Prior to the “I Inspire” event, we conducted another tweet chat discussing about the spread of diversity and celebrating and accepting the diverse society. We had three very known personalities and organizations to participate in the discussion.
Our first guest was the organization Safecity who crowdsources personal sexual harassment stories in public spaces, our next guest was Rashmi Mandloi who is the managing partner and head of D&I Practices at BeyondDiversity Foundation, our third guest was Ruchi Bhatia who was enlisted in the 40 under 40 HR leader and is one of the top 10 HR Influencer Recognized by SHRM.
Unconscious Bias & its negative impact
Our tweet chat session took off by discussing about the results of unconscious bias in Organizations and how it is agreed to be a negative impact in the development of an organizations. Everyone agreed upon the fact that it brings a negative impact in the organizations and has shared their own opinions and thoughts regarding to it.
Rashmi Mandloi tweeted, “absolutely. The cost of exclusion due to bias can impact performance, creativity and team collaboration. It is bound to reflect in the bottom line.”
Womenite tweeted : “definitely yes! Stereotyping a particular group, sect or gender affects the organization as a whole as you miss out on the talents and inputs of so many important people”
Safecity tweeted : “Definitely! It sets the culture and tone for what is acceptable and what isn’t as the juniors observe and absorb the work culture and try to fit in”
Devikaa Mathur tweeted: “Yes it does have a negative impact. On not getting equal chance to grow or not getting appreciated even after working hard can affect few people really bad and they may enter into depression.”
Stereotypes preventing the inclusion of Diverse thought & action
The next discussion was about the stereotypes and practices that prevents anyone celebrating diversity and everyone were asked to share some of the stereotypes that prevents the celebration. Everyone shared their thoughts and discussed some stereotypes which included segregation of tasks and some social causes such as caste, class etc.
Safecity tweeted: “Stereotypes based on class, caste, economic group, religion, ethnic background, education all affect how the people in an organisation feel. Differences should be acknowledged, accepted and celebrated”
Rashmi Mandloi tweeted, there are many, but the biggest of them is in the name of ‘Culture fit’ – the fitness quotient can range from bias in hiring, industry exposure, relevance on experience leading to embracing people similar instead of fresh thoughts & ideas. #iinspire19 #ipledgeinclusion
Leverage of diversity in the workforce of an organization
The next discussion was on, how organizations are benefited in the workforce by diversity and inclusion and how is it getting better. Everyone mentioned about inclusion in all sectors in the organization and sharing ideas and thoughts and mixing employees into teams for projects.
Sarika Bhattacharyya tweeted: “Building inclusion and creating an open culture with sharing of ideas and listening to diverse perspectives can lead to innovation. That’s the best way to leverage diverse workforce”
Ruchi Angrish tweeted: “If we have a diverse group of people in the organisation, then it can benefit by including everyone in the discussions, planning process, having diversity means different ideas, thought process, comes forward. Make sure every employee have a sense of belonging”
Challenges of unconscious bias trainings in organizations
The Final discussion was about the different challenges faced during the training process of averting unconscious bias and how it could be averted. Everyone shared their opinions and thoughts which comprises most of difficulty in changing habits and unwillingness to take up the facts of diversity.
Rashmi Mandloi tweeted, organisations just do the trainings at the top and there is no or very fluid plans to take it down across the hieracrchy
Ruchi Angrish tweeted: “During unconscious bias training people don’t accept that they are exhibiting bias towards others, People don’t want to change their habits. Usually training happen for one or two days. You can’t change a person’s behavior in one training. Companies need to keep checks”
Safecity tweeted: “Denial, unwillingness to accept the fact that such biases exist and are detrimental to others”
Conclusion
The Twitter chat session ended with lots of ideas and thoughts shared about how diversity and inclusion is celebrated and how it is being prevailed in workplaces and organizations and thoughts and opinions on aversion of unconscious bias in diversity in the organization.
