Seleeta Walker: There is a gap between what leadership intends and what people really experience

In the latest interview for CRN’s DEI in Action series, we catch up with Seleeta Walker, founder of SEEN. who is determined to make every workplace a better place to work

Following a career spanning more than two decades at firms such as IBM, PWC, Lloyds Banking Group and Computacenter, plus others, Seleeta Walker has branched out to launch her own independent strategy advisory organisation called SEEN. to make the workplace a more positive experience at every level.

The organisation will be working alongside business leaders to explore evidence, challenge assumptions and understand what might be happening beneath the surface before important decisions are made that will affect the workforce.

Focusing on leadership, transformation, culture and community, Walker explained her goal to help leaders understand the different perspectives that exist within their organisations and identify the gaps between intention and experience.

Helping channel leadership understand the influence of culture change

“People can work in the same organisation yet perceive it in completely different ways. Companies have great strategies, but when it comes to putting those things in practice, it can be a different experience for everyone at that company,” she said.

“SEEN. exists to help organisations see more of that picture and help leadership teams to understand what’s happening underneath their transformation.”

Walker said her offering will differ from some of the existing offerings in the market because every single one will be bespoke.

“We have really intimate conversations with the organisation or customer that we’re dealing with,” she explained.

“One of the most important things is that they have privacy and confidentiality.

"A lot of organisations have reviews done or have assessments or diagnostics, and then the results are published. This is more about what organisations want to get internally from their people.”

With the current boom in AI technology, it is important for companies to keep hold of the human side of business, Walker explained.

“I really feel you cannot run an organisation without people. No matter how much scaremongering is going on with AI, it is not going to happen,” she said.

“But how leadership deals with this, how the shareholders approach it, how the board thinks – that is 100 per cent going to be transformative and vitally important."

She added: "I don’t think we are going to lose the human element, but I think we are going to have to work harder at keeping it.”