ABOUT ME
Dr. Joanne Conway
Making the unwritten rules visible
"The rules aren't secret because people are hiding them. They're secret because no one thought to explain them."
— Dr. Joanne Conway
MY STORY
I was born in Burnley to Irish parents and grew up working class on council estates first in Dublin, then London. I had free school meals throughout my childhood, and some of my happiest memories come from those years. I also saw, first-hand, how hard life can be when the system isn't built with you in mind.
I share this openly because it's made me who I am and because none of us should have to hide parts of who we are. It's also the reason I care about how opportunity actually works.
I left school at 17 and went straight into work: retail, customer service, and a string of jobs that taught me how to read people and situations. In my mid 20s I was literally spotted while working in a petrol station and recruited into a call‑centre sales role. That job was my first step into professional services and into a world with different expectations, signals and pathways. I learned to navigate both worlds, often by figuring out the rules as I went.
All my formal education happened while I worked full time. I completed a degree in psychology with the Open University, studied for a master’s in HR at night school, and carried out doctoral research part time. That mix of lived experience and rigorous study shapes how I work: practical, grounded in evidence, and relentlessly focused on what helps people move forward. I do this work because I’ve seen how small, invisible rules change lives and because I believe leaders can change those rules for the better.
What this means for your organisation
The value is simple: I can see the unwritten rules because I had to learn them the hard way, and I can explain them in language your leaders will act on. I bring the research to prove it, and twenty years inside complex global organisations to make it land. So the work is never abstract. It is about the specific people you are at risk of losing, and what it takes to keep them.
Speaker information
Biography (150 words)
Dr Joanne Conway is the founder of Joanne Conway Consulting and creator of the Rules of the Game framework, which makes visible the unwritten rules that shape who progresses and who stalls. Her own working-class route into professional services first showed her how much career success turns on knowing things nobody writes down. So she went and studied it properly: doctoral research at Cranfield School of Management with 45 senior partners across global law and accountancy firms, producing 309 reasons in their own words and the insight at the heart of her work, that what matters is not whether people learn the rules, but when. After two decades in professional services, across finance and the cultural sector, she now works with major firms on why some people progress faster than others, and what to do about it. She is a Research Fellow at the Bridge Group and a Strategic Advisor to The 93% Club.
Short biography (85 words)
Dr Joanne Conway is the founder of Joanne Conway Consulting and creator of the Rules of the Game framework, developed from her doctoral research into the unwritten rules of career progression and shaped by her own working-class route into professional services. Drawing on research with 45 senior partners across global professional services firms, her work helps organisations understand why some people progress faster than others, and what to do about it. She is a Research Fellow at the Bridge Group and a Strategic Advisor to The 93% Club.
Talks
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What really decides who progresses
The five things that decide it, and how to measure them in your firm. -
It isn't whether you know the rules, it's when
What 45 partners said, and what to tell your people earlier. -
The cost of navigating two worlds
The tax your best people are paying, and what leaders can do about it. -
The class ceiling is made of unwritten rules
Where those rules sit in your organisation, and how to write them down.