“The Art and Science of Belonging and Understanding” with Saiyyidah Zaidi

Please Note: This event is open to anyone with an interest in Business Coaching and/or Leadership Development.

Please Note: This is a live experiential experience. In order to fully benefit please come with your video turned on, in a stationary space (not driving or on the move) and ready to contribute to the conversation. A workbook will be provided to those who attend. Please bring something to take notes in what is potentially a life changing experience.

“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance. Belonging is helping to choose the music. Understanding is knowing that you won’t like all the music… and still staying at the party.” — Saiyyidah Zaidi (the first sentence was said by Verna Myers, the second sentence’s source is unknown. Saiyyidah built on it and added understanding).

Saiyyidah Zaidi (say-ee-dah zay-dee) is changing the conversation in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) space in the UK, Europe, and USA. Her unique methodology is based on decades of lived experience, doctoral research on identity and intersectionality and human connection.

Saiyyidah is a firm believer that ‘words create worlds’ and that by considering the language of conversations in the DEI space we are able to use connection as the departure point rather than difference. The simplicity of this approach and Saiyyidah’s methodology has been able to create tangible behaviour —and perspective—change for individuals and organisations in a way that is unprecedented.

In this 2-hour workshop Saiyyidah will facilitate a space where we explore why it is important for us as individuals, the places we are in, and the world to cultivate a space for belonging and understanding that creates psychological safety in a manner that individuals are able to be ‘all in.’

Saiyyidah says: ‘When it comes to thinking, reflecting, or pondering on race, diversity, inclusion, belonging, identity—insert word of your choice here— it can be sensitive, challenging, require vulnerability. And it may be something easier to avoid. Yet you are here. For that I applaud you.

Like you, I am on a journey, we all are a work in progress. l remind you—as I remind myself— not to get too comfortable, and not to get so uncomfortable that you want to disengage from the work. I hope to see you at the workshop.’

Saiyyidah Zaidi (pronounced say-ee-dah, meaning female leader) is an experienced coach, facilitator, and supervisor working internationally and across sectors. She qualified as an Architect at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and went on to have a successful career in local government where she was director of a £300m regeneration and construction project before she left. A passionate learner, Saiyyidah graduated from The Meyler Campbell Mastered programme in 2011 and qualified as a Certified High Performance Coach with the High Performance Institute in 2014.

She is a passionate and consummate learner with two Masters degrees with distinctions including one in Applied Positive Psychology and is currently in the final stages of her doctorate in identity and intersectionality, where issues of power, inclusion, diversity, belonging and understanding are critically analysed.

Saiyyidah is motivated by knowing that with the right strategies, tools, and coaching the ability to seize untapped potential exists, and the ability to do extraordinary things is available to anyone. She believes coaching is a partnership where she is the guide enabling individuals and organisations to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, and to use that as the foundation to achieve in alignment with their values.

Saiyyidah has travelled the world with her husband and two children before returning to live in her native North London.

Saiyyidah is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management, the only non-Christian Trustee and Committee Member of the British and Irish Association for Practical Theology, and a Tutor and Faculty Member with Meyler Campbell.

*Please note that this is a live experiential experience. In order to fully benefit please come with your video turned on, in a stationary space (not driving or on the move) and ready to contribute to the conversation. A workbook will be provided to those who attend. Please bring something to take notes in what is potentially a life changing experience.