Catalyst

Catalyst Catalyst is a global nonprofit working to build workplaces that work for women.
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What does inclusive leadership look like right now?At Catalyst Convene New York, more than 800 leaders came together to ...
05/28/2026

What does inclusive leadership look like right now?
At Catalyst Convene New York, more than 800 leaders came together to explore that question—featuring voices like Amanda Nguyen and Hilary Knight, alongside global executives navigating real-time change.

What emerged was a clearer view of where systems are under pressure:
• Trust is a measurable driver of performance
When employees don’t trust how decisions are made, engagement drops, adoption slows, and attrition rises—even when strategy and technology are in place.
• Gender partnership remains a critical lever
Differences in sponsorship, visibility, and opportunity continue to shape outcomes—and compound over time.
• AI adoption is testing leadership credibility
The gap isn’t just capability—it’s confidence—and who feels safe experimenting.
• Inclusion strategies must be defensible
Leaders are being asked to align impact, data, and decision-making in ways that stand up to multiple stakeholders.

Across conversations, a consistent theme emerged:
The focus is shifting from intention to how inclusion is embedded (systematically and consistently) across organizations.

👉 The full recap goes deeper into what this looks like in practice, including research, examples, and where leaders are seeing the biggest gaps today.
🔗https://ow.ly/UFpM50Z4n1Z

Which of these is easiest to talk about—but hardest to execute in your organization? Share in the comments.

Have you ever been in a meeting where you had an idea, but didn’t say anything?Why does that happen?In Fieldnotes, Zach ...
05/27/2026

Have you ever been in a meeting where you had an idea, but didn’t say anything?
Why does that happen?

In Fieldnotes, Zach Mercurio explains that we’re facing a growing shortage of human skills, specifically the ability to make people feel seen, valued, and that they matter at work.
When people don’t feel that they matter, something shifts. They disengage, hold back, and contribute less than they’re capable of.

But when people feel valued, you see a very different behavior. Employees speak up, share their ideas, and build on each other’s thinking. Better collaboration and performance usually come from that.

No matter how much talent you add to a team, the real unlock comes from changing how people experience working together.

👉 Read The Skill Shortage No One Is Talking About by Zach Mercurio in Fieldnotes:
https://ow.ly/LRHh50Z4J9u
What’s one thing that has made you feel like your voice truly mattered at work?

Most organisations are investing in AI.Few can clearly measure its impact.And why is that number so high?New research fr...
05/20/2026

Most organisations are investing in AI.
Few can clearly measure its impact.
And why is that number so high?

New research from Catalyst and Coqual shows that 95% of leaders can’t quantify AI’s value, not because it isn’t there, but because it isn’t being tracked.

In our joint report, the gap comes down to alignment:
AI impact is spread across productivity, quality, and risk, with no shared definition of what to measure.
Access to tools and skills varies across teams.
And employees are being asked to drive adoption without consistent direction or support.

It’s a reminder that scaling AI is more than a technology effort—it’s a leadership one.

👉 See what the data reveals: https://ow.ly/VIzU50Z17u9

When leaders change course on inclusion, it’s rarely about values.It’s about risk, scrutiny, and uncertainty.New researc...
05/19/2026

When leaders change course on inclusion, it’s rarely about values.
It’s about risk, scrutiny, and uncertainty.

New research from Catalyst and the NYU School of Law’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, based on 2,000+ respondents, shows how organizations are actually responding, and what works.

The data tells a more nuanced story:
• Most organizations have already adjusted their approach
• Pressure isn’t evenly distributed across companies
• What looks like retreat often doesn’t reflect what’s actually happening inside organizations

And the gap between perception and reality is bigger than many assume.

The takeaway for leaders:
Retreat isn’t the only defensible option.
What’s needed is clear criteria, neutral systems, and aligned communication.

👉 Save this post if you’re navigating inclusion decisions under scrutiny
📖 Read A New Path to Inclusion

Why this moment mattered for Catalyst and for Europe.Being in London for the d&i Leaders (Diversity and Inclusion Leader...
05/14/2026

Why this moment mattered for Catalyst and for Europe.
Being in London for the d&i Leaders (Diversity and Inclusion Leaders) Forum was a powerful reminder that, even amid rapid change; AI acceleration, economic uncertainty, and political complexity, the core of inclusion work remains deeply human.

Across conversations, a clear theme emerged: we may have overcomplicated inclusion. Progress isn’t about adding more frameworks or tools, it’s about returning to fundamentals. Do people feel safe, valued, heard, and able to contribute?

There was also honest reflection on how quickly inclusion efforts can be deprioritized when they aren’t fully embedded into leadership accountability, systems, and culture. True progress requires shared ownership and a shift beyond relying on ERGs alone to carry this work forward.

Another critical takeaway: inclusion cannot sit on the sidelines of AI transformation. Questions of trust, fairness, accessibility, and adoption gaps must be central to how organisations across Europe shape the future of work.

We’re especially grateful to D&I Leaders for convening such an engaged, global community, and proud to have Catalyst represented by Victor Penda, Lucy Kallin, and Dr Eleanor Smith (Ellie) to conversations grounded in evidence and real‑world impact.

London was more than a host city. It was a space for reflection, recalibration, and renewed momentum and we’re leaving energized to keep advancing this work across Europe and beyond.

Inclusion decisions are under scrutiny.And leaders are navigating them under increased legal and cultural pressure.New r...
05/12/2026

Inclusion decisions are under scrutiny.
And leaders are navigating them under increased legal and cultural pressure.

New research from Catalyst and the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law,—based on 2,000+ respondents—provides clear, evidence‑based guidance, not opinion, for today’s inclusion decisions.

What the data shows:
• Organizations remain committed to fairness and inclusion
• Pressure on inclusion efforts is real
• Fairness requires clarity, not retreat

What leaders need now is alignment, clarity, and a framework they can confidently explain and defend.

📖 Download A New Path to Inclusion:
https://ow.ly/nzpL50YYcBZ

👉 Save this if you’re leading inclusion efforts under scrutiny

In 2002, the Oakland A’s couldn’t compete with baseball’s biggest budgets.So they stopped optimizing for superstar talen...
05/07/2026

In 2002, the Oakland A’s couldn’t compete with baseball’s biggest budgets.
So they stopped optimizing for superstar talent and redesigned their team around undervalued performance metrics.

They went to the playoffs. Bigger-budget teams didn’t.

Twenty years later, many organizations are making the same mistake as old‑school baseball.
Despite heavy investments in talent, only 30% of workplace teams are high‑performing, according to global research from Dale Carnegie. The issue isn’t intelligence. It’s how teams are designed.

Research led by Anita Woolley shows that collective intelligence, not individual IQ, is a stronger predictor of team performance. Teams perform better not because they are smarter, but because they integrate what they know more effectively.

As Woolley explains, today’s problems are too complex for any single expert. Innovation has become a social process. Collaboration, psychological safety, cognitive diversity, and trust now matter as much as technical skill.

The takeaway is clear:
Your advantage won’t come from hiring the smartest people or using the same AI tools as everyone else. It comes from out‑designing how teams work together.

👉 Read The Science of Building Teams in Fieldnotes to explore what actually makes teams perform:
https://pages.catalyst.org/fieldnotes/the-science-of-building-teams?utm_medium=linkedin&utm_source=catalyst-profile&utm_campaign=trust

What’s one change leaders could make today to unlock stronger collaboration on their teams?

AI adoption across Europe is accelerating; but organisations are still struggling to explain what it’s really delivering...
05/06/2026

AI adoption across Europe is accelerating; but organisations are still struggling to explain what it’s really delivering.

In a recent article, Dr. Ellie Smith, Director of Research, EMEA at Catalyst, drawing on Catalyst & Coqual research, highlights a growing gap: while many organisations track the business impact of AI, far fewer can measure its impact on people.

The data is striking.
95% of business leaders say their organisations are not tracking AI’s impact at all. And where measurement does exist, it overwhelmingly prioritises system‑level metrics like innovation or decision‑making over employee outcomes such as engagement, retention, or career progression.

This creates a blind spot at precisely the moment AI is reshaping how work is done.

In the article for the LSE Business Review, Dr. Smith reframes the challenge clearly: measuring AI is not just a technical or ROI exercise. It’s a leadership and governance issue; one that requires leaders to ask not only “Is it working?” but “For whom is it working, and at what cost?”

Without visibility into people outcomes, organisations risk overstating success, missing early warning signs of disengagement, and embedding systems that undermine trust and long‑term performance.

📖 Read the full article:
https://ow.ly/ExNY50YVHgT

05/05/2026

Two days. One community.
Catalyst Convene 2026 brought us together in New York—across activations, main stage conversations, and breakout sessions that highlighted real progress in action.

We're sharing a few moments from these two inspiring days with our community, including the award presentations for the 2026 Breakout Program Award winners, Humana and Specialisterne Canada, and this year’s Catalyst Award winner, Hitachi.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in person and virtually. Your engagement, perspective, and leadership helped us illuminate the path forward to accelerate progress through workplace inclusion.

AI adoption continues to accelerate.And yet many organisations are struggling to translate that investment into sustaine...
04/29/2026

AI adoption continues to accelerate.
And yet many organisations are struggling to translate that investment into sustained performance.

A recent article featured in HR Magazine, drawing on Catalyst & Coqual’s Convergent Leadership research, points to why.

The issue isn’t a lack of technology.
It’s a lack of leadership capability to lead people through AI‑driven change.

When leaders don’t model confidence, good judgement, and inclusive decision‑making, trust erodes. Employees turn to informal workarounds. Responsible AI principles exist, but don’t consistently show up in day‑to‑day choices.

The research identifies a different leadership profile; the Convergent Leader. Leaders who bring together AI understanding, inclusive behaviours, and human‑centred judgement are far more likely to turn AI adoption into productivity, innovation, and retention.

This reframes the challenge:
AI performance is not primarily a systems issue.
It is a leadership one.

📖 Featured in HR Magazine:
“Convergent leadership: AI success is down to people”
https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/comment/convergent-leadership-ai-success-is-down-to-people

A question for senior leaders and HR:
Where is your organisation most exposed today, leadership capability, trust, or decision‑making under uncertainty?

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