In this episode, we speak to Sejal Thakkar. Dubbing herself "Chief Civility Officer", Sejal is not your average employment law attorney! Her more than fifteen years of experience advising clients, human resources personnel, and legal counsel regarding sound, standard employment practices uncovered a need - and personal passion - for bringing more proactive, relevant, and impactful workplace training programs to her clients and their teams. Her highly experiential customised workshops tailored to executives, managers, and individual contributors bring the courtroom to the training room in an interactive, engaging environment favouring human stories over compliance checklists.
Timestamps:
2:59 Sejal explains her journey from Defence Attorney to building cultures of civility and inclusion
4:28 Why organisations need to take a more proactive approach to address workplace harassment and microaggressions.
7:00 Why is there so much willful blindness when it comes to breaches of compliance?
9:30 What are microaggressions and how they show up in the workplace?
13:42 How self-awareness with a willingness to address your blind spots is a good starting point for addressing diversity and inclusion in the workplace
17:00 The importance of leaders creating spaces with openness, transparency and creating a culture where people can speak freely without the fear of retaliation.
21:00 We explain how toxic work environments often come to bear.
26:23 The importance of training and developing middle managers in Cultural Awareness and Diversity because that's who employees go to first.
31:09 Did you know that around 75% of people don't even report their complaints and often suffer in silence?
32:05 What to do if you experience harassment or face discrimination?
35:29 What are the challenges of working from home and remote leadership
37:28 If no one is complaining and people aren't getting forward with difficulties, there are no problems, but people are not feeling psychologically safe to come along.
40:16 The importance of having customised programs and training instead of off shelve one size fits all Diversity and Inclusion solutions
