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Making inclusion something you are, not something you do
Most organisations can write a strong EDI strategy and host awareness days. Far fewer can show what actually changes because of that work. Eddie Hartley, Culture and Inclusion Partner at Comic Relief, argues that inclusion should be something an organisation is, rather than something it does, and that the difference shows up in whether policy is shaped by the people it is written for.
Speaking with host Rachel Green, Eddie traces a route that started in frontline retail as a volunteer at 15, through nearly nine years at Sue Ryder managing thousands of volunteers and writing its LGBTQ+ strategy, to leading cultural intelligence work for every person at Comic Relief. That mix of frontline and strategic experience runs through his thinking on employee voice, fairness at scale and measurable impact.
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The conversation covers what cultural intelligence means in practice, how to build an LGBTQ+ strategy without writing it in isolation, how to move past tick box initiatives, and where AI and generational change fit into the next phase of this work.
From the frontline to policy
Eddie describes his frontline background as his biggest advantage. Having been a volunteer and a paid member of staff on the shop floor, then moving into strategic and governance roles, he can translate what he saw in practice into policy. That translation, he suggests, is where organisations often struggle.
The gap tends to come from not going to the source. Whether through fear of hearing the wrong things or a reluctance to ask, organisations can miss the chance to speak to the people a policy is written for. A strategy can be written beautifully, but if it does not translate, you are making assumptions rather than listening, and people ultimately start to leave.
Employee voice beyond the annual survey
Eddie points to research on employee voice that supports meaningful ways for people to influence how a workplace develops. The key question is not whether you run an annual engagement survey, but how many avenues people have to feed into things like policy and governance.
Organisational data is useful, but it needs to be translated into the individual. When he chaired the LGBTQ+ network at Sue Ryder, hearing directly from colleagues about their experience gave him something the data alone could not. Feedback into policy should never be an afterthought.
Building fairness and consistency at scale
Handling fairness across thousands of people was tricky, Eddie notes, and it returns to the distinction between equality and equity. Treating everybody equally can look fair while failing to address the actual problems, because a blanket approach does not dig deeper.
One person cannot ask every individual what they need, so the answer is to use the resources and people around you. At Sue Ryder he leaned on healthcare coordinators sitting in each centre to workshop questions with their own volunteers. He also encourages larger organisations to use disclosure and onboarding data to inform decisions, alongside the humility to ask hard questions directly.
Practical takeaways:
- Use local coordinators and teams to reach people you cannot reach alone.
- Use engagement and onboarding data, including “prefer not to say” rates, to inform decisions.
- Be willing to admit you are struggling and ask people to help you workshop the answer.
What cultural intelligence means in practice
Cultural intelligence, as Eddie defines it, is recognising that your own perspective is not a universal one. It is about understanding how people tick, work, communicate and interact differently, then flexing to meet them. He uses power distance as an example: a low power distance person may treat their manager informally, while a high power distance person may hold onto a problem rather than raise it.
The framework rests on four capabilities, known as CQ: drive, knowledge, action and strategy. An assessment maps a person against a world average, highlighting areas to improve professionally and personally. At Comic Relief, every new starter undertakes cultural intelligence training, and the board of trustees will too, building a scorecard that shows where the organisation is strong or weak across those capabilities.
Fundamentally, cultural intelligence is recognising that your own perspective is not a universal perspective.
Writing an LGBTQ+ strategy that sticks
For organisations unsure where to start, Eddie’s advice is grounded in listening. The Sue Ryder LGBTQ+ strategy was led by the network, drawing on its members, the wider network, the HR and people team, and other networks so that it could be viewed through an intersectional lens. Employee network groups, he stresses, are a vital resource full of passionate people.
He is direct about ownership: if you are writing a trans and non-binary policy and you are not trans or non-binary, you should not be writing it alone. Lean on the people who experience it, use external organisations that consult in the EDI space, and have the guts to say you are stuck. He points to McKinsey research on embedding inclusion in organisational culture and leadership rather than treating it as a standalone initiative.
Practical takeaways:
- Use employee network groups as a core resource.
- Go to the people affected and let their expertise shape the policy.
- Bring in external specialists when you need them, and embed inclusion in culture rather than as a separate initiative.
Leadership modelling and network chairs
Leaders modelling behaviours and values matters more than a strapline about welcoming everybody. Eddie sees value in leaders recognising where they have fallen down in the past, and in inviting network chairs into the rooms where decisions are made so they have a genuine voice at the table.
Comic Relief is looking at leadership development for chairs that positions them as strategic enablers. Rather than simply requesting budget, chairs are supported to frame conversations in terms senior leaders respond to: how a request ladders up to strategy, its return on investment, and how it furthers the organisation’s recognition.
Moving past the tick box
To avoid initiatives becoming a tick box exercise, Eddie starts with a simple question: what am I actually trying to change? The Rainbow Badge training at Sue Ryder was not just a badge handed out. It was training built with LGBTQ+ people and external input, with the badge as a visible symbol that someone had completed and learned from it.
Metrics mattered. The target was 500 people in the first year; within eighteen months it had passed 4,000, becoming what he suggests may still be the most-taken optional module at Sue Ryder. But numbers are not the whole story. Pulse checks before and after, measuring changes in confidence and understanding, tell you more about whether anything shifted.
Building a feedback culture
A strong feedback culture is central to keeping this work honest. The goal is for people to give feedback without being prompted. At Comic Relief, a quarterly DEIB theme goes out to the organisation, and a recent one covered feedback culture, sharing models such as Situation, Behaviour and Impact.
Eddie describes a turning point when a colleague emailed feedback after a presentation and, perhaps without realising, used exactly the models the training had shared. Cultural intelligence follows the same logic. A train the trainer model and regular sessions keep the conversation going, and materials sent out to the organisation include lines prompting people to consider CQ strategy and CQ action.
AI, transparency and generational change
Eddie notes optimism about AI, citing a Microsoft work trends figure that 80% of people use AI in their day-to-day work. It can analyse data and identify patterns, but it cannot replace empathy or lived experience. His view is to use AI to sharpen points or land a statement, while keeping human judgement and lived experience at the front.
The larger opportunity is moving inclusion from something organisations do to something they are. He references PwC research linking trust in leadership to motivation, noting that only half of workers said their team treats failure as a chance to learn. Transparency and the humility to say you do not have the answers, he suggests, matter increasingly as Gen Z talent expects honesty.
One piece of advice: be willing to unlearn
Asked for a single piece of advice, Eddie says take stock of where you are and treat existing efforts as a positive foundation. Above all, be willing to unlearn. He points to a tendency across sectors to compare against the past or events elsewhere, and encourages research, listening, conferences and small, concrete steps instead.
Those steps might be a data review across protected characteristics over three to five years, reviewing policies through an inclusive lens, or setting up staff networks using resources such as the CIPD manual. He closes with the line he returns to in his own life: “I feel uncomfortable, I must be growing.” Discomfort, in his framing, is a sign that a person or an organisation is taking real steps forward.
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