Start with a \”WHY\”

Hello,

The summer holidays have just got over and it was a great time to unwind, travel and simply relax. It was also a valuable time to take a break from our daily routine, & reflect on how we can reinvent, build skills as well as bring our originality or creative self to the work we do everyday. This is exactly what we have been doing at Biz Divas.

As Biz Divas furthers its standing as a thought leader and facilitator of diversity in workplace, we look forward to bringing new programs and partnerships for supporting the case of diversity as a Business Agenda. Since our last issue of newsletter, we have released our assessment tool in “Unconscious Bias – Know your Blind Spots tool\”, in association with our Mentor & partner Dr. Helen Turnbull. This tool has received many positive responses and has helped many organizational leaders to address unconscious bias in a more effective manner.

Am also thrilled to kickstart our 2016 batch of Mentoring program in July. This is an award winning Cross Industry Mentoring Program which has been running successfully since 2013 with more than 50+ corporates, 75+ mentors and 150+ mentees participating over the years. Our team has been working on it every year to make it more robust and effective.

This year, we also relaunched our initiative “Women on Boards” which is going to be headed by my partner Ranjana Deopa who also leads our Diversity Hiring initiative. This is primarily to support, connect and bring visibility to the work of senior women who are or aspire to be on boards. Research has time and again proved that organisations with diverse talent have performed much better than their counterparts. But then the question arises “Why is that we still don’t see enough women in Boardrooms?” or “Why are some organisations more successful in their Diversity agenda?’ Or “Why are some organisations resisting the change or make their diversity agenda sustainable?’

I recently had the pleasure of addressing Senior Leaders in MNC firm on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. While order zithromax azithromycin india introducing the concept, I asked the question to the team – “Why are we doing this? Why is it important to have diversity and most importantly to have an inclusive organization?”
The most common reasons tend to focus on ideas and issues such as “the right thing to do,” “complying with laws “and “competing for talent.” However, when you compare those responses to key business goals and challenges generally listed by CEOs, such as business growth, expanding market share and improving productivity, you can clearly see a disconnect. Most people don’t change, or willingly go along with change, because the change is “the right thing to do.” They do it if there is an important reason to change. Businesses don’t generally change their corporate cultures so that they retain women because doing so is nice for women. They do it if there is a compelling business reason to do so.
Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. Hence we see a sporadic interest in corporates to “do the right thing” and launch their diversity program- (mostly around International Women’s Day). But then disappointment is expected as it fails to inspire people to make it sustainable. Some of the questions which needs to be answered by every organization before they embark on Diversity Journey:

• Does diversity actually benefit organisations and drive return on investment (ROI)?
• How will we be able to demonstrate that diversity contributes to the organisation’s bottom line?
• How do we show senior executives and others that diversity is a strategic partner that is aligned and linked to the strategic goals and objectives of the organization?

So before we kickstart any diversity initiatives, my suggestion would be to find your compelling business reason to have “diversity” in your organization. It provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. And it all Starts with WHY.

Keep Inspiring!
Sarika Bhattacharya
@BizDivasIndia