Are you looking to build a workplace culture with a certain buzz about it? Where employees are thriving and engagement survey scores are through the roof? Where people from different backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations and identities, ages, and abilities are hired and set up for success?

One secret to creating this kind of vibrant and supportive workplace is practicing active allyship. With the Better Allies® approach, it’s something anyone can do, not just people who have “diversity,” “inclusion,” or “belonging” in their job title.

Illustration of the torso of a person wearing a blue suit and red tie, holding a business card that reads Inclusion is a job for everyone, not just for people with diversity inclusion or belonging on their business card. www.betteallies.com.

There are myriad everyday actions you can take to be a better ally. Karen Catlin has three books to help show you the way:

Better Allies

Photo of the Better Allies book, which has a white background and a large yellow sticky note that reads everyday actions to create inclusive, engaging workplaces

The highly-acclaimed, practical guide for how to be an ally in the workplace, now in its 2nd edition.

In this book, you’ll learn to spot situations where you can create a more inclusive culture, along with straightforward steps to take. Karen Catlin will walk you through how to be a better ally, including:

  • Attracting and hiring a diverse workforce
  • Cultivating an environment where coworkers feel welcome, respected, and supported
  • Amplifying and advocating for others
  • Giving effective and equitable performance feedback
  • Using more inclusive language
  • Running inclusive conferences and events

Level-up your ally skills using the Better Allies® approach and create a culture where everyone can do their best work and thrive.

Buy the book

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Belonging in Healthcare

Photo of the Belonging in Healthcare book, which has a light blue background and a stethoscope

Inclusive workplace expert Karen Catlin brings her popular Better Allies® approach to healthcare workplaces.

Belonging in Healthcare provides a practical, research-based guide for how to be a better ally for coworkers who are from underrepresented groups. Filled with firsthand accounts from nurses, physicians, staff, administrators, and professors, combined with published studies, the book will help you spot situations where you can create a more inclusive workplace and everyday actions to take so everyone can thrive.

This is the book that allies in healthcare have been searching for: an industry-specific guide to the mindsets, strategies, and changes needed to make their workplaces more equitable from the inside out.

Buy the book

The Better Allies Approach to Hiring

Photo of the Better Allies Approach to Hiring book, which has a red background and a collection of white gears in different sizes

Building on the momentum of Better Allies, Karen Catlin has created this helpful hiring guide filled with best practices to recruit and hire people from underrepresented ethnicities and genders, with non-traditional educational backgrounds, with gaps on their resumes, or from older generations. With examples, stories, checklists, rubrics, and guidelines galore, this unique tool will help you transform your hiring process to attract and retain diverse applicants.

Read this guidebook for actionable steps you can take to fill your pipeline with candidates from underrepresented groups and ensure you have an inclusive interview process that paves the way to a more diverse workforce.

Buy the book

Praise for Better Allies

Better Allies demystifies the work of allyship in an actionable, approachable, and blame-free way. The book introduces key concepts necessary to effective allyship with concrete examples and case studies, and offers a myriad of positive actions we can all take on our journey to be better allies in our workplace and our personal lives.” —Caroline Simard, PhD, Managing Director, Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab


“Calling all allies! Here is your one-stop manual for becoming better as an advocate, champion, and ally for marginalized colleagues in the workplace. Catlin’s rich experience as an executive in the tech world infuses each of her immensely practical allyship strategies with deep wisdom from the trenches. Not sure where to start? Catlin demystifies allyship with proven workplace actions from a host of everyday allies. This amazing book is both an invitation and a roadmap to every person and organization committed to making the workplace fully inclusive. More, Better Allies is a gift to everyone who truly wants to be a better human being at work.” —Brad Johnson, PhD and David G. Smith, PhD, authors of Athena Rising and Good Guys


“As businesses continue to focus on local and global expansion, I believe success lies in seeking and embracing differing cultural perspectives. The first step is to have a workforce which is reflective of their target customer. By including and advocating for people of all genders, cultures and lifestyles, and ensuring they are reflected in all levels of the company from the board room to the mail room, businesses will develop a practice of empathy and understanding which will translate into more meaningful connections, thus products and services people believe in. Better Allies paves a road to this success. ” —Steve Johnson, Vice President of Experience Design and Innovation, Netflix


“Some people have it harder than you at work. This is just true. Get over it. And, yes, there are many permutations of this dynamic involving class, color, race, sexual orientation and a few thousand other ways people are different from each other. We tend to not notice it, or not do anything about it, at least partly because we’re not sure what to do. Fortunately, we now have Better Allies. It’s incredibly complete and packed with practical advice to help you start to make a difference in your organization.” —Joe Dunn, Executive Coach and Radical Candor Guru


“As a global business strategist with a plural board career, I am passionate regarding how imperative it is in today’s world that companies must sharpen their competitive advantage by attracting and retaining top talent. Better Allies is a thoughtful and insightful book, offering a toolkit of meaningful, actionable ideas for the reader of how to create a meaningful and engaging workplace.” —Eugenia Ulasewicz, former President, Burberry Americas


“I tore through Better Allies, and you will too. Karen Catlin has brought clarity to the challenges underrepresented people face at work. Read this book if you want advice on how to be a better ally, on how to create a more inclusive culture, and on how to increase your competitive advantage around hiring and retaining talent.” —Norm Meyrowitz, former President of Products, Macromedia


“Karen Catlin has created an accessible, practical everyday guide to becoming a better ally. Whether you are just starting out or you’ve been an ally for years, everyone can learn something new from this terrific book.” —Elizabeth Ames, CEO, Women In Product


“Ever found yourself wondering ‘How can I better support diversity and inclusion in the workplace?’ In Better Allies, Karen Catlin breaks it down and helps to guide the conversation. This book is just the beginning of a grassroots movement. And it’s going to help make a big difference to workplaces everywhere.” —Brad ArkinChief Security and Trust Officer, Cisco


“Navigating today’s business landscape requires everyone to build their ability to support colleagues and coach others. This book will give you valuable insights and practical advice on being a better ally. It’s an eye-opening, powerful approach.” —Tom Hale, President, SurveyMonkey


Better Allies is an important book for outcome-focused executives, however we classify ourselves. As someone who mentors a broad set of up-and-coming product managers and product leaders, I see every day how urgently we need to widen our lenses to spot emerging talent we’ve often overlooked – even as so many product leadership roles remain unfilled. Karen Catlin provides a range of actionable, motivating, effective tools for growing more diverse teams so that we can deliver more successful products. Better Allies can help each of us be better allies.” —Rich Mironov, startup CEO and author of The Art of Product Management


“As men, we have a whole lot of privilege. And we can use that privilege to open doors and bring more diversity into ‘the room where it happens.’ In Better Allies, you’ll learn practical steps to do exactly that and create a more inclusive workplace. Be a better man and read this book now.” —Ray Arata, Co-Founder Inclusionary Leadership Group


Praise for Belonging in Healthcare

“The vital need to diversify our healthcare workforce has been palpable for a long time. Now, through Karen Catlin’s research and stories, we have a practical guide that can help get us there.” —Eric Topol, MD, Author DEEP MEDICINE, Professor, Scripps Research


“Ms. Catlin did her research when taking on the healthcare industry after tech. I applaud her attention to the lack of racial and ethnic representation of frontline professionals and the need for white healthcare workers to practice allyship with their colleagues of color. What is especially concerning is the persistent elimination of diverse talent from the medical workforce at a time when retention should be of paramount importance to mitigate an impending workforce shortage, eliminate healthcare disparities and optimize public health.” —Pringl Miller, MD FACS, Founder and Executive Director of Physician Just Equity


Belonging in Healthcare is more than a great book; it’s a clarion call to action. Karen Catlin is a shoulder angel with practical advice for the privileged in healthcare to sponsor, champion, amplify, and advocate for their colleagues with less access. The book is a must read, and being a better ally is a must do. We can’t hope to tackle inequity and disparities in health outcomes for patients without fostering inclusive workplaces for those who care for them.” —Murray Brozinsky, CEO of Conversa Health (now part of Amwell)


“In Belonging in Healthcare, Karen Catlin offers a wealth of poignant observations and practical advice that anyone who works in a healthcare-related field can use to make their work environments more welcoming and inclusive to our patients, students, and colleagues. This is a powerful book that is full of wisdom about issues that can often be difficult to discuss, while also leaving the reader feel inspired and equipped to help address those same challenges.” —Kyle Pusateri, MA, MPH, Chief Operating Officer, Global Brain Health Institute


Belonging in Healthcare is an important read for all healthcare leaders seeking to understand how to shift the workplace culture to one of inclusivity and belonging.” —Resa E. Lewiss, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Radiology, Founder of The Visible Voices podcast


“This book reminds us that there is a subtle but critically important distinction between being a ‘knight’ and being an ally. In the healthcare industry, being an ally is more than just a moral imperative; it could quite literally be a matter of life and death.” —Dawn Haut, MD, Leader of a large federally qualified health center (FQHC)


Karen Catlin’s Belonging in Healthcare shows the importance of allyship in healthcare and then points the way for each of us. Being an ally is a continuous journey of learning and taking action for change, and this book shares practical ways to sponsor others in their careers, expand our networks, improve hiring, make the workplace more inclusive, and more.” —Philip Welkhoff, PhD, Director at a global philanthropic foundation

About the Author

Photo of Karen wearing a Better Allies vest on the Golden Gate Bridge

Karen Catlin is an acclaimed author and speaker on inclusive workplaces. After spending 25 years building software products and serving as a vice president of engineering at Macromedia and Adobe, she witnessed a sharp decline in the number of women working in tech. Frustrated but galvanized, she knew it was time to switch gears.

In 2014, Karen started the Twitter handle @betterallies to share simple, actionable steps that anyone could take to make their workplaces more inclusive. That handle became the inspiration for her three books, Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces (2019), The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring (2020), and Belonging in Healthcare (2022). She also emails a roundup of 5 Ally Actions to her newsletter subscribers every Friday.

In addition to speaking about her books, Karen coaches women to be stronger leaders and men to be better allies for members of all underrepresented groups. Her client roster includes Airbnb, DoorDash, Google, eBay, and Intuit. Her writing on leadership has appeared in Inc., the Daily BeastFast Company, and the Muse, and she’s consulted on articles for the Wall Street JournalForbes, and the New York Times.

Karen is a graduate and active alum of Brown University. She’s also a member of the board of directors of Digital NEST and on the advisory boards for the Women’s CLUB of Silicon Valley and WEST (Women Entering & Staying in Technology). In 2015, the California State Assembly honored Karen with the Wonder Women Tech Innovator Award for outstanding achievements in business and technology and for being a role model for women.

Speaking

A self-professed public speaking geek, Karen is a highly sought-after, engaging presenter who has delivered talks at hundreds conferences and corporate events. She speaks on a variety of topics including Better Allies and women in leadership. Her TEDx talk, Women in Tech: The Missing Force, explores the decline in gender diversity in tech, why it’s a problem, and what can be done about it.

In addition to speaking herself, Karen is determined to change the ratio for who is on stage, giving keynotes and other presentations. To support her goal of bringing more diversity to speaker lineups at tech industry events, she coauthored Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking with Poornima Vijayashanker.

To find out more about Karen, including her talks and workshops on Better Allies, visit her website at karencatlin.com.

For speaking engagements and all other inquiries, contact us at info@betterallies.com.

Karen’s speaker reel