In this episode of Lead to Soar, Mel Butcher and Michelle Redfern challenge a long-standing organisational assumption: that diversity, equity, and inclusion should sit within HR.
They explore why DEI is so often treated as a functional responsibility rather than a leadership one, and how this structural choice quietly limits impact, accountability, and cultural change. When DEI is positioned as an HR issue, it is too easily reduced to policy, compliance, and process rather than power, decision-making, and leadership behaviour.
This conversation examines what happens when leaders outsource inclusion instead of owning it, and why meaningful progress requires DEI to be embedded in how organisations are led, governed, and measured.
In this episode, Mel and Michelle discuss:
Why DEI reporting to HR weakens accountability at the executive level
How structural placement signals what organisations truly value
The difference between compliance-driven DEI and leadership-driven change
Why HR is set up to fail when asked to carry cultural transformation alone
What alternative governance models for DEI actually look like in practice
How senior leaders must own inclusion as a core leadership responsibility
This episode is for leaders, executives, and people professionals who are serious about moving beyond symbolic commitments and into sustained, system-level change.
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