18: From the Barricades to the Boardroom with Chris Yates, CTO, Ford Motor Company

Chris Yates has travelled a big journey, coming from the West
Indies to London as a child, brought up by a single parent, he
has held some of the biggest 'people jobs' in the business world.
Currently Chief Talent Officer at Ford Motor Company, previously
General Manager of Learning & Development at Microsoft, Chief
Learning Officer and Head of People and Organizational
Development for Caterpillar Inc. and he served in senior roles at
HSBC bank and American Express.  Chris is also co-author of
two books titled Share and Rewire.  

In this podcast Chris reflects on this journey, sharing how being
in a football gang as a teenager gave him support and identity
and what it means to carry a black body into all white
boardrooms.  Chris's insights reveal how important it is to
hold on to a very human identity in workplaces that consciously
and unconsciously pressurise employees to conform to the norm,
through dress and behavioral codes.   Chris shares his view
that employee's need to be given permission to bring their
individuality and their deepest human selves back into the
workplace, if we are to create the 'good society'.