Have you ever been in a room where your idea landed – just not with your name attached to it? Inclusive leadership and AI are now deeply connected – because AI amplifies the signals already present inside organisational culture.
Where you said something, clearly and directly, and watched it disappear. Then thirty seconds later, someone else said almost the same thing, and the room lit up.
I have. More times than I’d like to count.
And for years I thought the problem was me. Too direct. Too different. Too Norwegian.
Turns out, it wasn’t me at all. It was the system. A system not designed to receive certain signals. And right now, as organisations rush to implement AI while rolling back inclusion, that system is about to get a lot more expensive.
MAIN INSIGHT OF THE WEEK
Inclusion isn’t a values exercise. It’s how you protect your AI investment.
Here are three shifts that have become non-negotiable. Not because of politics. Because of what’s actually at stake.
1) Homogeneous Thinking Doesn’t Just Miss Ideas. It Steals Them.
I was leading weekly leadership meetings. Ten engineers. Native English speakers. A room so full of groupthink you could almost smell it.
I put forward an idea. It didn’t land. A few minutes later, someone attributed exactly what I had said to a man in the room – and suddenly it was the best idea anyone had heard all week.
I pushed my chair back and slammed the table. “That was my idea.”
Not my proudest moment. But an important one.
Because what happened next changed how I worked: I made sure there were always at least two women / underrepresented people in the room. Not as a policy. As a signal strategy. Research shows you need at least three women for diverse thinking to actually influence group decisions – with fewer, the tendency is to conform rather than contribute.
And I developed a reframe I still use today: “Thank you for supporting my idea and building on it – let’s get together and take it to the next level.”
Because the goal isn’t to win the attribution battle. It’s to make sure the signal gets through.
Key takeaway:
When diverse thinking gets credited to someone else, organisations don’t just lose fairness. They lose the signal that could have saved them. AI amplifies whatever signal is left. Make sure it’s the right one.
2) Governments Are Writing Rules About AI. Most Organisations Haven’t Written Rules About Who Gets Heard.
Something is happening in the US right now that should make every leader uncomfortable.
DEI programs are being dismantled under political pressure. Inclusion initiatives are being quietly shelved. And simultaneously, the data shows organisations with strong inclusion practices are 2.7 times more likely to win new business. Deloitte research shows inclusive cultures are 6x more likely to innovate.
Less than 2% of organisations currently apply AI to inclusion and diversity (SHRM, State of AI in HR 2026).
Let that sit.
Next month I’m heading to Karratha to work with the Kimberley & Districts Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KDCCI) on exactly this problem. They wanted something different for their D&I program. Not DEI as a compliance exercise. Not inclusion as a values statement that sits on the side of the strategy.
Because here’s what they know that most organisations won’t say out loud: most people know D&I matters. But they can’t get people in the room for it.
So we reframed it entirely. The session isn’t about diversity and inclusion. It’s about unleashing the potential already inside your teams – activating inclusion as a catalyst for innovation and impact.
Because inclusion is not a culture initiative. It is how innovation travels. Better ideas. Earlier warnings. Smarter decisions – especially in the age of AI.
And here’s the truth: you can’t govern AI behaviour if you haven’t governed human behaviour first. The rules already running in your organisation – who gets heard, whose ideas get credited, whose signal gets amplified – AI just makes them load-bearing.
Key takeaway:
Inclusion isn’t the soft stuff alongside the real work. It is the real work. Especially now.
3) The Outsider Sees What the Insider Can’t.
When I moved from Norway to Australia in the mid-1990s, my first manager told me that he expected me to salute him. I expect it was said “tongue in cheek”, but it did not sit well with me.
There was something else happening under the hood though. Overt masculinity, entrenched hierarchy, and a culture where the signal from anyone who didn’t fit the mould simply didn’t register. I was different in almost every way: gender, nationality, wiring, perspective.
And I learned something in those years that took me decades to fully articulate: the outsider view is often the clearest view. Not because outsiders are smarter. Because they’re not yet blind to the patterns everyone else has normalised.
That’s what being between cultures gives you. Born Norwegian. Two years in Botswana as a teenager. Studied in the UK. Built a career across six continents. Now living in Australia, still Norwegian in everything that matters.
Every transition taught me to read rooms differently. To spot what wasn’t being said. To notice whose signal was being received and whose was being lost.
Mercedes-Benz touched this truth with their “Be One of Many” campaign – challenging the idea that women need to be exceptional just to earn their place. Progress arrives not when women are constantly breaking barriers, but when they no longer need to. When participation doesn’t require a headline.
That’s the shift. Not celebrating rarity. Building systems designed to receive diverse signal as a matter of course.
Truth be said, I am not sure how well Mercedes-Benz measures up in terms of DEI, but the video and idea is brilliant – and resonates with my views.
Key takeaway:
The organisations that will navigate complexity in the age of AI aren’t the ones with the best technology. They’re the ones with the most diverse human intelligence at the table — and the systems to actually receive it.
What’s Been Happening
This week I’m finalising my keynote for the Kimberley & Districts Chamber of Commerce & Industry – heading to Karratha on June 5 to deliver Unleashing Potential for The Network, their D&I program.
It’s a room of business leaders and professionals across the Pilbara region. People who deal in real complexity, real stakes, real decisions. And what they’re asking isn’t “how do we run a DEI program?” They’re asking “how do we actually get the best out of our people — and what does that have to do with the technology we’re bringing in?”
That’s exactly the right question. And it’s the same one I’ve been exploring all month — through the AWS Summit, through conversations about signal and silence, through everything this newsletter has been building toward.
Graduation and celebration from Standing Ovations. Building a speaking business is different to being a speaker!!!
Engaged a team to wrangle me out of my comfort zone with Canva, WordPress and AI doing my own marketing and positioning. Can’t wait to share we’re doing and excited to follow in Amanda Stevens‘ footprints.
The answer isn’t a program. It’s a signal strategy.
Cultural Reflection
The US is making a very loud political statement about inclusion right now. Rolling back, dismantling, defunding.
And simultaneously, the data is making a much quieter, much clearer one.
Organisations with strong inclusion practices outperform those without. Diverse teams catch what homogeneous teams miss. And in a world where AI amplifies whatever signal your culture is already producing — the cost of losing diverse human intelligence isn’t just ethical. It’s operational.
What’s happening in the US isn’t just a political story. It’s an early warning signal about what happens when organisations optimise for comfort over signal.
The question for every leader watching this unfold: what signal is your culture producing right now? And is your AI strategy designed to amplify it — or expose it?
On My Radar
- Unleashing Potential keynote – Kimberley & Districts Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Karratha, June 5 – come join us if you’re in the Pilbara – I’ll make it worth your time https://kdcci.glueup.com/event/lunch-learn-unleashing-potential-inclusion-as-the-catalyst-for-innovation-impact-in-the-age-of-ai-182373/
- Conversations with a number of interest groups, associations and chambers of commerce about inclusion, innovation and AI. Watch this space.
- Especially excited to be launching a new Work Smarter with AI without Loosing Your Edge – an interactive keynote where you get to see AI in action with real business hotseats. Ping me if you’re interested.
- Kicking off a new AI Activation Sprint for RFF to lift AI capability and confidence.
- Full Throttle & Torque — the whole book is about showing up as who you are, fully, in rooms that weren’t built for you: fullthrottleandtorque.com
- Vitalify Unplugged Episode 6 with Felicia Linsky on intimacy, cancer and confidence – exploring power and wealth for women.
- rAIse IT right™ – if your organisation is ready to build the signal strategy your AI investment depends on, let’s talk
Final Thought
The organisations thriving in complexity aren’t the ones who moved fastest with AI.
They’re the ones who protected the human intelligence their AI depends on.
If you’re ready to build the kind of culture that makes your AI strategy actually work – reply here or reach out.
And if you want the full story of what happens when you stop shrinking to fit: fullthrottleandtorque.com
Hero photography by Melinda Hird
Originally published on LinkedIn on 7th May 2026.
Republished as part of Gry Stene’s newsletter archive: https://grystene.rocks/navigating-transformation/
phy by Melinda Hird