Wide Angle Conversations: DEI Talks

Hosted by Taruna Aggarwal

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Mar 2024

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Wide Angle Conversations: DEI Talks are meaningful conversations with champions and advocates of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and those who are committed to bringing about a positive change in their sphere of influence. Our increasingly diverse yet connected world must shift towards being empathetic and inclusive. Building a culture of inclusion is an imperative for the future of work; a focus on building Inclusive Cultures will enable organisations and individuals to leverage diverse perspectives and thought processes to power innovation and thrive in the BANI world. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a multidimensional, multilayered and complex topic. I believe to be truly a DEI advocate, champion and change-maker one has to value empathy, fairness and equality and be truly human-centric. DEI at workplaces will becomes easier if we focus on building an inclusive, fair and equitable society. This for me brings social inclusion, wellbeing, youth empowerment, culture, corporate responsibility and sustainability under the purview of DEI. And these are the topics that Wide Angle Conversations will bring to you. Wide Angle Conversations is an initiative of Life by Design with Taruna Aggarwal

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6 recent

March 5, 202439 min

Sujata Tiwari | Author: Against All Odds | Singapore | International Women's Day 2024

Welcome to Wide Angle Conversations DEI Talks. I am your host Taruna Aggarwal, an Executive and Life Coach. My passion is to empower youth and young adults with a Mental Fitness level that will help them to navigate life and impact positive change for the wellbeing of our people and our planet.My guest in this episode is Sujata Tiwari, an entrepreneur, a Life Mentor, Speaker and Author, based in Singapore. She has had a varied career journey from Journalism to Investigation Detection and Surveillance Consultant, Brand Protection and anti-counterfeiting specialist. She is the author of Amazon bestselling book 'Against all Odds' an autobiography of her life journey full of challenges no one should have to face. From being stalked by a mafia don as a young mother to the worst nightmare of her daughter's rape and the gruelling court case which the family fought for over 6years in India.This is not an ordinary book it is an inspiration. Sujata wrote about what others would keep silent about. Her courage, vulnerability and authenticity reflects in every page of her book, and gives the reader courage and hope. She motivates us to speak-up against any injustice or abuse at work, home or society level. Life does not come with any manual and there is no erasing anything, one has to live with whatever life throws at us, what makes the difference is how we choose to deal with it. Only courage, grit, determination, self-belief and persistence can enable us to live true to our values.

February 3, 202443 min

Fida Muljono | Indonesia | 'Distortion Of Reality' Among Youth |

Welcome to Wide Angle Conversations DEI talks, I am your host Taruna Aggarwal. I am an Executive and Life Coach. My passion is to empower youth and young adults with a Mental Fitness level that will help them to navigate life and impact positive change for the wellbeing of our people and our planet. Coaching is a powerful tool and must be recognised as a profession that can support mental wellbeing and help prevent mental health issues.I am in conversation today with Fida Muljono. Fida is based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She too is committed to nurturing the mental well-being of the younger generation, aiding them in building their true selves. Fida is a parenting and intercultural coach with a rich background in psychology and anthropology. She has dedicated three decades to transformative work in her field. Her expertise extends to working with teens and young adults, both individually and within diverse settings such as schools, institutions, and companies. Simultaneously, she empowers adults, reinforcing their resilience and guiding them towards becoming robust individuals in the face of life's challenges. Her profound impact on individuals and communities reflects her steady dedication to fostering mental health and personal growth in a dynamic world.In this episode, we are going to talk about the 'distortion of reality' among youth from teens to 30s in an increasingly BANI world (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear and Incomprehensible) world, how it impacts their mental wellbeing, the factors that are causing it, and how we can support our youth towards being more aware and develop a positive and flexible mindset to navigate life. This conversations is relevant to the youth, parents, schools, organizations, coaches and para professionals supporting mental wellbeing.

December 17, 202346 min

Dr. Frances Penafort | MCC Coach | Author, 'I'll Never Walk Alone' | Malaysia

I first met Dr. Frances Penafort in 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is a fellow coach, trainer and consultant . Over the years we have been on our individual journeys, however her transformation since 2022 has been noteworthy. Today she calls herself “Unstoppable Frances”, a huge transformation from the shy, not so confident small town girl, growing up in an environment where she had to curb her voice and her potential. What triggered the transformation? The start point was when she gave in to the 'Inner Voice/Inner Mentor/Inner Coach' that nudged her constantly to go on the Camino de Santiago a 100km solo walk in July 2022. We will hear that motivating story from her - her fear, her blocks, her perfect plan, the challenges faced and her transformation in that moment when she stood at the entrance of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Frances wrote her book 'I’ll Never Walk Alone' about her solo walk in 3 -4 months and launched it in New York at a Women's Empowerment Conference that she was invited to speak at in July 2023! In the book she outlines the Blueprint for Success that we can apply to our lives and circumstances. Frances is the first and only lady MCC in Malaysia to have an ICF accredited Coaching School. She is Director at GPS for Professional PLT, Director of Education at Frances' Coaching School. She is an International Keynote Speaker. And You will realize what an amazing story-teller she is as you listen to the episode.#wideangleconversations #DEItalks #coaching #empowerment #breakingbarriers

November 6, 202339 min

Shilpa Rao | Neurodiverse Inclusion, Innovation and Intrapreneurship | TCS | India

Welcome to Wide Angle Conversations DEI Talks!This episode is all about neurodiverse workforce, intrapreneurship and innovation and the value this brings to organizations.My conversation today with Shilpa Rao, Principal Partner at Purpose Institute, Tata Consulting Services (TCS), India. Shilpa drives purpose led transformations in Healthcare and Energy. Before this she was the head of AI platforms , where she earned 35+ patents, showcasing the transformative power of AI in reshaping industries and catalyzing multi-billion dollar growth while upholding core values. She is the recipient of Stevie American Business Award, AI Conics, Data Breakthrough, and AI Excellence. She is active in championing women in data and sits on Able Aura's advisory board. Shilpa is a recognized advocate for dyslexia awareness. A dyslexic herself, Shilpa has proven to be a 'serial innovator' in life driven by the passion to succeed and leverage her strengths to make a genuine positive difference to others.In this episode Shilpa shares her story to bring hope and strength to the neurodiverse community. She highlights the unique strengths of resilience, adaptability and creativity that is inherent in the community. Intrapreneurship and innovation requires these very skills, organizations need to tap into these strengths to thrive in the Future of Work. Shilpa highlights the importance of building inclusive cultures where an employee can bring their whole self and feel a sense of belonging. Such an environment has a direct impact on employee motivation, engagement and productivity.

October 2, 202344 min

Vinceya Xavier Edwin | Breaking Systemic Generational Poverty through Education | India

This is the story of a little girl from the lowest socio-economic strata, born in Lingarajapuram, a slum in Bangalore India. She was destined a life of extreme poverty, violence and deprivation until everything changed at a tender age of 3 1/2 years, when her father, without the knowledge of her mother, left her at the residential school Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, providing education, home and security exclusively to children born into India's lowest socioeconomic class. The NGO is working to eradicate systemic generational poverty through quality education since 1997. Their philosophy is that one underserved child, given the same opportunities as a privileged child, can break the cycle of generational poverty for themselves, their family and community. Their graduates are authors, psychologists, computer scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, teachers and more.My guest Vinceya Xavier Edwin is a graduate of Shanti Bhawan, MBA from MIT Sloan Business School of Management and currently Inclusion Program Manager at Google. The podcast is about Vinceya, how she coped with separation, how she took many years to accept her identity and be able to feel pride in where she comes from, her personal struggle as she stepped out from a nurturing, protected environment into the real world harsh, full of distractions, non-linear and anxious. She draws our attention to the critical need for a focus on youth mental wellbeing. She talks about DEI agendas of organizations, concentrating their efforts only on a few areas like gender, disability, race. She believes Diversity and Inclusion is multidimensional, with every geography and culture having layers of unique issues that need to be tackled.Vinceya feels deep gratitude for the opportunity and lives by the values imbibed at Shanti Bhawan - a resolve to impact lives and make a difference. She has already moved her family out of Lingarajapuram, she is supporting her cousins and other children in her community, sponsoring a child and has the lofty vision to impact many more lives. She is a role model, an agent of change and the future of our world!

September 3, 202330 min

Aarti Kelshikar | Author | How Women Work - Fitting in and Standing Out in Asia | India

Welcome to Wide Angle Conversations - DEI talks. I am your host Taruna Aggarwal. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is a multidimensional, multi layered and complex topic. I believe to be truly a DEI advocate, champion and change-maker one has to value empathy, fairness and equality and be truly human centric. DEI at the workplace will becomes easier if we focus on building an inclusive, fair and equitable society. This for me brings, social inclusion, wellbeing, youth empowerment, culture, corporate responsibility and sustainability under the wider purview of DEI. And these are the topics that Wide Angle Conversations podcast will bring to you. My guest for this episode is Aarti Kelshikar, an intercultural consultant and coach with over fifteen years of work experience in India, Singapore, and the Philippines. She is the author of two books. Her first book - How India Works talks about Complex Corporate Culture in India and how best to navigate it. Her second book How Women Work – Fitting in and Standing Out in Asia, is an insight into the world of women leadership with a Pan-Asia lens that has hardly been covered so far. She has interviewed over 60 women leaders from six different countries in Asia, capturing a diversity of voices, the cultural nuances, the challenges faced and how they thrive, balancing fitting in and standing out. A must-read book for all and before I get carried away let’s talk to Aarti.