Revolutionising Workplace Culture: Toby Mildon’s Guide to Diversity & Inclusion

Welcome to today's episode of the podcast, where we delve into the transformative power of Diversity and Inclusion with Toby Mildon, a leading D&I Architect based in Manchester. Toby, the author of "Inclusive Growth," combines his expertise in technology and HR to help organisations build truly inclusive workplaces. In this episode, we'll explore compelling data and case studies, practical steps for SMEs to implement D&I, innovative approaches for resource-constrained environments, and strategies to overcome cultural resistance. Get ready for an enlightening conversation that will provide you with actionable insights to drive inclusive growth in your business.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Toby is a leading Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Architect. He excels in guiding organisations to create inclusive work environments and develop effective D&I strategies.

With a background in Technology and HR, Toby combines his expertise to foster organisational change. He has authored "Inclusive Growth," a book filled with insights and practical advice on integrating Diversity & Inclusion into business practices.

Toby has honed his skills with organisations including Deloitte and the BBC, is a sought-after speaker frequently presenting at conferences to inspire and educate on the critical importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Where to discover more about Toby and his work:-

Website:       https://www.mildon.co.uk/
LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobymildon/
TikTok:          https://www.tiktok.com/@tobyjmildon
Twitter:         https://x.com/tobymildon
YouTube:      https://www.youtube.com/@tobymildon1981 

ABOUT THE HOST

My name is Dave Barr and I am the Founder and Owner of RLB Purchasing Consultancy Limited.

I have been working in Procurement for over 25 years and have had the joy of working in a number of global manufacturing and service industries throughout this time.

I am passionate about self development, business improvement, saving money, buying quality goods and services, developing positive and effective working relationships with suppliers and colleagues, and driving improvement through out the supply chain.

Now I wish to share this knowledge and that of highly skilled and competent people with you, the listener, in order that you may hopefully benefit from this information.

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Transcript

Intro  00:00

Dave, welcome to The Real Life Buyer podcast. In this podcast, you will hear interviews with business owners, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, authors and technical specialists in their field. These professionals will hasten your development, accelerate your career, and broaden your business. Know how now, introducing your host, Dave Barr, interviewing with a purchasing twist.

Dave Barr  00:21

Hello and welcome to The Real Life Buyer in this episode, I'm delighted to introduce you to the inspirational Toby Mildon. Toby is a leading diversity and inclusion architect. He excels in guiding organizations to create inclusive work environments and develop effective DNI strategies with a background in technology and HR Toby combines his expertise to foster organizational change. He has authored "Inclusive Growth", a book filled with insights and practical advice on integrating diversity and inclusion into business practices. Toby has honed his skills with organisations including Deloitte and the BBC. He is a sought after speaker, frequently presenting at conferences to inspire and educate on the critical importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Today, I wish to ask Toby to share some snippets of his knowledge to aid SME businesses to elevate their understanding on this subject matter and incorporate his learning into their own businesses. So without further ado, I welcome Toby onto the podcast. Hi Toby.

Toby Mildon  01:34

Hi Dave. Lovely to meet you. Thanks for inviting me along.

Dave Barr  01:38

Absolute pleasure. It's a really interesting subject becoming more and more important in everyday life and business now. So having an expert like yourself on the show, I think, will be a hugely positive experience for everybody listening in. So thanks you for joining me today. Appreciate that.

Toby Mildon  01:55

You're welcome.

Dave Barr  01:56

So your journey, you started, I believe, in the early days as an IT consultant, and he became a leading diversity and inclusion architect. It's an interesting title. I'm sure that your story be both inspiring and enlightening. So could you share with us the pivotal moments in your career that profoundly shaped your approach to diversity inclusion, and and how this influence your success and passion in helping businesses foster inclusivity too?

Toby Mildon  02:27

Yeah, I mean, there's, there's been several key pivotal moments throughout my life. So just to give you a bit of background knowledge, I'm I'm I I'm disabled. I'm a wheelchair user. I was born with a rare neuromuscular disability, and I was diagnosed when I was about 18 months old. So as I say, I'm a wheelchair user. I require 24 hour care. And growing up, I I've always had this strong work ethic. This happens quite a lot with disabled people, because society does place lower expectations on disabled people, and quite often, disabled people feel like they have to prove something that they they can do, they can work just like anybody else. So from a very young age, I was trying to get work experience, because I could see my friends going off, getting jobs, working in supermarkets, stacking shelves, and I knew that I couldn't do a physical job, that I had to do a desk based job. And I think one of my first pivotal memories was meeting a bank manager at Lloyds Bank. I was receiving quite a lot of rejections for work experience, and I made an appointment to open a savings account, and I had an ulterior motive, which was to try and get a job with Lloyds Bank. And at the end of the appointment, the bank manager said, you know, is there anything else I can help you with? And I said, Well, actually, there is quite like, a job, please. And to my surprise, he he said, Yes. And, and this is an example of, like, one of the first inclusive managers I've worked with. He could see that I had a disability, but he could also see me as an individual, and he could see my potential, and he liaised with another bank manager for me to get work experience in a more accessible branch. And I ended up working for Lloyds Bank on and off during my school and college holidays for about four years, and having Lloyds Bank on my CV was a real stepping stone for me to then be able to go and work for other companies like British Airways, Accenture, the BBC and Deloitte. Wow.

Dave Barr  04:31

Do you feel that being able to join a large company like that, not only for his prestige, but also because, let's say it had the financial capabilities to put things in place for their customers, that they were more able to support you as an employee than perhaps one of the smaller businesses out there.

Toby Mildon  04:51

Yes and no, I think this is one of the myths that is in society, that it costs more to employ disabled people, but it's actually, not true, because we're very fortunate in the UK that we have got financial assistance from the government. There's it's often referred to as probably one of the government's biggest kept secrets, because they don't, they don't do a very good job at publicising it. But it's called the Access to Work scheme, and it's a pot of money that employees and employers can tap into, to support disabled staff. So it could be modifying a building, providing specialist equipment, contributing towards the cost of traveling to or from work. It's honestly, it's such a great resource. Not many I haven't actually come across another country that has a similar system to this. So I think we do need to bust the myth, because we are we also see that actually there's a greater loyalty, greater retention rates of disabled people as well. So that's good for business. That helps towards the cost of your employee turnover. And I think small businesses are able to support disabled employees just as well as large national companies like Lloyds Bank, for instance. We also have to remember that we've got the Equality Act, which places a legal duty on employers to provide reasonable adjustments to support disabled staff as well. Yeah, yeah.

Dave Barr  06:23

That's a superb point. And it's great to hear that the UK appears to be leading the world in this area. So that's fantastic news. Superb. Now, you've written quite extensively about the business case for diversity inclusion. You've touched on some points there. Can you share some of the most compelling points? Perhaps you've got case studies that you can refer to that that demonstrate the tangible benefits, and I think it's important for SME owners to realize there are huge benefits to be gained from prioritising diversity and inclusion in their workplaces. Can you share some of those things?

Toby Mildon  06:59

Yeah, so there's lots of academic and business research out there that proves that a diverse workforce is good for business, that having a diverse team outperforms a homogenous team. We've seen, famously, we McKinsey have produced three or four reports now, lots of content comes out of Harvard Business School, and one of my favorite books is called "The Difference", which was written by an academic over in the States called Scott Page. And he talks about a lot about the kind of the science and the evidence and the data behind diverse teams inside and outside of workplaces. But when I talk to clients, they they often say to me, oh, that's all well and good. You know, McKinsey. It's an interesting read to read the McKinsey report, but we just can't see how this applies to our business. So I I sit down regularly with my clients, and one of the exercises that we do quite often is is kind of get to their why. One of my favorite books was, is written by Simon Sinek, "Start with Why". And he says that people don't buy into what you do. They buy into why you do it. So I have sat down with my clients, and the consistent themes that come out about why they want an inclusive workplace is some of my clients to say, You know what? It's the right thing to do. There's a moral case to it that we've got a number of inequalities in society that we need to address, and employers do play a real pivotal role in addressing societal inequalities. So that's kind of one reason. Another reason often quoted is that diverse teams often help with greater innovation and greater creativity and better decision making. You've just got people from different walks of life, different experiences, different perspectives, and they are offering their unique contributions and insights, and you come up with better results, and you don't fall into group think, which is what you get when you kind of work with people who are from a similar background to to yourself. And then the third reason that's often cited is that it helps with employee turnover or retention. And high employee turnover costs businesses a lot of money. If you think about the kind of somebody leaving your business, they're not going to be the most productive your manager your managers are, then using up time to find a replacement you've then you then have the costs of actually recruiting that you might pay advertising fees or, you know, things to a jobs board or a recruitment agency, and then you've got somebody who joined your team. Often, there's a gap between the person leaving and the person joining, and the new joiner isn't necessarily going to come in and hit the ground running either. They need a few months to kind of get up to speed, get acclimatised to your team culture. And it's cost. It's costly. And just to give you, just to give. You an idea. So I do a lot of surveys with my clients, and we have a question that says, Are you thinking of leaving the business in the next six months because you don't feel that you're respected or that you belong? And with one client that employs about 950 ish people, of those individuals who said that they were seriously thinking of leaving the business, when we put it through the calculator, it was potentially costing this business up to one and a half million pounds. So that's, you know, that's a huge dent in your budget. If, if that does happen.

Dave Barr  10:32

That's certainly compelling. So the financial numbers always make a difference into people's ears. So that's an incredible fact. Good. That's gracious, dear me. Now you mentioned books. Now you've got your own book "Inclusive Growth". In that book, you highlight practical steps for embedding diversity inclusion into business operations. So what are the most crucial actions an SME should take to start this journey, and are these particularly foundational steps. What you know? What's so important about these ones over others?

Toby Mildon  11:05

Yeah, so in the first book "Inclusive Growth", I basically codified what best practice looks like, and I came up with seven principles, if you like. They all begin with C which is quite handy, and they are just as relevant to an SME as they would be to a large multinational organization. I've got it, you know, I've got a handful of clients that are SMEs, and I work with them very successfully. We can start at the beginning, because actually the first C is called clarity, and this is about understanding your business case, your reason why, which is kind of what I touched on just now, and this is where a senior leadership team or an owner of an SME can really get clear in their mind about why diversity and inclusion is important to the future, success and growth of their business, and come up with that, that that golden reason to be able to communicate to the rest of your business and start to set the culture. Because if you've got aspirations to grow your business, and I think most business owners obviously do want to grow and expand their business, you want to be doing that from a really positive, solid foundation, and part of that is having the right culture in your business. You don't want to kind of expand your business and then grow with, with issues that will then come and bite you in the bum later on. So and we saw that with Uber, you know, when Uber was first founded, and the focus was just throwing money at the product and growing the product, and not a lot of focus was on the culture. And then we saw sexual harassment and sexual discrimination claims arise, and that cost Uber, a lot of money, and also a lot of big reputational damage, they ended up going to course over it. And I don't want any business to ever get into that, that situation. So going back to what we do that the first one is about clarity. That's about understanding your why. It's also about understanding the employee experience and what what issues employees are facing. That can be done through surveys. It could be done through interviews, focus groups. There's a whole number of ways, but you have to kind of understand what you're dealing with, because a lot of organizations come up with a diversity and inclusion strategy that doesn't necessarily get to the root cause of issues going on in the business.

Dave Barr  13:26

So clarity is that the first thing you mentioned, there are seven, What? What? Briefly the other six, just what the six highlights, and these first one you particularly also want to comment

Toby Mildon  13:36

on, yeah, so I'll whiz through them so we've The next one is culture, and that's really about looking at the behaviors specifically of of your senior leaders to make sure that they are actually walking the talk and setting the right tone for the business. And even if you're an SME and you your your senior leadership team is one individual, it's just as relevant to you as as if you had a team of 10 senior leaders. Then we move on to change, and that's about treating diversity inclusion as a proper change management efforts. This is not just a box ticking exercise. It's not just a kind of like one and done thing. It's about really getting it embedded into the DNA of your organization to help you grow. Then we move on to colleague experience and design, and this is about thinking about what the employee experience is like. So it's not about trying to fix individuals, which some strategies do. It's about thinking what journeys do employees go on, and where might there be bias and inequality in that journey. So let's say, for example, you've got a policy for new parents, and your policy might be talking about mothers, for example, and maternity rights, whereas we know that families come in all shapes and sizes, so we need to be talking about people who are in same sex relationships, people who. Might start a family through adoption or surrogacy, making sure that we got shared parental leave equitably between parents. So thinking things like that, after colleague experience, we've got cyber and this is all about making sure that there's two sides to this. One is any systems that you use, whether that's public facing systems like a website or an app, or any internal systems that you use, like a learning management system, are accessible to people. And then secondly, there's lots of technology out there that can actually help you with diversity and inclusion. So it might be using anonymous speak up system to allow your employees to kind of anonymously tell you about bad behavior going on in the company, so that it gives them an opportunity to speak up, for instance. And then the final two is collaboration. This is about working as a whole organization. Very often diversity and inclusion is just delegated to the head of HR or your HR person or your office manager, but this is a shared endeavor. It's something that everybody in the business needs to have a stake in, but also thinking about working collaboratively outside your business. So are there any strategic partnerships that you can form to kind of level up your industry? And then finally, we've got celebration, and this is about communicating out to the world that you are a fantastic place to work, that you that you're an inclusive place to work, and doing so authentically, so that you can attract the best talent to your business that's

Dave Barr  16:36

really interested. And probably going to touch on some of those points in the next few questions, I want to jump back to the limited resources in an SME. And that isn't always financial. It can be capability. Could be, you know, the human time available to put into these things, and people need help with all these. Now, it's great that you're saying in the UK, at least there is some financial support from the government. I guess you've got to fill out quite a few forms to get there. But forms to get there, but no doubt that'll be the case. But there's also the education, and there's other aspects that people need support with. It's showing people how things can be done. What innovative approaches have you seen work particularly well where there's a restore resource constrained environment? Yeah,

Toby Mildon  17:23

I mean, I, I have worked with small and medium sized businesses that the smallest client I've worked with employed 21 people. And my advice is that every business can be doing something about diversity and inclusion, but you need to do it within your resource constraints. If you don't have a lot of money to spend on it, you don't need to spend a lot of money on it. You can. You can prioritize the stuff that you think will make the biggest impact. And my advice is to always start with your own people to go out and do a survey. You can do this for free, or you can pay somebody, not a lot of money to do it on your behalf, to understand what challenges people are facing in your business. And then, once you've got a list of challenges, prioritize the ones that you think are the most important that have the biggest impact. A great prioritization tool that I like to use is just a two by two matrix of of effort versus impact, something that's low or high effort or low or high impact, you obviously want to go for something that's high impact and no effort, because you're going to get your your return on investment, or your return on time, um, if you focus on those things, and yeah, you don't have to spend a lot of money on it. And it might be that employees in your business are perfectly happy, but one issue that they've got is perhaps they might say, well, actually, we do shift work, and our rigid start and end times are quite difficult. If I've got parenting responsibilities or or I'm caring for an elderly parent, for example. And you as a business, you might want to say, actually, we can afford to offer some flexibility around shifts. It could be people can swap shifts, or they can, you know, we allow people to start or finish their shift half an hour earlier or later, and that's not going to work against them. These are some of the things that my my smaller clients have managed to manage, managed to implement quite successfully. Okay, one

Dave Barr  19:26

that's quite topical at the moment is cultural resistance. Before we've all seen the challenges that the UK have faced recently. Shall we say, where people struggle to integrate? Shall we say, with, with others that are not from their normal sphere, should we say, and in a business that probably is pretty difficult to address, especially particularly if you've got a business where there's high technical skills, if people have these cultural issues, then you can't just hire and fire, should we say? So? Are there some particular strategies? Is that you can recommend to SME leaders that help to overcome the resistance and foster a genuinely inclusive culture from the ground up, what kind of things can they put in place to tackle these unfortunate issues at the moment? Yeah,

Toby Mildon  20:16

so unfortunately, you know, we live in a society where there is a lot of inequality and there's a lot of rhetoric around the political landscape is not helping with that. Recently in the UK, we've seen the riots that was sparked by false information online. And there's a lot of rhetoric over in the US political debate as well, and I think it's important for employers to think about what kind of culture they want to have in their business, regardless of what outside forces are going on. A lot of my clients will say, for example, we've got all of this rhetoric going on, but this is not how we feel as a business, this is not the kind of thing that we support or endorse, and we want to create a culture where people are respected and where people can come to work and feel physically and psychologically safe, and that's their commitment, and a lot of organizations. So first of all, I think you need to just be bold and say, You know what this is? This is the culture that we want in our business. We want this culture of respect and inclusion. Values are a useful tool. So if you've got written down values, holding people accountable to those values. So a lot of clients, of my clients, they'll have values around things like respect, valuing diversity. One of my clients, I love their values. This is an example of a small company, actually the one that employs 20 people. They've got one of their values is called, we love people. And so you know how. And then they can have an internal conversation saying, if we love people, what what behaviors do we need to demonstrate, and what behaviors go against that that value so values are really important. I think the other thing like this is very difficult to do, but business leaders might need to exit people from their business if they are demonstrating toxic behavior and if they are damaging the culture of the company that you that you want to see. I worked with one organization where the chief executive did get rid of it's a bit harsh, but encouraged people to leave the business, even though they were big money earners, because they were damaging the culture of the company. And this chief exec thought the culture of the company was more important than bringing in the dollars.

Dave Barr  22:41

That's excellent to hear that as a in some ways, you could say it's brave, but it's absolutely the right thing to do. You can't have that kind of shenanigans going on in a business because it drags everybody down. It does. Yeah, I think you're totally right. People who can't behave in the way that the culture of the company wants to operate, obviously need to find a business that they feel more suitably aligned with, shall we say.

Toby Mildon  23:05

Yeah. And the thing is, Deloitte wrote a really good report about inclusive leadership behaviors, and they came up with a number of behaviors, and one of them is, is that inclusive leaders believe, wholeheartedly, in the value of diversity and having an inclusive culture. On top of that, they are bold leaders. They are willing to be, to have challenging conversations. They are willing to call out bad behavior. They are willing to rock the boat. They're willing to challenge the status quo, and they're radically candid with you in that they will challenge you directly, but they will do so in a caring way. 

Dave Barr  23:50

Excellent, yep, so it's all about the individual concern, doesn't it? Now you mentioned earlier on technology, I think you've referred to it as 'Speak up'. What other technological opportunities you know, which are AI these days is everywhere. Are there certain tools that you think are particularly helpful when trying to deal with these kind of problems?

Toby Mildon  24:10

There's so many tools out there, and I wrote in my in my second book, "Building inclusivity", about my excitement for AI. We know that there are issues with AI. We know that AI and machine learning is learning from biased information, and therefore biased information in, biased information out, unless you can figure out what's going on in between. So you do have to be aware of that. However, I just think the opportunities are exciting. So I mean, for example, for the last few months, I've been working with Salford University in Greater Manchester looking at how we can use artificial intelligence to analyze employee data. So this AI will suck up comments that staff make in a survey and then within a matter of seconds, give you, like the key themes that employees are facing. And when I when I've done surveys with clients in the in the past, it's like it contained like, two or three days to analyze the data and write up the report. But I mean, this AI is doing it in a matter of seconds. It's a real game changer. And I would love for this technology to be made available to employers, where you could say to your staff, oh, you know, tell us what your what challenges you're facing, and then, like, literally, in seconds, get understand, like, what the top three issues are.

Dave Barr  25:30

Wow, that sounds very impressive. And do you see that something is easily deployed in a business no matter what the size?

Toby Mildon  25:38

Yeah. I mean technology, thankfully, is becoming so much more kind of accessible and affordable for smaller businesses. Now, a lot of technology is now cloud based, or software as a service, that that brings down the cost. And I mean, I've got a background in technology, you know, I love, I love technology. And in my own podcast, actually, I interviewed a couple of guys who they work in the space industry, and they they worked with, they've been working with NASA to overcome the problem of these Deep Space Communication, so one of the issues of chatting with astronauts and space is the amount of time it takes for the message to get from earth to to into space, on the moon and the International Space Station is actually not that far away from Earth. It's about, I think it's about 300 miles above Earth, which is like the distance from London to Manchester, I think. And so communication is quite easy. But actually, if we're going deeper into space, if we if we're going to start putting people on the moon more readily if we're going to live on Mars. Communicating over that distance is of real trouble. So these guys have been working with NASA to come up with a way of communicating, and by accident, they found that this technology is actually a really good solution for A) the way that some neurodivergent people would like to communicate, so somebody who might be autistic, for example, and also just for running effective or communicating effectively in meetings and job interviews. So what they've done is they've taken this technology that was intended for the Moon and Mars and now making it available for businesses to use here on Earth. And so that's just an example of how, by accident, they came up with a technological solution that benefits particularly neurodivergent people. 

Dave Barr  27:34

Yeah, it's amazing what comes out of space programs, isn't it? Yeah, and it's not really anticipated.

Toby Mildon  27:40

Yeah. I mean, there's a long history of how disability has inspired technology that the keyboard that we use now on our computers and on our phones, was invented for an Italian Countess who was blind to help her write love letters to her lover, and now we're all using the keyboard. 

Dave Barr  28:00

That's brilliant. I never knew that. Thanks for sharing that one. Sorry, brilliant. Now, when I think about in the workplace, you can, you can have all these initiatives. It's great because they're in your control. But when you're dealing with perhaps a diverse supply chain, a supply chain that may not be just local as in, ie just the UK for our our purposes, but when they go global, and you're going right around the world with different suppliers and cultures particularly, then it becomes much more difficult to manage. And obviously what you want to make sure is that your supply chain has the same behaviors, beliefs, ethics that you have in your own business, yeah. So what is your experience of effective ways, particularly like an SME, where they have less leverage than the big boys, how they go about this, so how they deal with local and international suppliers, and how they behave and how they get them aligned with their ethics and beliefs and values?

Toby Mildon  28:59

Yeah? So there's a number of ways. I mean, I've done some stuff around inclusive procurement. And if you, if you're a big company, quite often, you have quite bureaucratic, painful, procurement processes where you've got ITTs and RFPs going out and everything like that. And I think there's a couple of things that a small business can do. So one, if you, if you're serious about diversity and inclusion, like you, understand that it's good for business if you are putting, if you're putting out a request to work with a company. I mean, let's say, for example, you you want to update your new website, and you are looking for a web design agency to do that for you, on your kind of request for proposal, you could have a simple question of something like; diversity and inclusion and accessibility is really important to us here. These are our company values that we like to live by. This is why diversity and inclusion is important. What practical things do you think that you could do to kind of support our mission on this, and then get the supplier to kind of put down in a few words of how they would do that, and then you can use that as part of your selection criteria. So just as you might award points for price, quality, speed, experience, award points for how they might support you on your diversity and inclusion journey. But I mean, maybe in that you could also include stuff around sustainability, for example, yeah, that kind of thing just being a good business.

Dave Barr  30:36

Yeah, that's right. I certainly say asking the right questions is important equally, is trying to gain evidence that that is being put into practice, particularly for a small company, jumping on a plane and flying happy around the world. May not be practical to verify that these aren't just words. You want to see them in actions. So obviously using photographs and videos and and obviously the what we're using now zoom, for example, that can quite often give you the evidence you need to see that it's actually being done. It's not just you know the right thing to say, but no follow through.

Toby Mildon  31:10

Yeah, and just as we would ask in an interview, we might ask candidate competency based questions, because that's a better way of gaging somebody's experience and future potential. You can do that in the supplier process. You could say, give us some examples of how you have helped other clients do XYZ around diversity inclusion. So you're asking for evidence rather than kind of theoretically, what would you do? Because, to be honest with you, the supplier wants to win your business, so they will probably say whatever needs to be said to try and win you over.

Dave Barr  31:45

Yeah, absolutely. It's critically important to follow through. If you're fortunate enough to be able to  afford to get on the plane, great. Alternatively, there are people that are in these countries that can do these audits on your behalf. So if you're really are supporting the importance of a number of policies and initiatives, then get an independent company go in for you and establish that these practices are real and being taken seriously so. 

Toby Mildon  32:10

And I don't know if you've come across them, Dave, but there are organizations out there that champion diverse suppliers and try and match suppliers up with businesses, and a famous one that I really like, and I interviewed the founder on my podcast, is called MSD UK, and they represent small businesses that are owned and founded by people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and they've made huge impact, because over the time that they've been running MSD UK, they've actually managed to help those suppliers generate a billion pounds worth of contracts, you know, for those small businesses. So they're an organization worth looking up

Dave Barr  32:52

Absolutely. And that's a great tip for people to follow through on. That's an excellent idea. And before I ask my final question, I'm sure people are intrigued now. They want to know more about what you do. You've got two books out there. You're "Building Inclusivity" and "Inclusive Growth". Where can people find out about you? Your website, your social media channels. What's the best place they can go and have a look?

Toby Mildon  33:14

So connect with me on LinkedIn, and I share content every week. And or you can just message me if you've got any questions, and go to my website, milden.co.uk where I've got a resources page. And there you can access my podcast. You can download free reports. You don't even need to give me your email address. You can literally just download them onto your computer. And also my books are detailed there, which you can you can get on Amazon anyway.

Dave Barr  33:44

Superb. And I'll make sure these references are in the show notes and more. And also, there'll be links on my website. So the last thing looking to the future now, what do you see as the emerging trends in diversity and inclusion that business owners should be aware of, how can they proactively adapt to these trends and stay ahead of the curve, rather than following everybody else?

Toby Mildon  34:07

Given, obviously, right? Dave, you, you kind of specialized in supplier, you know, supply purchasing, don't you? And I think one of the biggest trends that we're seeing is more and more companies prioritizing diversity and inclusion and also things like sustainability as part of their procurement process. And if you want to win business with these businesses, you're going to have to demonstrate that you are also serious about it, that you're serious about the environment and policies around making sure that you, obviously, you know, stay within law and and things around diversity and inclusion as well. And also, I think definitely, if you, if you're looking to do business with government and local authorities, again, a lot of them, I mean, partly. Because there's the, there's the under the Equality Act, there's an additional duty for for public sector organizations to do stuff around diversity and inclusion, but they are asking suppliers to demonstrate that they are in support. So yeah, if you're trying to win business, it's it's going to get more important as time goes on?

Dave Barr  35:21

Yeah, absolutely. Getting all the information. You know, we can all think of the questions that are going to be asked. We can all look online to see the kind of things that are important to larger businesses, particularly in making sure that their brand is equally protected and people should be prepared. And quite often, you'll see businesses are not prepared. They don't have the information available, and they take quite a lot of time to put it together, and then you've got to maintain it, of course. So absolutely correct. The more prepared, more organized, more evidence that you have, the quicker you can reduce it, probably the better chance you've got. Are winning those contracts as well. Yeah. So it's been fascinating. The conversation today we've only managed to touch on a very small part of the things that you do. I strongly advocate people to go and look at your books and obviously your website and discover more about your teachings. So thank you very much for your time today. Toby, it's been a brilliant conversation. 

Toby Mildon  36:19

You're welcome. Thanks for inviting me along.

Dave Barr  36:21

Most welcome. Bye, bye. So there's another Real Life Buyer podcast. I do hope you enjoyed it, and it has given you some ideas and inspiration for greater action and achievement. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes, and a five star review would be most appreciated. If you would like to discover more about me and what I do, take a look at www.thereallifebuyer.co.uk. Bye.