are always tailored to organisational context and grounded in real scenarios, so learning translates directly into behaviour and system change.​

Services include:

• Capacity-building programmes for Diversity and Inclusion teams to strengthen strategic influence and operational effectiveness.​

• Coaching for Diversity and Inclusion leaders to navigate complexity, build alliances, and architect sustainable change.​

• Bias mitigation workshops where participants design strategies to address bias in behaviours and work processes.​

• Microaggression and bystander workshops using concrete tools so participants can hold themselves, peers, and leaders to account.​

• Creating collaborative cultures through effective feedback, helping teams mitigate conflict and build trust through inclusive feedback practices.​

• Train-the-trainer programmes across inclusion-related topics to enable large organisations to deliver at scale and embed internal capability.​

• Webinars for large groups on dimensions of inclusion such as neuroinclusion, intergenerational diversity, confronting racism and inspiring change, building resilient organisations, and gender diversity.​

• Bespoke programmes designed as part of a wider Inclusion Architecture, aligning learning experiences with organisational strategy, values, and transformation goals.

Coaching is a central pillar of Inclusion Architecture, developing leaders who can navigate complexity, design inclusive systems, and sustain impact over time. With over a decade of coaching practice in research institutes, Fortune 500 companies and international organisations, my work supports leaders to build inclusive culture and transformational capacity through systemic coaching approaches.​

At the heart of my coaching practice is a commitment to diverse coaching epistemologies that reflect the richness of human experience, ensuring that the approach is inclusive, adaptable, and attuned to each client’s context and background.​ Drawing from a range of philosophies and methodologies, coaching becomes both a space for personal renewal and a laboratory for designing new, more inclusive ways of leading.

Grounded in the European Mentoring and Coaching Council’s (EMCC’s) competency framework, my practice integrates reflective work, supervision, and continuous professional development to maintain depth, ethical rigour, and high standards.

Speaking is a live expression of Inclusion Architecture, bringing the ideas, tools, and possibilities of systemic inclusion to rooms where decisions are made and futures are shaped. Invitations span leadership retreats and high-impact platforms across research institutes, European Union institutions, flagship science organisations, and Fortune 500 companies, reflecting a track record of engaging diverse, global audiences.​

My keynotes and talks are designed to inspire leaders to critically rethink “business as usual” and to recognise inclusion as a powerful lever for innovation, performance, and impact. Drawing on my research background, global insights, and in-house experience of what genuinely works in organisations, each session aims to ignite dialogue, spark action, and strengthen individuals’ sense of agency in navigating change.​

I have spoken to live audiences of 1500 people at Westminster, London. As Visiting Expert at the Sino-European KeyLab, my first public lecture in China in March 2025 attracted more than 40,000 participants.