Chief Change Officer
#173 Greg Morley: Can “Bond” Save Us From an $8.9 Trillion Employee Meltdown? – Part One
Tue, 11 Feb 2025
Greg Morley has helped shape workplace culture at some of the world’s biggest brands, and now he’s here to tell us what’s broken—and how to fix it. In Part 1, he unpacks why belonging isn’t just about good vibes, why Bond is the workplace revolution your company needs, and how ditching outdated DEI efforts can actually drive results. If you think engagement is just another HR buzzword, Greg’s about to change your mind. Key Highlights of Our Interview: The Inspiration Behind the Book “The idea for my first book, Bond, came from a friend’s suggestion that I had an obligation to share my experiences. That idea sparked a journey to explore what it takes for any organization to create a true sense of belonging.” Cutting Through the Noise “In a world polarized by amplified voices on the extremes—whether labeled woke or anti-woke—my focus is on the middle ground. Most people want to feel safe, heard, and valued at work, free from political distractions.” A Sandwich Approach to DEI “Balancing a top-down strategy with grassroots alignment ensures each Maison retains its uniqueness while embracing broader organizational values to drive meaningful DEI outcomes.” Facing the First Challenge: Self-Awareness “The journey began with unconscious bias training for all employees, helping them recognize unintentional biases shaped by upbringing or experience. This laid the groundwork for open, honest conversations about diversity and inclusion.” Leadership Advocacy is Key “There’s nothing more powerful than a CEO advocating for DEI consistently. A strong top-down message, combined with grassroots energy, creates the momentum needed for real change.” _________________________ Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Greg Morley --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Greg Morley and what is his background?
Today, we are joined by Greg Morley, a leader in the world of human resources and a master of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Monette, Tennessee, one of the oldest and largest wine and spirits conglomerates in the world. Greg has an amazing story to share, covering the unique experiences that have shaped his leadership style and his strategic approach to DEI.
Let's explore what we'll uncover today with Greg. First, We'll discover how his early days handling customer complaints at call centers helped him develop empathy, quick thinking, and communication skills that became the cornerstone of his leadership at Disley, Hasbro, and now Monat, Tennessee.
Chapter 2: What shaped Greg Morley's leadership style in DEI?
Next, as we dive into advancing the DEI agenda at Monat, Tennessee, Greg will share how he's been listening intently to the people who embody the heart and soul of the group's businesses, fostering an inclusive culture that's grounded in reality. In our third segment, we'll dive into the complexities of managing DEI across Monet Tennessee's diverse array of brands.
Chapter 3: How does Greg Morley tailor DEI strategies across different brands?
Greg will explain how he tailors the DEI strategies to respect and reflect each brand's unique identity. while aligning with the group's overarching corporate values. Lastly, we certainly can't overlook Greg's upcoming book, Bond. where he shares invaluable lessons on building meaningful connections, not just within the workplace, but in our everyday lives.
It's about fostering a sense of true belonging and deeper inclusion everywhere. So if you are eager to learn how to make your own laws of change and hear from one of the leading voices in human transformation today, you are in the right place. Let's get started.
Thank you, Vince. We had the opportunity to meet at an Out Leadership event in Hong Kong during the Hong Kong Gay Games. So I'm really happy we finally made it happen.
Welcome. I'm very excited to have you on board. You are in the people function with a specific focus on DEI. Can you talk about how your early career experiences shape what you do today? What did you learn back then that still has implications and relevance for you being a people leader with a change enablement mandate?
Chapter 4: What early career experiences influenced Greg Morley's HR approach?
And maybe I can start there as a place to introduce myself. So while I recently relocated to Paris, working for Mellet Hennessy, which is the leading luxury wines and spirits company in the world, part of the LVMH group, I spent prior to that 17 years in Hong Kong. with Moet Hennessy, with Hasbro, and before that, Disney, which is the reason I ended up in Hong Kong.
And I was very pleased to be part of the original organizing committee of the Hong Kong Gay Games, which was the first time Gay Games had come to Asia. And it turned out to be a huge success. with great support from participants and an amazing team of volunteers that made it happen.
I'm originally an American, still an American, but become a bit more of an internationalist, I think, during my career and have now worked outside the U.S. longer than I worked in the U.S.
And way back when started my career in commercial sales and marketing and distribution world, which was a great platform for me to spend then a good bit of my life in HR, in diversity and inclusion, and now on the verge of publishing a book that I've been writing, which I'm quite excited about.
You have been in the people function, in the HR function for long, but then you were in the commercial world for like eight years. Tell us more about your transformation or how your commercial experience prepared you going into the HR area.
Good foundation and good question. The first professional job I had was working in a call center. And there's nothing like working in a call center to prepare yourself to be a good communicator. 80% of the incoming calls were complaints. And so you really had to be able to think quickly and help people solve problems.
When I was in high school and in university during the summer, I used to work in a warehouse pulling orders and preparing orders. And then after my graduation and my call center experience, I worked in an outside sales role for GE, General Electric Company, in different roles.
Why is that very critical to my life now is that I understand things like a supply chain from the very basis of it in a warehouse. I understand what people who work for the companies I work with when they're trying to handle customer complaints, customer issues.
uh solutions i understand what it looks like to be a sales rep with targets and and pressure from your boss about getting things done and sold so those things were helpful to me and i continue to have an appreciation For those people, I like to be out with those team members, even doing my current role in diversity, equity, inclusion, and certainly within HR.
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Chapter 5: Why is leadership advocacy crucial in DEI initiatives?
If I think about when I've had conversations with leaders and they've struggled to build enough competence in their organization or enough experience. depth in their organization to have real success, that's a partnership that we could have together where I can help them. Again, the business is being driven there, not by HR.
HR does play certain roles in an organization, certain control roles, certain investment roles, development roles, hiring roles. All of those are part of creating a dynamic, resilient, evolving organization. And I think the best partnerships are those like I explained when a senior leader can say, on my right hand is one function, but on my other is HR.
Throughout your career life, you've been involved in the DEI efforts at different points in time. Now, at Monette, Tennessee, have your approaches to DEI changed over the years? Are there any big lessons you've picked up along the way?
Sure. If I think about my experience within diversity, equity, and inclusion, even that has changed since I was first involved with diversity at Disney, say 20 years ago, and then leading it for a while at Hasbro. And then of course leading it within my most recent experience in MOA, Tennessee. I would say that my experience was one of learning from my own failures in the past in this space.
Also trying to diagnose over time why in the organizations I worked and in other organizations where we had really not made significant progress over such a long period of time on something that's so fundamental to the business. And I'd start with why is it fundamental to the business? In any business, it's fundamental that your organization understands the consumer, the end user, the client.
And that understanding, I think, comes mainly through the people who are on the front line of the organization working with those clients, consumers. It comes from the people who work in the research part of the organization. It comes from the leaders who are reflective of the markets in which we work. So representation is critical.
And then making sure that when we have a representative company, that people can be fully participating and heard and work in a safe space and really be adding value to the organization. So those things are part of how I sort of, when we started to kick off this effort four years ago in Moet Hennessy, thinking about, okay, how do we get started?
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Chapter 6: How did Greg Morley approach unconscious bias and inclusive policies?
Yeah.
And one of the things that I recognized from my experience and again, some of my failures is you really have to start with the end in mind. So what was it as an organization we were trying to impact positively by becoming more diverse, more inclusive, and more equitable?
And for us, it was creating an organization that was more reflective of our consumers and customers so that we could make sure that as we were growing the business, that was able to scale up because we understand better the consumer and the customer and that we create more of a reason to be in the company. So one could take two different approaches.
One could immediately go out and start saying, okay, I want every profile of every recruitment to have a diverse candidate slate. That's an approach, which we did some of that in some organizations. The other way to go is let's rewire the system. And so we took very much, I would say, a rewire the system.
I mean, making sure that the processes, policies, structures in the organization were prepared to post a more diverse and inclusive workforce. So things like making sure we had domestic partner policies, making sure that we had a relatively clean hiring process that was as free as possible of bias.
making sure that when we were selecting people for development opportunities, it was done in a equitable way, not in a way that maybe there was some bias or unconscious bias. And then making sure that our communication to the whole organization was consistent and thorough about what was happening. And over time, we started to see impact in certain metrics.
The other thing that was critically important in this success story, which is still being written, is to make sure that we had senior leadership, not just supporting, but advocating. There's nothing more powerful than the CEO saying something's important and saying it over and over and over for the rest of the organization to think that must be important if he keeps saying that.
And that created, I would say, a bit of a sandwich. which was we had this top direction from the top, voice at the top, sort of passionate way of speaking of diversity and inclusion. And then we were firing up the organization, so you had a bit of a grassroots energy as well.
In advancing the DEI agenda, can you describe the initial challenges and strategies your firm faced? How did you begin to tackle issues like, for example, unconscious bias and change company policies to be more techoli-inclusive, rather than using DEI simply as part of corporate branding jargon?
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