The most important conversation I had with this leadership team was the one no one was excited to have.
While preparing London-based advertising agency, Fold7, for B Corp certification, we ran a materiality assessment designed to surface what really matters, not just what’s easy to talk about.
The results were revealing.
Some topics landed exactly where you’d expect: high stakeholder interest and high influence – clear priorities for action.
- Diversity & inclusion
- Health & wellness
- Monitoring & reducing waste
- Company accountability & transparency
- Employee benefits
These sparked strong alignment across teams. People cared. Leadership felt empowered to act. Momentum followed.
But the real breakthrough came elsewhere.
The assessment also highlighted high influence, low stakeholder interest topics; the ones with significant impact, but far less emotional pull. These are often the hardest conversations for leadership teams to have because they challenge long-standing norms and commercial comfort zones.
- Reducing the impacts of travel
- Screening customers on social & environmental performance
- Screening suppliers on social & environmental performance
At first, the room went quieter.
These topics raised uncomfortable questions:
- How do we embed these new ways of working into our existing culture?
- Where does commercial pragmatism end and accountability begin?
- Are we willing to act before stakeholders start demanding it?
Instead of avoiding the discomfort, Fold7’s leadership leaned into it.
By creating space for honest discussion, grounded in evidence, not judgement, the team moved from uncertainty to ownership. What started as “low interest” became a strategic opportunity: a chance to lead rather than follow.
That courageous conversation unlocked progress.
Not because all the answers were solved in one workshop, but because clarity replaced avoidance, and intent replaced hesitation.
That’s the quiet power of a well-run materiality assessment.
It doesn’t just tell you what matters.
It shows you where leadership is ready to grow.
👏 Credit to Fold7 for doing the brave work, not just the visible work.
[Photo: Fold7 winning multiple Shots awards]
If you’d like to talk about how you could starting having more courageous conversations in your boardroom, contact Camilla Barnes of Better Business. Better World camilla@betterbusinessbetterworld.org
