foHRsight: HR, Leadership & the Future of Work
You’re leading people through constant change. Evolving expectations, AI disruption, and rising pressure to get culture and performance right.
If you’re an HR leader, People and Culture executive, or senior business leader shaping the future of work, foHRsight is for you.
foHRsight: HR, Leadership & the Future of Work is a weekly podcast from future foHRward, hosted by Mark Edgar and Naomi Titleman Colla. Each episode explores the most pressing issues facing HR and leadership today, including employee engagement, retention, flexible work, leadership effectiveness, and the real impact of AI on organizations.
Through candid conversations with CHROs, senior leaders, and forward-thinking experts, foHRsight delivers practical insight and strategic perspective you can apply immediately. The goal is simple: help you make better people decisions, build stronger organizations, and lead with confidence in an increasingly complex world of work.
Follow foHRsight on your favourite podcast platform and join the future foHRward community, a growing network of HR and People leaders connecting through conversation, events, and shared insight on what’s next for work.
foHRsight: HR, Leadership & the Future of Work
Why DEI Fails When You Only Focus on Hiring with Celeste Warren
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What if the reason your culture isn’t shifting… isn’t your people?
For many HR leaders, the pressure is familiar. You hire thoughtfully. You invest in development. You talk about inclusion. And yet, something still doesn’t move.
Because the issue isn’t just who is in the organization. It’s what they move through once they’re there.
In this episode, Mark Edgar sits down with Celeste Warren to unpack a more pragmatic, and more demanding, view of diversity, equity and inclusion. One that moves beyond representation and into the systems that shape access, opportunity, and performance.
They explore why so many DEI efforts fail to create real change, how the role of the Chief Diversity Officer has evolved through a decade of volatility, and what it actually takes to build environments where people can thrive.
This is not a conversation about optics or ideology. It’s about how organizations work, who they work for, and what leaders need to redesign if they want performance to be sustainable.
If you’re leading through complexity, trying to balance business outcomes with human realities, this episode will challenge how you think about both.
About Our Guest
Celeste Warren is a former Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and global HR leader with decades of experience across complex organizations. She now advises companies on how to embed inclusive and equitable practices into business and people systems. Her work is grounded in both lived experience and deep operational expertise, making her perspective both practical and hard to ignore.
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For more information on our private community for forward-thinking HR leaders, including how to join our next Manager-Director HR Leader cohort launching this spring, visit our website at futurefohrward.com/community. We are also currently welcoming new members in our CHRO and VP+ HRBP & Talent cohorts. Don't miss your chance to join the community you've been missing!