Talking diversity in companies and the German society – „Die Boss“ with Janina Kugel

For the third episode of my podcast “Die Boss”, I met with Janina Kugel, a well-known expert on driving change within companies and society. I really looked forward to and enjoyed our conversation as we have known each other for quite some time now. I love to hear her smart thoughts on education and the way that our society needs to change.

In this podcast episode, we talked about the effects that racism and discrimination have in Germany – not so much on the individual level, but rather on society as a whole. One of Janina Kugels focus areas has been encouraging a more diverse workforce on all levels of a company – including the board of directors. Changing the images that typically come to our mind when thinking about what a typical leader looks like can be really difficult – especially when there seems to be no need to do so. That is why she sees legal regulations and quotas as key instruments for forcing companies to change. This is a thought that I have been going over in my head over the last years as well, as I have seen very little change or even willingness to change in companies. So I completely understand her point even if am still not sure how we can implement quotas in small executive boards.

We both agree that the benefit of having a diverse team is having different mindsets and perspectives represented – and thus a more holistic view of what our society looks like and needs today.

All in all, I really learned a lot in this conversation, despite having known Janina for quite some time. One thing that’s different about this episode of “Die Boss”: For our conversation, we met virtually since we were in different places at the time. I hope that didn’t impact the sound quality negatively! As always, I am looking forward to your feedback! You can listen to the podcast on all major platforms or directly on the Stern website.

image rights: Gruner+Jahr, STERN

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