Aditi CHAKRAVARTY

I believe that organizations are, as Rha Goddess puts it, "eco-systems of humanity." Even more than that, I believe workplaces are potential sources of human connection, development, and evolution.

 

I vividly remember sitting at a “Galentine’s Day” dinner in the East Village with nine dear friends, all young professionals from diverse backgrounds working in different industries across New York City, when a gut-wrenching realization hit me. Each woman sitting around the table had shared a harrowing personal story of sexual assault or harassment at a workplace. It was unfathomable and completely normal at the same time, and I was quietly, deeply enraged. A couple of years later, I found myself in the strange position of helping an organization I worked for navigate its own complicated sexual harassment crisis, shedding light on toxic cultural patterns that undermined not only much-needed diversity at the company, but the company’s existence as a whole. Unsatisfied with this single-company level of impact, a colleague and I subsequently began working after-hours, preoccupied with building a platform, a solution, something that could help employees in general expose cultural fault lines at high-growth companies and incentivize greater organizational accountability. This project led me to graduate school, where I dedicated time to understanding the nuances of diversity research, its practical applications, and the mechanics of organizational behavior change at scale.

 

And this is why I do the work that I do. Because even as the daughter of two Indian immigrants who fought hard to build an incredible life for their children, or even as a former opera singer who spent countless years performing in spaces around the world where I was often well-intentionally celebrated as a novelty, I am profoundly aware of the privilege and access I’ve been granted to organizational systems and networks that shut equally-deserving and capable individuals out. I fundamentally believe that equitable and inclusive workplaces lead companies, individuals, and society as a whole to reach their full potentials. I also believe that intentional design of organizational systems is the key to achieving this vision-- it’s messy, complicated, and imperfect, but it is the only way.