Recruitment of visually impaired guides in India

It’s a beautiful feeling when a dream begins to look real. This week, I had many moments when I found me smiling to myself just thinking about everything that was unfolding around me.
The first round of recruitment of visually impaired guides at the first Dialogue in the Dark centre in India (www.dialogueinthedarkindia.com) got off to a flying start. The quality of candidates and the enthusiasm that I could feel from the team even though I was many hundred miles away from the scene of action has made me all excited and looking forward to the grand opening in November, 2010. I have often been asked about what’s so special about this exhibition that has made it survive the test of time and impact the millions that it has. I guess it has got to do with the fact that it’s not just about giving a disabled just another job of telling the sighted what it is to be blind. It has got to do with empowerment and respect for the other through a role reversal in a setting that is not preachy and contrived. I have seen the impact this programme has had in many countries where the blind are relatively well taken care of by the state, and I am filled with nervous optimism on what it can do in a country like India. Watch out this space for more updates!

New Workforce Conference Dialogue Social Enterprise

I went straight to the conference area after a 22 hr flight.  If I had any misconceptions that the New Workforce Conference organized by the US Business leadership network was going to be yet another place where people network and discuss topics of common interest, they soon evaporated. It was a conference unlike any other that I had seen. Picture this… a group of close to 300 people in a hall with bad acoustics spend 3 days at a conference where the day starts at 8:30 AM and closes not before 11 PM, with speakers and breakout sessions even over lunch and dinner…and is energized at the end of the event instead of being fatigued!!

It was a conference to understand how organizations in the US can encourage diversity at work, and basically facilitate the creation of a “new workforce”. One of the main themes of discussion was around inclusion of people with disabilities in mainstream corporate America. It was in this context that Dialogue Social Enterprise (DSE) was invited by Manpower who were presenting their partnership with DSE as an example of what corporates could do to create a mindset change around inclusion. We presented the results from a survey of over 300 participants from previous Dialogue in the Dark business workshops. It was phenomenal to see the openness and interest in the audience to endorse and apply new programmes that help create a mindset change towards inclusion and social change among business leaders.

To me personally, the big win was to learn about real-time examples in corporate America where diversity and inclusion of people with disabilities is not a subject of discussion as part of their CSR initiatives but a mainstream HR or supply chain decision. The leaps that Walgreens, Microtel hotels and Disney parks and Resorts have taken in this direction are testimony to the fact that being inclusive has only gains in terms of bottomline in the long run, contrary to popular theory that employing people with disabilities will bring down productivity.

The icing of the cake however was Kareem Dale’s speech. The fact that there is a Secretary for Disabilities in the president’s staff is admirable enough, but the fact that he is one of the 30 odd people with disabilities who have positions of great responsibility in President Obama’s staff made my admiration for the man sky high (as if my admiration for him can go any higher, that is!!).

It was a week well spent and hopefully this is just the beginning in terms of how DSE can play its part in making people rethink human values and redesign business leadership.