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Chief Change Officer
Greg Morley: Turning DEI Drama into Workplace Wins – Part One
00:31:09
Greg Morley is the former DEI and HR head at Moët Hennessy, Disney, and Hasbro—and the brains behind Bond, the book on belonging your workplace desperately needs. In Part 1 of this two-part series, Greg spills how to ditch boring corporate jargon and actually create cultures where people feel seen, heard, and ready to crush it. From rewiring outdated systems to tackling bias head-on, Greg brings humor, grit, and a whole lot of wisdom.
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- [00:00]
Stripe Representative
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- [00:47]
Capella University Representative
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- [01:17]
Greg Morley
Every team, every topic, everywhere.
- [01:21]
Stripe Representative
This is Believe.
- [01:33]
Vince Chen
Hi everyone. Welcome to our show. Chief Change Officer, I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change, progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. In this episode, I've got a special trip for you Today. We are joined by Greg Morley, a leader in the world of human resources and a master of diversity, equity and inclusion at Monat Tennessee, one of the oldest and largest wine and spirits conglomerates in the world. Greg has an amazing story to share, covering the unique experiences that have shaped his leadership style and his strategic approach to dei. Let's explore what we'll uncover today with Greg. First, we'll discover how his early days handling customer complaints at call centers helped him develop empathy, quick thinking and communication skills that became the cornerstone of his leadership at Disney, Hosboro and now Monat Tennessee. Next, as we dive into advancing the DEI agenda at Monad Tennessee, Greg will share how he's been listening intently to the people who embody the heart and soul of the group's businesses, fostering an inclusive culture that's grounded in reality. In our third segment, we'll dive into the complexities of managing DEI across Monad Tenancy's diverse array of brands. Greg will explain how he tailors the DEI strategies to respect and reflect each brand's unique identity while aligning with the group's overarching corporate values. Lastly, we certainly can't overlook Greg's upcoming book Bond, where he shares invaluable lessons on building meaningful connections not just within the workplace, but in our everyday lives. It's about fostering a sense of true belonging and deeper inclusion everywhere. So if you are eager to learn how to make your own laws of change and hear from one of the leading voices in human transformation today, you are in the right place. Let's get started.
- [05:01]
Greg Morley
Thank you Vince. We had the opportunity to meet at an out leadership event in Hong Kong during the Hong Kong Gay Games, so I'm really happy we finally made it happen.
- [05:12]
Vince Chen
Welcome. I'm very excited to have you on board. You are in the people function with a specific focus on dei. Can you talk about how your early career experiences shape what you do today? What did you learn back then that still has implications and relevance for you? Being a people leader with a change enablement mandate?
- [05:39]
Greg Morley
Maybe I can start there as a place to introduce myself. So while I recently relocated to Paris working for Millet Hennessy which is the the leading luxury wines and spirits company in the world, part of the LVMH Group, I spent prior to that 17 years in Hong Kong with Moet Hennessy, with Hasbro and before that Disney, which is the reason I ended up in Hong Kong. And I was very pleased to be part of the original organizing committee of the Hong Kong Gay Games which was the first time Gay Games had come to Asia and it was turned out to be a huge success with great support from participants and an amazing team of volunteers that made it happen. I'm originally an American, still an American, but become a bit more of an internationalist I think during my career and have now worked outside the US longer than I worked in the US and way back when started my career in commercial sales and marketing and distribution world which was a great platform for me to spend then a good bit of my life in HR in diversity and inclusion and now on the verge of publishing a book that I've been writing which I'm quite excited about.
- [06:57]
Vince Chen
You have been in the people function in the HR function for long, but then you were in the commercial world for like eight years. Tell us more about your transformation or how your commercial experience prepare you going into the HR area.
- [07:17]
Greg Morley
Good foundation and good question. The first professional job I had was working in a call center and there's nothing like working in a call center to prepare yourself to be a good communicator. 80% of the incoming calls were complaints and so you really had to be able to think quickly and help people solve problems. When I was in high school and in university during the summer I used to work in a warehouse pulling orders and preparing orders. And then after my graduation and my call center experience, I worked in an outside sales role for GE, General Electric Co. In different roles. Why is that? Very critical to my life now is that I understand things like a supply chain from the very basis of it in a warehouse. I understand what people who work for the companies I work with when they're trying to handle customer complaints, customer solutions. I understand what it looks like to be a sales rep with targets and pressure from your boss about getting things done and sold. So those things were helpful to me and I continue to have an appreciation for those people. I like to be out with those team members, even doing my current role in diversity, equity, inclusion and certainly within hr. Because those people, those individuals are the ones that make the business come to life and make the business alive and are basically the client for HR&DE and I. So I love that part of the business and the energy there. And I feel like I understand it from working in the summer in a hot warehouse in less than ideal condition. But that's where work happens.
- [09:08]
Vince Chen
You come from decline phasing and operational side. In your experience, how important is it for people leaders to work closely with other leaders like CFOs and CEOs? Can you share with us how this chemistry, this teamwork, impacts the success of a modern day company?
- [09:32]
Greg Morley
The most savvy leaders of people are those that know how to work with an HR team or with their HR partner. I've worked for a number of individuals who quite rightly said to me, on my right hand is my CFO and on my left hand is my chro. And that's the way I run my organization. Because most organizations are fundamentally made up of people who then work with teams who deliver the business. So the business is an outcome of having a great team and great leadership. And so smart people, leaders, smart organization leaders know that it's important. For example, you talk about the HR people potentially not knowing the business is to bring a new HR person in and say, hey, let me tell you about my business. Let me tell you what we're trying to achieve here. Let me tell you about, you know, what successful profiles look like in this business or not. And that's where a Good HR person can come in and help that leader think about what's the change or what's the profile that is going to accelerate their business. If I think about when I've had conversations with leaders and they've struggled to build enough confidence in their organization or enough depth in their organization to have real success, that's a partnership that we can have together where I can help them. Again, the business is being driven there, not by hr. HR does play certain roles in an organization, certain control roles, certain investment roles, development roles, hiring roles. All of those are part of creating a dynamic, resilient, evolving organization. And I think the best partnerships are those. Like I explained, when a senior leader can say, on my right hand is one function, but on my other is hr.
- [11:34]
Vince Chen
Throughout your career life, you've been involved in the DEI efforts at different points in time. Now at Monad, Tennessee, how your approaches to DEI changed over the years, are there any big lessons you pick up along the way?
- [11:58]
Greg Morley
Sure. If I think about my experience within diversity, equity and inclusion, even that has changed since I was first involved with diversity in Disney, say 20 years ago, and been leading it for a while at Hasbro and then of course, leading it within my most recent experience in MOA Hennessy, I would say that my experience was one of learning from my own failures in the past in this space. Also trying to diagnose over time why in the organizations I worked and in other organizations where we had really not made significant progress over such a long period of time on something that's so fundamental to the business. And I'd start with, why is it fundamental to the business? In any business, it's fundamental that your organization understands the consumer, the end user, the client. And that understanding, I think, comes mainly through the people who are on the front line of the organization working with those clients, consumers. It comes from the people who work in the research part of the organization. It comes from the leaders who are reflective of the markets in which we work. So representation is critical. And then making sure that when we have a representative company that people can be fully participating and heard and work in a safe space and really be adding value to the organization. So those things are part of how I sort of, when we started to kick off this effort four years ago in Moat Hennessy, thinking about, okay, how do we get started? And one of the things that I recognized from my experience, and again, some of my failures, is you really have to start with the end in mind. So what was it as an organization we were trying to impact positively by becoming more Diverse, more inclusive, and more equitable. And for us, it was creating an organization that was more reflective of our consumers and customers so that we could make sure that as we were growing, the business that was able to scale up because we understand better the consumer and the customer, and that we create more of a reason to be in the company. So one could take two different approaches. One could immediately go out and start saying, okay, I want every profile of every recruitment to have a diverse candidate slate. That's an approach which we did some of that in some organizations. The other way to go is let's rewire the system. And so we took very much, I would say, a rewire of the system. I mean, making sure that the processes, policies, structures in the organization were prepared to host a more diverse and inclusive workforce. So things like making sure we had domestic partner policies, making sure that we had a relatively clean hiring process that was as free as possible of bias, making sure that when we were selecting people for development opportunities, it was done in a equitable way, not in a way that maybe there was some bias or unconscious bias. And then making sure that our communication to the whole organization was consistent and thoroughly about what was happening. Then over time, we started to see impact in certain metrics. The other thing that was critically important in this success story, which is still being written, is to make sure that we had senior leadership not just supporting, but advocating. There's nothing more powerful than the CEO saying something's important and saying it over and over and over for the rest of the organization to think that must be important if he keeps saying that. And that created, I would say, a bit of a sandwich, which was, we had this top direction, from the top voice at the top, sort of passionate way of speaking of diversity and inclusion, and then we were firing up the organization. So you had a bit of a.
- [16:14]
Vince Chen
Grassroots energy as well in advancing the DEI agenda. Can you describe the initial challenges and strategies your firm faced? How did you begin to tackle issues like, for example, unconscious bias and change company policies to be more practically inclusive, rather than using DEI simply as part of corporate branding jargon?
- [16:47]
Greg Morley
I think the first challenge was, in a way, rewiring the way people thought about themselves. So on the surface, if you ask somebody, do you discriminate? I would say 99% of people are going to say, of course I don't discriminate. I have an equal view to everybody on my team. I'm open, I'm accessible. So the way we started was we took every employee through an unconscious bias training, and that gave people A sense of, oh, maybe I do have some bias. It may not be intentional, but it could be for whatever reason, where I was raised, it could be through experience. So that allowed us to create a the first rewiring, which was everybody having a better understanding of themselves. And it also opened the door for people to be having conversations about bias, about diversity, about inclusion. I'm at a very early stage and I would say then we moved to the next level, which was like, okay, how are we going to make sure that our policies, processes and procedures are at least contemporary, maybe progressive? We went to the next step, which was to open the door and train employees to be able to start employee resource groups. We also then went to the stage of starting to put some measurement in place. Measurement around representation, measurement about employees, a sense of well being, measurement around employee sense of inclusion in the organization. Certainly it had to be reinforced by communication and a sense of what was our message internally and externally and how are we going to amplify that. So each one of those pieces was a kind of change management agenda, which continue to this day, although we've now pivoted more towards speaking specifically to the topics of representation, inclusion and leadership. And those things that were the rewiring are really embedded. If I think about the kind of benefit things we were working on four years ago versus what we're working on now, the landscape's changed. Hugely impacted by Covid and people's expectation of the organization and the organization's expectation of people. But a lot of those fundamental early pillars that still exist and are still part of the constant rewiring, there's for sure constantly change.
- [19:27]
Vince Chen
Monarch Tennessee is a diverse group with brands all over the world. Given this depth and breadth, diversity becomes a source of complexity. I can imagine that in such a multicultural, multilayered enterprise, you must respect each brand's uniqueness while maintaining alignment with the firm's overall values. How do you tailor the DEI initiatives to manage this complexity?
- [20:03]
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- [20:19]
Stripe Representative
Of the world's most influential companies grow their revenue and build a more profitable business. Whether it's Hertz making checkout a smooth ride for their customers, OpenAI answering unprecedented demand, or PGA chipping away at back office inefficiency, Stripe's financial infrastructure platform helps companies achieve ambitious goals. No matter what success looks like for your business, Stripe helps ensure the complexity of financial systems doesn't get in your way. Learn more@swepe.com Imagine what's possible when learning.
- [20:51]
Capella University Representative
Doesn'T get in the way of life at Capella University. Our Flexpath learning format lets you learn on your own schedule. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella. Edu.
- [21:05]
Greg Morley
Great question and one I could probably speak with you on for hours, but let me try to condense it. One benefit for us as an organization when I say we're the leader in luxury wines and spirits is from the business perspective, we know what our place is and it's there's wines and spirits is a huge category globally and we very much play in the luxury, maybe more select area of the market. Now that being said, if you go from spirits to champagne to wines to the other products and maisons we have in the organization, it's a complex culture on the surface. You can imagine there's the culture of I work in France, so I deal with French culture, or I work in Hong Kong and I'm dealing with Hong Kong culture, or I work in Argentina and I deal with Argentinian culture. So there's that cultural element. Then there's the layered on cultural element of our different maisons and where they're from. We have some maisons that are French, some maisons that are in the us, India, China, around the world. So that puts a different sort of cultural complexity on the work. And then there's another element of what I would say which is sort of the maturity of the business. So when I was talking with you about visiting a maison, I was visiting specifically the Hennessy maison. Now Hennessy is the largest maison we have in Moet Hennessy and it's the third, third largest measles within all of the LVMH group. So it's a huge part of the business and it has an incredibly diverse consumer. The consumers of Hennessy and China are very different than the consumers of Hennessy and say North America or the uk. So from the perspective of knowing the consumer, we know that Hennessy is a very diverse consumer around the world. When you go back to where it came from, which is Cognac France, which is in the southwestern part of France, this is not a very diverse part of the world. It's a relatively small community where people know each other. And even within our facility in Hennessy, oftentimes you have people who have worked in the organization for many decades. And maybe their parents worked in that same role they have, and maybe their grandparents worked in that role. So diversity in Cognac France looks very different than what we would say of diversity in, say, Hong Kong or New York or London or Paris. So why this kind of sandwich approach is important to the success of any diversity and inclusion initiative or strategy is that there needs to be some strategic orientation, and I talked about that, which is understanding the consumer, being close to the consumer, having a representative organization.
- [24:12]
Vince Chen
Can you be more specific about a representative organization? What does it look like?
- [24:19]
Greg Morley
What does representative organization look like in Cognac? Or what does representative organization look like in Tokyo? What does representative organization look like in Kuala Lumpur? It looks different, right? Where we're not talking about the same demographic and the same representation in all of those places, yet we are talking about being diverse and close to the consumer. So we have to make sure that there's a structure and an overall strategy and an overall direction. Yet each business unit, each maison, each location is left to really imagine their own success in this space while understanding that no one's exempt from the discussion. That we could say, just because we're in a certain place in a certain part of the world, that we're not taking part of this discussion. Back to my recent visit to Cognac, they're doing some amazing work on the cognitive diversity element. They're doing some great work on bringing different ability individuals from the community to work in the facility there. So in terms of diversifying the way they work, they're doing it really well in their context. And that's what I think it looks like when it's done well anywhere in the world.
- [25:37]
Vince Chen
Can you give us an example where the cultural shifts you've worked hard to drive within the organization have helped real people, your colleagues, take more control over their careers? How do these changes manifest in individual employee experiences?
- [26:01]
Greg Morley
I was talking with somebody earlier today and we were talking about career management. And this person said, a number of years ago, I would have been very hesitant to even raise my voice in terms of being interested for other roles. I mean, you imagine like that kind of energy and enthusiasm for one's career. And the person felt, I'm not sure that that's the right call for me to raise that. So what happens in that situation is that person would ultimately leave the organization because they could, they would feel safer somewhere else than in the organization. I think that has, as she said to me, fundamentally changed so that she feels liberated to have those discussions. And that's What I hope those are the kinds of conversations we can have more of to help organizations and the leaders in organizations understand that bringing forth the ideas of everyone in the organization is good for the organization and good for them as leaders. So there's personal interest as well in their success. Yep, I'm thrilled to have heard that from this individual. And I was even more thrilled to have heard it from this individual because she's a the person of color. So she feels like in an organization like ours, which can be traditional, relatively male dominated, and relatively not color oriented, that she feels like now she has a place. So that to me is huge progress. And I felt very good about that. And it's not to say that we have finished the job because I hope that there are more individuals like her who feel like they have a place to grow and they have a voice to be earth. So in that way, if I think about your intention in this podcast, when.
- [27:53]
Vince Chen
We first met, you told me about publishing a new book. The title is Bond. What drove you to write the first book in your life about creating a sense of belonging and bonding in organizations? How do your own experiences tie into the bigger picture of diversity and inclusion you lay out in your book?
- [28:21]
Greg Morley
The more I get close to finishing the book, the more excited I get about it. So this is an effort I started a couple of years ago and it was an idea that actually somebody gave to me and said, hey, you know, you've got these experiences that you really have an obligation to share. And I had never really thought of my experiences as an obligation to share. But when this person gave me that advice, I thought, okay, maybe I could do this. So we started to pull together some ideas about what does it take for any organization to create that true sense of belonging. Whether it's a big organization like LVMH or a volunteer organization like Hong Kong Gay Games, there are certain elements that bring people closer to the mission. Create a safe working space and create a place where people want to thrive and grow. It was also informed a lot by what I saw in terms of the discussion that was happening around De and I, which I think were amplified by the loudest voices on the margins. So whether someone was considered woke or anti, woke or pro this, anti that, my view has always been about diversity and inclusion, that those voices are always going to exist, and they've certainly been amplified in recent years. But the reality is that most people that I know want to work in organizations where they feel like they're listened to, where they feel like they can come to work and it's safe. They feel like they are heard and that they can do their best work and grow their career to whatever extent they want to. That's, to me, the essence of belonging and the essence of inclusion and connection. And that's really what I wrote the book about. I was able to meet some incredibly interesting people and highlight their stories and their voices in the book. And I hope that it's something that will help others to understand that this middle ground in our world is one that's much larger than oftentimes we may be led to believe by the loudest voices on the margins.
- [30:33]
Vince Chen
Please do share a copy with me when it's available. I would like to host you again to talk more about your book, your ideas. From what I heard, this book is not simply about dei. The world of work is changing. Building bonds, building bridges, building spaces across individuals is not limited within the walls of organization, simply the basic need of human beings. I can see that your book applies to a lot of real scenarios.
- [31:12]
Greg Morley
I hope so. I hope that the inspiration people take from the book is that connection and belonging happen in many, many different ways. And again, it's not a discussion of sort of woke or anti woke as one would be led to believe by reading social media these days that again, people want to generally feel included. I want to. Wherever I live or work, I want to feel like I belong there. And when I have that sense of belonging, I'm willing to do more. I'm willing to give more. If in my neighborhood I feel like I belong in my neighborhood, maybe I'm more willing to pick up trash on the street when I see it. If I feel like I belong in my organization, I may be willing to do a little bit more on a project because I feel like I'm connected to the organization. I'm connected to my team and my boss and the mission of the organization. So that's the power of a sense of belonging. It's not just a safe space or a buzzword. It's really a business driver and organ, driver and mental health. And I think that this is the right time to have this discussion. I think actually the role of Chief Change Officer is imperative to success of anybody in a company now because where the best ideas come are certainly not always from managers. So the best ideas come from anybody.
- [32:40]
Vince Chen
Yes. And we will have more Chief Change Officers around the world. Thank you so much.
- [32:46]
Greg Morley
Thank you. With great pleasure. Thank you for including me in your primary and first effort. And I'm really excited to be part of it. Thank you.
- [32:57]
Vince Chen
So much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show. Leave us top rated reviews. Check out our website and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.
- [33:34]
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- [33:41]
Greg Morley
Right this way.
- [33:42]
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- [34:04]
Stripe Representative
Stripe helps many of the world's most influential companies grow their revenue and build a more profitable business. Whether it's Hertz making checkout a smooth ride for their customers, OpenAI answering unprecedented demand, or PGA chipping away at back office inefficiency, Stripe's financial infrastructure platform helps companies achieve ambitious goals. No matter what success looks like for your business, Stripe helps ensure the complexity of financial systems doesn't get in your way. Learn more@swepe.com Imagine what's possible when learning.
- [34:37]
Capella University Representative
Doesn'T get in the way of life at Capella University. Our flexpath Learning format lets you learn on your own schedule. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella.
- [34:48]
Trevor Sikkima
Eduardo hey everybody, I'm Trevor Sikkima, host of the PFF NFL show, here to tell you what you can find on all of our shows throughout the week. On Mondays we have the Grade Release show where myself and Dalton Wasserman break down every single game that you just saw in the NFL. On Tuesdays we have the Quarterback Breakdown with Seth Galena. On Wednesdays we've got the Rookie Review with John Ledyard and the preview for the upcoming week in the NFL. So make sure you are subscribed to the PFF NFL show wherever you get your podcast.
- [35:16]
Greg Morley
Guess if you like the show, please.
- [35:21]
Stripe Representative
Take a moment to rate review and subscribe.
- [35:24]
American Express Representative
It really does help the show to grow.
- [35:26]
Greg Morley
Thank you for listening.