On November 23rd UWC Adriatic students had a chance to attend a webinar organized by UWC Mahindra alumna Pooja Shahani, founder of consulting agency Kintsugi Consulting – Spaces in Between, former Head of Diversity and Inclusion (India), for leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm Goldman Sachs. The webinar provided a multi-layered approach to the theme of inclusion. The topic was introduced through some observations about intentionality, which must always be the starting point of projects aiming to enhance inclusion – which may take some time to be implemented.
Another starting point was the acronym VUCA, that was used for the first time in 1987 by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus in their leadership theories to state the influence of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in the challenges we face. Pooja’s webinar was meant to induce a change of paradigm for what concerned this acronym, so that students could imagine how to turn the volatility of events into occasions to show genuine vulnerability, to engage with others; uncertainty into understanding, to empathize with the others and their necessities; complexity into occasions to show the courage of follow new paths; ambiguity into accountability, to analyze their own actions critically and be aware of their duties.
Our students were encouraged to reflect upon themselves (personal level), on the impact that different environments and locations have on our perception of the outer world as humans, on the cognitive bias and prejudices that tend to limit us and on their personal accountability in the first place. They were then encouraged to consider the dimension of relationships with others (interpersonal level), in order for them to learn how to consciously exploit communication strategies that create new spaces for sharing. In this sense, the workshop gave importance to clear communication, seeking deep connection with others, empathising with them, showing flexibility and being inclusive through the creation of safe spaces for classmates, colleagues and partners – spaces where they will feel free to express themselves without fearing discrimination or mistrust.
The webinar ended with a focus on systemic inclusion (systemic level). Indeed, Pooja illustrated how social change for inclusion can only be accomplished significantly when the different layers (individual, organisational and systemic) meet and find an intersection. Pooja also illustrated the answers to a brief questionnaire that the students had been encouraged to fill in prior to the online event – questions that carried meaning for issues that have been discussed in tutorial groups and will continue to feed reflections and discussions throughout this academic year.
