Watch the broadcast replay below—and follow the conversation on LinkedIn.

Welcome to System Overload, a streamed video segment focusing on the issues of the day.

In today’s second episode of “System Overload: How Change Happens,” host Kai D. Wright brings together two top business strategists—Bob Liodice and Laura Morgan Roberts—to discuss how to navigate change related to leadership and organization design, to accomplish tangible progress with diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Liodice, president and CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), where he’s led the advertising, marketing and media industry for nearly 30 years, joins Morgan, associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, in sharing insights on the relationship between lexicon and which problems gets addressed, anticipating backlash to “wokeism” and the pace of change and progress in the ad world.  

Language is an important element to change, said Morgan, who advises organizations through Alignment Quest. Specifically, she noted how barriers are tied to language use and how lexicon shapes how organizations navigate and solve issues related to DE&I, which she wrote about in her book “Race, Work and Leadership.”

Morgan is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, a LinkedIn Top 10 Voice in Equity, and has also served on the faculties of Harvard Business School, Georgetown University and Antioch University.

Liodice shared lessons from the ANA's 1,600 member companies representing 10,000 brands, whose collective influence is more than $200 billion in marketing spending. The ANA tracks industry progress, and Liodice shared examples of meaningful brand actions, including Procter & Gamble's work with Saturday Morning on anti-racial bias. The co-chair of the ANA Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing, as well as several industry boards such as GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media), The Advertising Council, Better Business Bureau, and World Federation of Advertisers, Liodice shared highlights from the ANA’s annual research on the progress of leadership in the marketing and advertising industry.