I recently sat down with Bant Breen on The UNCAGED Show to discuss my career as Chief Executive Officer at MVD.

Bant Breen:

Tell me about your company MVD consulting, sounds like you are working in really one of the most important areas and topics really of our time. But tell me more about MVD.

Michelle Davis:
My consulting firm based here in Toronto, we work for non profit, as well as small businesses, helping them to really achieve those diversity, equity, inclusion goals, really helping them to dig in. Oftentimes, organizations will approach me, maybe have tried something, and they're feeling stuck, they're not sure where to go, maybe they called out. My company is able to really listen and help people lean in. Some coaching that we're able to do with leaders who were feeling unsure and uncertain, might be doing some training with staff,  with the board of directors. So really taking a whole organization perspective to DEI work. It's not those three people down the hall who work in that department or head of that team, we the whole organization has to be behind it in order for it to be successful…there's a lot of pressure, whether it's clients or customers, whether it's the board, perhaps it is from investors, where people want to see more, they want organizations to move boldly within the space and not take timid little steps. They really want to see bold action. So MVD consulting, we really help organizations to do that.

Bant Breen:

 Michelle, where are we? I mean, are we making progress? Or what's your take on the status these days?

Michelle Davis:

The quick answer is, sort of, in some way we have moved forwards, we can more openly discuss. We can talk about racism, we can talk about white supremacy, we don't recoil from those terms or from the conversations anymore. In that way, there has been almost a systemic shift and that  most people are open and willing to have the conversation…We have  to move forward, decisively, confidently, and with some courage, being able to say “okay, we might not get it right, we might not make everyone happy, but we know this is what our staff wants”. Particularly staff from equity deserving groups, or this is what our customers are really expecting. Being able to move forward to make those bigger advances is really kind of the space that we're in in 2023.

Bant Breen:

What keeps you going, what gets you up in the morning and keeps you focused on this stuff.

Michelle Davis:

Really, it is my clients. I am able to attract the clients who I really love working with. They are people fully committed, they've done the groundwork, they're ready to really go deeper into the work, they're not just doing the superficial type of thing. My clients really get me excited, as well as my team. You know, we're a small but mighty team, and we're growing, I'm really proud of being you know, an employer of choice.

Bant Breen:

What's on the docket for you and the team at MVD consulting? And what are your hopes for the near future?

Michelle Davis:

We've got a new product that we'll be launching in a few weeks when you're designing an online e course creating an anti racist workplace. We're really excited about that, being able to get to more organizations who are able to access this, training this important information, it's gonna be looking again at a whole organization approach… just really just digging in and having the open conversations that we need to have to really advance and move forward and achieving the goals, which is really justice, justice for employees, investors or volunteers, ensuring that everyone has a safe, healthy, happy workplace in which they can show up each day.

To see the full interview on the Uncaged YouTube channel, go to: https://youtu.be/GjRfbkIFjfQ

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