I was recently invited to be a panellist at
a NASSCOM event on Diversity & Inclusion in connection with its relevance to the development
of a leadership pipeline.
As I prepared for the event, I realised that there were so many questions it raised because we rarely explore its deeper dimensions. I thought I would share them and invite other perspectives,questions and comments so that we could all reflect on this.
Here are the questions that I grappled with
and searched for answers to:
- What can corporates do to improve both diversity and inclusion in their organisations? What benefits would accrue if they did invest the time, effort and resources to have more diverse and inclusive organisations?
- Is top leadership ready to commit itself to being held accountable for this or do they see that as HR's job? Can they do this with credibility unless there is adequate diversity at the top?
- Is diversity really a top of mind topic for Indian organisations? Or is this only the concern of those who have connections with the larger world outside India?
- Why do we make such a big deal about the absence of diversity in corporate India? Is that because corporates do not adequately reflect the rich diversity that exists in our country? Have they at all attempted to do so? Should they, particularly given all the other challenges, priorities and complexities?
- What about inclusion? Why do we talk about diversity and inclusion in the same breath? Does the existence of one necessarily mean the existence of the other? Is it not possible that we have diversity but no inclusion? Or people feeling included, without there being adequate diversity?
- In an increasingly VUCA world , our natural instinct would be to surround ourselves with people like us, not people unlike us! Yet legislation and business compulsions demand diversity and inclusion. How do we resolve these contradictory pulls and pushes in a wholesome manner?
- People are also the products of the environments they grow up in and the messages and role models they experience. India, for all the progress we have made in so many areas, is still largely a patriarchal and strata conscious society. What memories and experiences do we have, as individuals, about these aspects of living and working together? How does that conditioning affect efforts at the buy-in for diversity and inclusion?
- Can organisations change the conditioning and mind-sets of their employees or the families and communities they come from? Do organisations have a role in changing societal or cultural practices and norms? Should corporates even think about playing a role in society beyond providing income and wealth to their stakeholders?
