About the Book
Beyond the standard black and white clichés of tokenism, this one-of-its-kind book echoes the mantra of today’s contemporary workplace. Breaking down the biases and the myths, this book advocates that diversity should be a conscious business choice and not just a politically correct mandate to follow. For those who wish to pursue the diversity agenda, this book will make them consider diversity from a much deeper lens and implement it in a manner that will enable business, instead of just a good-to-do initiative.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Sairee Chahal
Foreword by Ravi Venkatesan
Preface
An Ideological Echo Chamber
Does Diversity Really Help Business?
Dissent and Diversity
Discrimination and Diversity
Equal, Not Same
Women in Senior Management
#MeToo
Bias Is Pervasive
Beyond Tolerance
Rewiring for Diversity
About the Author :
Swati Jena is one of those people who leave you with, ‘Aha, I never looked at it that way’. Her uncanny perception and ability to pay deep attention to things help her see often-missed dots and connect them in unlikely ways.
Swati is an expert generalist with 17 years of work spanning across 10+ industries and domains such as learning and development, education, talent management, consulting, product management and entrepreneurship. From going to petrol depots for manpower planning to visiting Rashtrapati Bhavan for arrangements to invite the president of India, Swati’s diverse life experiences have shaped her multi-disciplinary outlook. She is the quintessential ‘all-rounder’, a trait that carried well into her MBA education at XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Swati began publishing her ideas on LinkedIn, on a variety of topics including diversity, which led to her being named as one of, ‘LinkedIn Top Voices’ of India in 2017. Swati believes that asking the right question comes before the quest for answers. This love for questions was at the core of her TEDx talk ‘Life is Like a Google Screen’. Swati’s first book, The Entrepreneur’s Soulbook—Is It Your Cup of Tea?’, is again about questions that aspiring entrepreneurs should ask themselves before starting their journey. The book reached Amazon number 1 bestseller rank through word of mouth. Swati currently runs her venture WriteFor, a one-stop-shop learning hub for domain-specific writing.
T. N. Hari wears different hats—author, angel investor, advisor to VCs and CHRO Bigbasket, among others.
He spent the first 14 years at Tata Steel. Of this, the first 11 years were spent in engineering on the shop floor. The next three years were in HR helping restructure the company to cope with post-liberalization challenges.
The next 18-odd years were with a string (five of them) of highgrowth start-ups. The first four saw successful exits (Daksh was acquired by IBM, Virtusa went public on NASDAQ, Amba Research was acquired by Moody’s and TaxiForSure was acquired by Ola). In each of these start-ups, Hari has been a part of the management team and played a key role in shaping their growth and exit.
In the last five years, Hari has been an advisor and sounding board to numerous young entrepreneurs and start-ups. He is a mentor at accelerators like Techstars, Silicon Road and India Accelerator. He is an advisor to Arkam Ventures (an earlystage VC fund) and Fundamentum Partnership (a growth-stage VC fund).
He is a prolific author and has authored six books so far.
Review :
Diversity beyond Tokenism is the best book on diversity that you’ll find. It’s the first time that I see an open, honest and objective approach about such a complex and difficult topic. It gives a unique perspective to most of the common doubts and questions we have about diversity and makes us think and reflect about them with a different mindset. Its holistic and deep analysis on how organizations should think and act about diversity is bold and outstanding. It’s a must-read for every leader.
A courageous and incisive attempt at breaking down the dogmas and myths surrounding diversity and inclusion (D&I) and constructing a positive argument using the inherently contradictory strains in this field. I would recommend this as a reading in business schools, to understand what constitutes D&I and how one can truly build inclusive organizations. As HR professionals, this book forces us to look at practices within our organizations that provide mere lip-service to the concept of diversity. It goads us towards deeper questions, which, when answered truthfully, would lead us to build cultures and organizations which are truly inclusive. An extremely thought-provoking, oftentimes discomforting, but supremely pertinent piece of corporate writing.
‘D&I’ is an important mantra of the contemporary workplace. In this provocative book, Swati and Hari go beyond the standard cliches to explore the why and how of D&I. You may or may not agree with them, but this is an important read for anyone involved with diversity, which is just about all of us.
There is a lot spoken about diversity these days, but here is a book that makes you sit up and reflect. It questions our assumptions and points out our biases and beliefs that we are living with, which can truly impede diversity. The book explores a variety of issues on diversity in the Indian context, and I am sure that you, like me, will come out with renewed commitment to diversity and not mere tokenism.
Scholarly, forthright and written with a journalistic rigour—finally we have a book that is not another ‘me-too’ on this important subject of building diverse and inclusive societies and workplaces. I highly recommend it.
Swati Jena and T. N. Hari make Diversity beyond Tokenism an easy-to-read book. They have made the understanding of diversity simple but not simplistic. The book is well-researched with ample references making the overall point that diversity is not just about gender but dealing with multiplicity of viewpoints. I especially liked the quick summary at the end of each chapter by way of ‘big ideas’. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read and something for keeps in the long term.
The lethal duo of Swati and Hari, courtesy this book, has debunked innumerable politically correct myths and left a trail of realization in their wake. Reading and reflecting on their brilliantly presented and forthright perspectives, one is overcome with a strong sense of subliminal resonance to relate seamlessly with the ‘big ideas’. I believe this book will provide the muchneeded pivot in re-calibrating mindsets across organizations.
As a French woman engineer, daughter of an Algerian immigrant and CEO of one of the first women-led open innovation agencies in India, I am utterly aware of the devastating effect of the drivel that leaves the topic of diversity misconstrued. The book Diversity beyond Tokenism cuts through the clutter and boldly addresses the various subthemes underlying this topic. The book is a combination of rigour and storytelling. The key takeaways (the big ideas) at the end of every chapter serve as ready reckoner for a practitioner. I found the book insightful and thoroughly enjoyable. I would recommend this strongly to anyone interested in deconstructing this complex topic.
Swati and Hari have unlocked a much-needed dialogue around the true meaning of diversity. They capture issues realistically and raise pertinent questions. The two most powerful ideas put forward are ‘equal but not same’ and the ‘mindset of no’. A must-read for those who desire to bring about a change in and around themselves.
Fascinating, provocative and insightful book; it speaks to the reader’s head, heart and soul! Highly engaging and fresh perspective from non-experts, taking a rational look at some of the well-renowned D&I research studies and the root causes of inequality in the corporate and civilized world. References from history, mythology, evolution, education, government, legal system, arts, business, society and the universe are thought-provoking. A must-read for leaders, D&I beginners, enthusiasts and practitioners who want to build a resilient and future-proof organization.
I have two terms for this book—‘politically respectful’ and ‘refreshingly honest’. Diversity beyond Tokenism portrays the most original aspects of diversity and its practices at workplaces. It is as insightful as it is addictive. It pushes our capability to see, feel and comprehend issues around D&I like never before.
