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

Edgy Ideas

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'.