Welcome to a special edition of the Catalyst podcast, Breaking with Tradition filmed live at the 2024 Catalyst Awards! This is season 1, episode 3: What does Gen Z want in a workplace?

Everybody’s talking about the new multigenerational workplace—and for good reason. The newest generation, Generation Z, will soon make up over a third of the global population and a quarter of the global workforce.

Born after 1996, Gen Z is bringing new expectations and priorities to the workplace. From better work-life balance, a bigger investment in mental health, and their preference to work with companies that prioritize DEI, this generation is already making waves.

On this episode, join hosts Lucy and Victoria as they sit down with Remington Bennett, Content Writer and Producer at The Female Quotient to talk about how the multi-generational workplace will shift future workplace cultures and priorities.

Our conversation will help you learn how companies can successfully manage the challenges a multigenerational workplace brings, while still accelerating diversity, equity, and inclusion progress.

Lucy Kallin, Executive Director, EMEA, Catalyst

LinkedIn | Bio

Victoria Kuketz, Director, Corporate Engagement, Canada, Catalyst

LinkedIn | Bio

Remington Bennett has diverse work experience spanning multiple industries. They currently work as a Content Producer at The Female Quotient since 2022. Prior to that, they held various roles at The New York Times from 2019 to 2022, including Assistant to the Managing Editor, Executive Assistant for Global Enterprise Subscriptions, and Executive Assistant for Advertising. From 2017 to 2019, they were a Production Coordinator to the Chief of Staff at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

Remington Bennett has pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast and Digital Journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

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• 1:44 | About Remington. Who is Remington Bennett and what is The Female Quotient all about?
• 2:44 | A clash of workplace values. Gen Z (or Gen Zed according to Lucy) is quickly changing the demographics at work—how do their ideas square with older generations?
• 5:18 | Leaving no one behind.How can the generations work together to accelerate DEI in an evolving workplace?
• 7:42 | Creating belonging cross-generation. Women in each generation share universal experiences that shape them.
• 10:34 | Mentorship works both ways. Regardless of age, professionals both young and old have something to teach each other.
• 11:23...

Welcome to Breaking with Tradition, a new Catalyst podcast where we follow in the footsteps of our founder Felice Schwartz and sit down with change-making leaders and professionals accelerating diversity, equity, and inclusion in today’s global workplace.

Founded in 1962, Catalyst drives change with unparralleled thought leadership, actionable solutions, and a galvanized community of multinational corporations to accelerate and advance women into leadership—because progress for women is progress for everyone.

We're your hosts, Lucy Kallin, Victoria Kuketz, and Erin Souza-Rezendes from CITY in the US.

And while we’re three ‘Catalystas’ that live in different regions around the globe, we are united by one goal: to create workplaces where anyone can thrive—regardless of their identity.

It’s easy to become disheartened by the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movements in the workplace. It’s a time of inflamed political rhetoric and multiple overlapping global crises that threaten to roll back the clock on our efforts to make more equitable work environments for women.

On this episode of Breaking with Tradition, we’re reminded of words from Felice Schwartz as she looked at the radical changes she saw in her lifetime: “We can’t go on the way we have been—living new lives in the old patterns.”

What is the state of DEI in 2024? Is it all doom and gloom, or is there reason to hope for “new patterns” emerging? Our host Erin is flying solo this week and sitting down with Ruchika Tulshyan, expert, speaker and author on DEI and founder and CEO of Candour to discuss her predictions for our work this year and beyond.

Our conversation will tackle some of the biggest Future of Work trends impacting women today. Spoiler alert: There’s a lot to be excited about!

Erin Souza-Rezendes, Vice President, Global Communications, Catalyst

LinkedIn | Bio

Ruchika Tulshyan is the best-selling author of Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work (MIT Press). The book was described as “transformative” by Dr. Brené Brown. She is working on her next book: “Uncompete: Dismantling a Competition Mindset to Unlock Liberation, Opportunity, and Peace” (Viking Books).

Ruchika is also the founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy practice. A former international business journalist, Ruchika is a regular contributor to The New York Times and Harvard Business Review and a recognized media commentator on workplace culture.

LinkedIn | Website

• 1:35 | About Ruchika. Who is Ruchika Tulshyan and what is her approach to DEI?
• 6:01 | Ouch, 2024. It's been rough. Are the DEI doom and gloom headlines true? Ruchika weighs in.
• 12:57 | What's your advice? How do we shore ourselves up during these challenging times?
• 18:45 | Imposter syndrome is a systemic issue. Ruchika shares how we can make systems-level change.
• 25:35 | What does the future of work look like?
• 30:57 | Sneak Peek. The Catalyst community gets a sneak peek into Ruchika's next book.

• 1:51 | Ruchika: I think of the work that I do or my approach to diversity, equity and inclusion as multi-faceted. So much of it is driven by various identities I have and hold throughout my life.
• 5:48 | Erin: I think it means so much to marry those two things and have both, the personal storytelling and the receipts of the research to uncover what is happening in workplaces around the world, particularly for women.
• 8:06 | Ruchika: I'd say the most important part of this is that a lot of these attacks are not new. They're not using, they might be using new language, they might be using different packaging around it.

Welcome to episode 1, season 1.

Catalyst founder Felice Schwartz embraced a vision for the future of the workplace in her 1992 book Breaking with Tradition based on “fulfillment, both personal and professional,” where everyone is “able to define and pursue their goals freely, regardless of gender.”

From this initial vision, the Catalyst of today strives for “workplaces that work for women.” This is the future of work we at Catalyst seek to create at workplaces everywhere. This is our why.

How an organization communicates its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work makes an impact—both to the outside world in this moment of anti-DEI pushback, and internally to employees who want to know their company cares.

For this first episode of Breaking with Tradition, hosts Lucy, Victoria, and Erin sit down to set the stage and discuss both the Catalyst “why” and why it matters that we talk about it. And as can be expected from a research organization, we bring in some evidence-based insights to back us up!

Lucy Kallin, Executive Director, EMEA, Catalyst

LinkedIn | Bio

Victoria Kuketz, Director, Corporate Engagement, Canada, Catalyst

LinkedIn | Bio

Erin Souza-Rezendes, Vice President, Global Communications, Catalyst

LinkedIn | Bio

• 1:07 | The origin story. The inspiration for this podcast, Catalyst, founder Felice Schwartz and her 1992 book Breaking with Tradition.
• 4:28 | Building a human-focused workplace. Women are half the population, but they're also not a monolith. Victoria, Lucy and Erin discuss why gender equity is critical to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• 9:35 | Finding your voice. Why it's important for companies to talk about equity and what it looks like.
• 15:35 | World-class employers. Why some companies are building workplaces that work for women despite the DEI pushback.
• 19:35 | Modern-day rebels. How our hosts break with tradition.

• 1:41 | Erin: As someone who works in communications here at Catalyst, you know, I think about our work as breaking with tradition all the time. Because really, what we're focusing on is our shared humanity.
• 2:18 | Victoria: From a productivity crisis, AI upskilling and adoption across industries, we're constantly facing new and emerging challenges. So this breaking with tradition theme really resonates with me because we need to innovate and from a DEI perspective, upskill and leverage the entirety of the workforce to meet these challenges...
• 10:32 | Lucy: 76% of employees want their companies to take action. And I think that's where Catalyst comes in. I'm leaning forward because I'm getting too excited now.
• 12:33 | Victoria: DEI is for everyone. And...