I Know I Belong When...

Belonging is not built at the office. It is built wherever a person is, at the dinner table, inside a circle of friends, in the places we worship and organize, and at work too. Season 3 of I Know I Belong When… proved that twelve times over. In this special season 3 recap, host Christopher Bylone, Principal Strategist at Innovation Unbiased, brings every guest from the season back together to exam...

What happens when you combine a lifelong storyteller, a lifelong protester, and a leader who runs toward the work when everyone else is running away from it? You get Chris Jones. In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Chris, co-founder of Spectra Diversity and a social justice warrior since 1970, to discuss authentic leadership in turbulent times. Chris has...

What happens when you take fifteen years of startup chaos, a front row seat to the exact moment culture either takes root or falls apart, and a leader who gets excited about the hard conversations most people run from? You get this conversation with Brooke Sullivan, Director of People and Talent at Banyan Software, and a leader building belonging inside fast-moving companies. Brooke has spent her...

Most leadership advice about artificial intelligence promises the machine will solve your people problems. Sarah A. Scala is in the other room telling executives the opposite. Artificial intelligence will expose them, and she is staying long enough to help fix what surfaces. That is the conversation that Christopher Bylone, host of I Know I Belong When, has on this episode. Sarah is an award-winni...

What if everything you have been told about accessibility, inclusion, and the so-called trade-off between doing good and doing well is wrong? In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Daniel Hodges — lawyer by training, nonprofit founder by calling, and living proof that when someone tells you no road exists, that is simply the opening line of your comeback st...

"What does authentic leadership look like when the person in the corner office decides that the boldest move available is telling the truth about who she is? In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Katherine Dudtschak, former president and CEO of Home Equity Bank and former executive vice president at RBC, to explore what happens when more than thirty y...

Last week, you met the father. This week, meet the son who did not just inherit a mission. He built his own lane inside of it. In this episode of I Know I Belong When, Christopher sits down with Jake Ross, founder and CEO of Belong Together, banjo player, former COO of an AI startup, and co-author of the second edition of Everyday Bias with his father, Howard J. Ross. Jake holds a bachelor's...

What if belonging is not a program or slogan, but the daily discipline of honoring humanity even when the cultural winds shift against it? In this episode of I Know I Belong When, Christopher sits down with Howard J. Ross, writer, facilitator, meditation teacher, musician, and one of the most influential voices on unconscious bias and belonging alive today. Howard is the author of Everyday Bias an...

What does it really take to create belonging in the workplace when pressure rises, resistance shows up, and silence feels safer than speaking up? In this episode of I Know I Belong When…, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Mike Davis, a global diversity and inclusion executive with nearly three decades of experience navigating the hardest conversations organizations avoid. This is not a surfac...

What happens when a leader walks onto a stage to accept an award and walks off holding a tie because no one imagined a woman could be leading the company? In this episode of I Know I Belong When…, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Simona Scarpaleggia, former CEO of IKEA Switzerland, United Nations co-chair, author, and a leader whose career has redefined authentic leadership when the room was...

What if the clearest blueprint for belonging in the workplace did not come from corporate playbooks, leadership models, or culture decks, but from a global movement rooted in creativity, community, and care? In this episode of I Know I Belong When…, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Manny Faces—award-winning journalist, cultural strategist, TEDx speaker, and founder of the Hip Hop Can Save Am...

What if the reason your culture initiatives are stalling has nothing to do with motivation, engagement, or vibes, and everything to do with systems, accountability, and how leaders show up every single day? In this episode of I Know I Belong When…, Christopher Bylone is joined by Joe Machicote, retired CHRO, organizational culture engineer, executive coach, and author of Own Thy Stuff. Joe brings...

What does it actually mean to feel valued at work, not in theory, not in policy language, but in lived experience? In this deeply human episode of I Know I Belong When…, host Christopher Bylone sits down with Dr. Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander, a pioneering legal scholar, educator, and culture shaper whose life’s work helped define how organizations understand fairness, dignity, and people’s experience...

The belonging movement starts here: Bold voices, curious stories, and the future of inclusive culture Tune into "I Know I Belong When..." Season 3, and be a part of the movement. An Innovation Unbiased Production https://www.iknowibelongwhen.com/about-the-show

What does inclusive leadership look like when performance drops, language gets honest, and ordinary moments become the measure of everything? That is the question Season 2 of I Know I Belong When… answered across twelve extraordinary voices who shared something rare: their receipts, their scars, and their strategies. Together, they offer a masterclass in what it actually looks like to live and lea...

Psychological safety is often treated as a feeling. This episode turns it into a leadership practice you can name, measure, and repeat. In this episode, host Christopher Bylone welcomes Mike Lynch, founder of MJL Consulting Group and author of From Ally to All In, for a human, leadership-credible conversation on belonging in the workplace and what it takes to move from supportive intentions to cre...

Belonging in the workplace is not a slogan. It is the lived experience of being invited, seen, heard, and needed. In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone sits with Dr. Cornell Verdeja-Woodson, former head of DEIB and talent development at Pixar Animation Studios and an organizational change leader. Together, they turn workplace belonging into leadership practices you can r...

You are not alone if you have searched for another word for belong or for synonyms of belonging. You are trying to name the feeling that drives workplace belonging. In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone welcomes Courtney Turich, med tech executive, certified coach, and the voice behind “be bold, be confident, be you,” to give you language for belonging you can use immedi...

When headlines say one thing and lived experience says another, leadership starts with repair. In this episode, host Christopher Bylone sits with Nancy Levine Stearns, journalist and founder of Impactivize, to name what is really happening behind the noise. If you are seeking language for belonging in the workplace, this conversation also delivers it through first-person storytelling and boardroom...

Repair is leadership, and it is how belonging becomes real. In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone sits with Denitresse Ferrell (Deni) to move beyond hope and hustle and into accountable, human-centered innovation that builds trust on purpose. Deni is a culture architect and CEO of Culture Refinery, and her stories give listeners language for belonging that leaders can us...

What if the most radical act of leadership is learning to trust yourself again? In this powerful episode of "I Know I Belong When...", host Christopher Bylone sits with Dr. Jade Singleton, culture strategist, researcher, and systems-change architect, to explore how belonging in the workplace is shaped not only by policies and practices, but also by our inner world. This conversation move...

Belonging at work is not created by good intentions. It is created through decisions, accountability, and everyday actions that either invite people in or push them out. In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone is joined by Stacey Gordon, globally recognized bias disruptor, author of UNBIAS, and a trusted voice in authentic leadership and people experience design. This conv...

Joy is not a distraction from the work of inclusion; joy is the work. In this energizing conversation, Vernon Wall invites leaders to treat joy as protest, community as strategy, and belonging as a practice. From his decades shaping inclusive culture in higher education to real‑time lessons from Semester at Sea, Vernon offers language for belonging that is honest and actionable. Listeners will hea...

What if creating belonging in the workplace begins with a laugh—and a promise to learn your name the way you say it? In this episode of "I Know I Belong When...", Global Head of HR Chris Courneen joins host Christopher Bylone to translate a first-person story into leadership practice. From stagecraft to strategy, Chris shows how humor, trust, and authentic leadership unlock voice and per...

What if feedback felt like care—clear enough to guide, kind enough to grow, and courageous enough to build a sense of belonging at work? In this episode of I Know I Belong When, host Christopher Bylone welcomes Ama Agyapong—the “feedback guru” and “that inclusion lady”—to turn buzzwords into behavior and inclusive culture into daily practice. Through lived experience as an athlete, facilitator, an...