TALKS & WORKSHOPS
The topics outlined below are an illustration of subjects I regularly speak about. Topics can be tailored and blended to achieve your desired outcomes taking into account your organisation’s specific circumstances.
Often a series of workshops provides the best outcome, although there is still plenty of value in one-off events that start a different kind of conversation about DEI, through mindset shifts, open-mindedness and critical thinking.
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP
The Toxicity of Perfectionism
In this interactive talk, Harriet explains the different aspects to perfectionism including its positive and negative behavioural, emotional and mindset markers. She shares research findings into the causes and impact of toxic perfectionism, including how it affects men and women differently and then explores how intersectional and corporate cultural factors can contribute to perfectionism. The final part of the talk / workshop is dedicated to empowering the audience to shift to the healthier, more productive paradigm of progress and self-validation, thus ensuring far greater well-being, confidence and success in the future, for individuals and collectively.
50 minute keynote
90-120 minute workshop
From Imposter to Invincible
Delivered either as a talk or a workshop, Harriet breaks down the myths around imposter phenomenon, including why imposter syndrome is a DEI issue NOT a mindset issue. This empowering approach will help you let go of blaming yourself for your self-doubt, and help you create a team and organisational culture that supports everyone's self-belief, psychological safety and success. Harriet shares confidence and mindset hacks that quickly bring self-respect and the full respect of others, elevating your profile and effectiveness.
50 minute keynote
90-120 minute workshop
Download: Why “Imposter Syndrome” is a DEI Issue
Women & the Self-Worth Crisis: A Call to Action
In this powerful, eye-opening session, Harriet explores why women don’t feel good enough. The content pulls emphasis firmly away from women’s mindset as being the main issue that needs fixing, to the true root causes of women’s self-worth struggles, outlining the impact of cultural, media, political, medical, corporate and religious paradigms.
Discussion follows on the additional impact of intersectional factors and individual life experiences. The detrimental impact of women feeling inadequate is outlined at individual, organisational and global levels. Harriet works with her audience to co-create a vision for the future, ensuring that personal and organisational pledges plus action steps are clearly defined, with the aim of creating a new future where women are valued and know their worth.
This session has the most impact when it is a mixed group, with every woman who attends inviting at least one man personally to attend.
Women who take part in this session often identify a need for further support to help them to overcome their own self-worth challenges. Additional 121 and small group coaching is available.
50 minute keynote
90-120 minute workshop
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
Difficult Conversations
Starting a series of diversity workshops with this particular training on difficult conversations helps to set the scene and equip the audience with important skills ahead of moving directly into the diversity topic.
Harriet collaborates with Mia Forbes Pirie on this topic, adding Mia’s expertise as a highly experienced, effective and award-winning mediator to the conversation. Mia offers sessions including ‘Difficult conversations: moving from polarisation or silence to communication, understanding and collaboration.’
Mia and Harriet have co-led events for many years together, including day retreats and shorter workshops.
120 minute workshop
We Need to Talk About Sex
The sexualisation of women in the media and in the wider world remains rampant and is an under-emphasised topic that feeds into how women are seen and treated in the workplace. Creating workplaces that are safe for women to thrive, where women are respected and their careers can progress means having a workplace where women are not sexualised, not harassed and not blamed for being on the receiving end of unacceptable behaviour.
With the Worker Protection Act now in force, organisations have a legal duty to pro-actively protect their staff from sexual harrassment. Putting on these workshops are powerful pro-active and preventative initiatives, and need not be seen as an admission of an internal issue. Workshops offered in this area:
The Psychology of Victim-blaming: Harriet is an accredited VictimFocus trainer and in this full-day workshop, she helps participants to explore and understand the issue of victim-blaming of women and girls subjected to male violence. This training is as relevant for women as it is for men and significantly increases participants’ understanding of the barriers women face and the challenges of true allyship.
Tackling the Sexualisation of Women: This shorter workshop delivered collaboratively with Daniele Fiandaca of Token Man Consulting is based on original research conducted by Harriet and Daniele and is designed to help participants to understand the impact of the sexualisation of women in the workplace and how to address these issues as a woman and an ally.
Please note these are essential but difficult conversations and it is important for an organisation to have appropriate support in place following the workshop. We are able to assist you with this.
Workshop - varied timing
Inviting Men into the Inclusion Conversation
If men do not feel welcome into or part of inclusion initiatives, not only are the programs failing to be truly inclusive, their success will be limited. Men have the greatest power to influence cultural change in an organisation, and the greatest impact as allies.
In this workshop, the initial focus is on why men don’t engage with inclusion work, giving space for resistance and fears to be aired, plus sharing research on this topic. A portion of the session is then dedicated to exploring how the patriarchy and current cultural paradigm hurts men, as well as how men will benefit from a fairer and more equal paradigm. Harriet builds the case for gender balance and diversity far beyond the moral case to encompass several more compelling layers of argument through her unique framework. This supports her audience to leave behind scepticism and become proactive allies for gender balance, inclusion and belonging.
The workshop includes content exploring:
Risks and opportunities of welcoming or pushing back against inclusion at the business, brand and individual career level.
Creating a shared vision for a different way forward on a bigger picture level: how would we like it to be for men in the future, and what difference would that make?
How might gender balance and a different culture in the workplace be part of this? What kind of difference will it make for all of humanity and the planet?
50 minute keynote
90-120 minute workshop
Breaking Down Gender-based Stereotypes
Gender stereotyping is a key contributor to lack of equity, inequality and gender-based violence. Dismantling stereotyping is a key part of moving towards equality.
This session focuses on understanding the breadth and nuances of gender-based stereotypes for men and women, and explores the research into the impact that these have at the individual, organisational and wider societal levels.
Beyond this, the key outcome of this session is that participants reject and move beyond unhelpful gender-based stereotypes. They start to work together to create a stronger environment of mutual respect and sense of belonging for all in the organisation, with staff seeing individuals not genders, and all that each individual brings to the table.
Attendees realise that neither men nor women are winning in the current paradigm, it is more like everyone is losing, albeit in different ways. This works powerfully to get everyone on the same side, keen to create a new future that works better for everyone.
50 minute keynote
90-120 minute workshop
Allyship & Inclusive Leadership
This session lays out the foundations of what inclusive leadership and allyship are, and how they relate to organisational culture and success. Research is shared, including key concepts around inclusion and psychological safety, performance, retention and more.
Harriet shares what the the identity, behaviour and mindset of an inclusive leader and ally are, focusing on the core traits of courage, commitment, cognizance, curiousity, cultural intelligence and collaboration. For each one, a series of journal prompts and discussion points are given, helping people to become more aware of where they are on their inclusive leadership journey and giving space to consider how they might like to develop their skills and knowledge in the future.
Harriet lectures on this topic at UCL as part of a Masters program for clinicians. Follow-on, bespoke programs on allyship are also available.
90 minute to full day workshop
Allyship programme
LIVED EXPERIENCE
Antisemitism & Jewish Inclusion
This talk / workshop touches on Harriet’s lived experience, observing the DEI industry’s gaps on this topic, and what she hears from many other women from running a support network for professional Jewish women in the UK. The training covers:
Shining a light on antisemitic tropes and harmful stereotypes.
How is antisemitism defined?
What organisations can do in practical terms to ensure they are deliberately inclusive and supportive of their Jewish staff, including tackling antisemitism effectively and ensuring that anti-racism initiatives including antisemitism.
The details of the recent research into antisemitism in the workplace, which can help to indicate where to focus initiatives for positive impact.
Practical tips for supporting staff experiencing racism, and for staff wishing to better support their Jewish colleagues.
50 minute keynote
120 minute workshop
Resilience & Emotional Well-being
Harriet’s draws on research as well as on her experience of 22 years of sobriety and addiction recovery, being a breast cancer survivor since 2018, being a solo parent to teenagers, and living with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD following a car crash in 2023. Pro-active emotional and resilience management is included, alongside how to respond to life’s triggers and challenges in an empowered and positive way.
50 minute keynote
120 minute workshop
SCHOOLS
Tailored Workshops & Programmes for Schools
Harriet has worked with schools to create tailored programmes of workshops empowering participants to enjoy learning and enabling them to be the best they can be. These workshops, tackling difficult issues like sexism head on in a courageous and practical way, can be arranged for students, staff and parents - to help them to intervene when needed and better support the children on this topic.
A typical workshop for students might cover the following:
Encouraging participants to air their views, frustrations and observations around what is going on around sexism and misogyny, inside school and in the wider world and how that affects what happens at school.
Explore what it is like being a boy and / or a girl in a patriarchal culture, what does it feel like to be forced to comply? To want to resist? What does all this mean for what is possible for you in the world in the future?
Break down gender stereotypes and illustrate how they are harmful to boys and girls, men and women. No one is winning right now.
Practical allyship to counter misogyny and sexism. What would each group like to ask of themselves as a group, and then the other group, to help them to move to a new culture of mutual respect and support? How can they all support one another?
How might shifting to a new way of being and doing that feels more supportive for everyone underpin their confidence and success in the future? What role might they be able to play in shaping a different world that is fairer, safer and healthier for all?
One outcome from these workshops might be the creation of a Manifesto for the Future outlining students’ commitments to mutual respect, allyship and inclusive behaviour.
Varies