S10 Ep 12: How to Make Work Fair with Siri Chilazi

The Business of Being Brilliant

What does workplace fairness actually mean and how do we tackle unfairness in practical, evidence-based ways? In this episode, Helen speaks to Siri Chilazi, senior researcher at Harvard Kennedy School's Women and Public Policy Program and co-author of Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results, to get to the heart of how organisations can create truly fair environments where everyone has an equal chance to succeed to their full potential.

Together, they discuss:

⭐️ What “fairness at work” really means, using powerful metaphors and examples.

⭐️ The everyday systems and processes that unintentionally create inequities like biased hiring, promotion gaps, and selective exposure to stretch assignments.

⭐️ Why fairness benefits everyone, not just underrepresented groups.

⭐️ Why traditional “add-on” DE&I programmes (like unconscious bias training) often fall short and how making fairness intrinsic to day-to-day processes is far more effective.

⭐️ Practical, scientific strategies: using data and behavioural science to identify, track, and tackle hidden inequalities.

⭐️ Real-world examples of simple but powerful organisational experiments from standardising interviews to tweaking feedback emails that have measurable impact.

⭐️ What leaders at all levels (not just the C-suite) can do to drive fairness in their own team even if it's just changing the pictures on the wall!

⭐️ How to set targets and measure progress on fairness (and why that clarity matters).

Siri shares personal stories from her own career and highlights from her research, showing how everyone can be an agent for fairer work, no matter your role or seniority. Helen and Siri offer concrete advice and actionable examples for leaders and individuals keen to swap tokenistic programmes for meaningful, systemic change.

Tune in for a lively, myth-busting conversation that will leave you rethinking how to embed fairness practically and sustainably into the heart of your organisation.

About Siri Chilazi

Siri Chilazi is a senior researcher at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School and an internationally recognised expert in advancing women and promoting gender equity in organisations. As an academic researcher, Siri specialises in identifying practical approaches to close gender gaps at work by de-biasing structures and designing fairer processes. As an advisor and speaker, she collaborates with organisations including start-ups, large multinational companies, top professional services firms, governments, non-profits, and academic institutions to advance gender equity through evidence-based insights. Siri’s work regularly appears in leading media outlets and she has spoken on gender equity at hundreds of large events around the world. Siri is the coauthor, with Iris Bohnet, of Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results (HarperCollins, 2025). She has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College.

Learn more at: https://makeworkfair.com

Connect with Siri on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirichilazi

Link mention: Explore More Than Now, a UK-based behavioural science consultancy helping organisations run internal fairness experiments: https://morethannow.co.uk/

Links:

Visit Helen’s website www.helenbeedham.com.

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