 Good morning Partha. Good morning. Can you hear me? But I can't see. Yes sir, I can hear you. I see any remote center. Good morning and welcome to all for this face to face session. As all of you would know I am Deepak Phatak here in charge of this project. Today I will be with you only for a very very short while. My main objective today is to introduce and welcome an important person in our course team, Dr. Smita Pendarkar. She heads our course team which supports Professor Partha and all the activities that happen in this course. Without further ado I would like to welcome Smita and hand over the proceedings to her and to Professor Partha who is in Europe somewhere and he has actually woken up very early in the morning as you can see because the time difference but he is with you as always and that is the commitment of IIT Bombay that we will be with you throughout this course and even later. Over to Smita. So I just want to welcome everyone to today's session. Good morning to you all. So today's session will be mediated primarily by Professor Pajsarthi. I am just here to step in if required. Today's sessions are on gender and diversity and sexual harassment. You have already probably or we would have hoped that you have been through the materials that we provided this week and also come up with some good questions for Professor Pajsarthi and I. So with that I think we can begin. Yes. I would like to welcome you all as well. As you can see I am currently in a very cold place that is why I am wearing sweaters. So it's probably appropriate that this session on global and cultural awareness, cultural consciousness is happening in this way where this is truly an international kind of collaboration. So I'm here in Amsterdam. It's five o'clock in the morning and we have a team sitting in Mumbai and of course all of you who are there all over India. So I'm having a real life experience of what we are going to talk about in this module. So I'm part of a team which has people from Ethiopia and Albania and Germany and Netherlands working together here on a project. So many of the problems and issues that we are talking about in these modules are things that we are actually implementing and facing on a daily basis. So welcome. We know that we may be making you work very hard. But then we also want to give you an experience of what it is like to be an IIT student. So IIT students usually like to come that the teaching program here is too rigorous. But once they go out of IIT and get into jobs that's when they appreciate how this rigor actually helped them to become what they are. So we hope that you also will similarly benefit from the rigor of these programs. Can I have the PPT to be shown to the students? So as you can see under this topic of cultural consciousness in this College to Corporate Program, we have four released four modules, which we've and we've released videos and learning material and all these four topics. And we will be taking questions on these one by one. So for the first 40 minutes or so, we will be discussing the topic related to gender and diversity in the workplace. After that, we will discuss issues and take feedback on the topic of global and cultural awareness. Dr. Megashree Dalvi gave us the video for this. In the afternoon, sorry, in the second session, after the break, we will cover the topics of integrity in the workplace very closely related to what Professor Zelle talked about last week on a couple of weeks ago on professional conduct in the workplace. And finally, we'll end with issues related to sexual harassment in the workplace. Brief introduction before we start the activities and take your feedback. Question from the feedback that we have received from many of you. We can see that many of you really appreciate these topics and feel that they're going to be relevant for you when you move from college to the workplace. However, there's still a doubt in the minds of many people as to how these are relevant for you in terms of communication skills in the workplace. So to answer this question, we must understand that we are all, as Professor Seti keeps saying, first human beings. As human beings, we are expected to behave as professionals making use of our considerable talents and skills and knowledge that we have acquired in the workplace. But beyond that, we also bring certain unique aspects to the workplace. We all have unique skills, personalities, attitudes. These can be beneficial in contributing to the team. However, it's also possible that as human beings, we bring unconsciously some of our own personal biases, prejudices which may have come to us through our own socialization. Very sorry to interrupt you. There is some problem that they are not able to see the PPT and you at the same time. So I'll just do some changes. But can the students see both? Yeah, now they will see both. Sorry for the interruption. So what I was saying was that today's workplace is truly a global workplace, whether we are interacting through online forums like we are doing now. So online technology is an internet or in real time in the actual physical workplace. India is also a country which is one of the most diverse and heterogeneous in the world and that brings with it its own advantages. It brings with it certain concerns as well. So in addition to all of these, there are legal requirements that we need to follow in the workplace which we need to be aware of globally as well as in India. Many corporate organizations when you join actually give you short introductions and awareness programs on these issues. So you participants will be at an advantage if you are already familiar with these kinds of issues. So I was saying earlier that we bring certain unique aspects to the workplace because of our own individual personalities and attitudes and the cultural backgrounds we come from. So they equally contribute to the insights that is required at the workplace. We also need to be sensitive and respect of different tool of sensitiveness, which is what we are trying to get in this particular course. So if we can go to the second slide, we would like to start with a small activity. So I know that some of you are not sitting in your own remote centers, but if you're sitting in groups. Talk to this person sitting next to you, introduce yourself to the next person and spend a few minutes talking about respect. What does it mean for you to show respect? What does it mean for you to be shown respect? How do you wish to be treated or not treated? And in what ways do you feel respected or disrespected? If you're sitting alone at your computer or laptop and watching this, you can think about your own views on what it means to be respected. What it means to be shown respect? How do you wish to be treated and so on? So please write this on a piece of paper and then I'm going to come and ask some of you to share with us what you've written about the issue of respect. So this makes us understand very clearly what is it that we are talking about because some of these points that we are talking about may appear at first glance. To be something that is not easily implementable because these are about values. But once you begin thinking about it in terms of what it means to you as an individual, then we begin to realize how we should behave towards others. So please take a few minutes out to respond to these questions. I'll be back in a few minutes. Okay, I hope you've had enough time. Can we go to some of the centers and talk to the participants and ask them to give their feedback? Yes, sir. Can we go to one of the centers? Amrita School of Engineering, please go ahead. I can't see them. Click on the video wall button, sir. Video wall. Which button, sorry? Video wall. The tab tab. Video wall tab. Okay. Yeah, thank you. Hello. Amrita. Amrita School of Engineering. You are not audible. Can you speak a little louder? I can't hear you well. Yeah. So can you share with us what you've written in response to my question? I believe it to be respected. Amrita, you're not audible to me. A little bit loudly. Hello. Hello. Hello, sir. Your voice is a little feeble. I just request you to speak a little loudly. To be respected, your ideas and thoughts that you share with people have to be accepted and people must listen to them and then give their opinion on that. They must not make fun of it or mock it for what we think and for what we are. And we must respect it based on our actions or disrespect it if we have done something wrong. Sorry, respected based on? We must be respected based on our actions. Actions, okay. Yeah, not because of who we are or what people think of us. And even if we are disrespected also it should be for something that we have done wrong, not because of our person or who we are. Yeah. Yeah. With no respect, so I think that we must accept their ideas without making fun of them, listen to their dreams and whatever vision they have for themselves and give a listening ear to them. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Thank you for sharing. Dr. Smita, would you like to respond to that? She's answering questions on YouTube. Pardon? She's answering questions on YouTube. Okay, yeah. So thank you Amrita for sharing that. I think you've encapsulated very well what your, what the idea of respect because it is to be respected for what oneself represents views or one's actions and so on. And you put it very well when you said that, you know, even when you disrespect somebody, there should be valid reasons because one has done something wrong. But even then, and that is the hallmark of modern societies, that even if somebody has done wrong, we point it out in a way that doesn't disrespect others. So the idea is actually to work together and to share. So respect means that when you do not agree with somebody or you feel that somebody has made a mistake or an error or has done something wrong. So there are protocols, there are procedures, there are ways in which we point this out so that the harmony of the group or our ability to work together is not compromised. Okay. So the point is that some of these, this issue of respect may be related simply to our views and actions, but some of these may be an outcome of certain biases we have towards others based on their gender or caste or region or religion and so on. It doesn't happen most of the time. Most of us are not like that, but in some cases it may happen. So that is when it is very important that you speak out that I am a human being. I have an equal contribution to make to an organization. I have certain skills, skillsets which I bring to the organization and I need to be respected for that and not for my social background. Okay. Thank you for sharing Amrita. Can we go to another center? Good morning. Just a minute. Sir. Arvind Gawli College. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Good morning to you. My name is Radha Shinde. My question is what are the some of the ways to develop gender equality in the workplace? Good morning to you all the way from Amsterdam. Thank you for asking that question. There are many different ways in which one can address this issue of gender equality at the workplace because today's workplace we regard as a place where anybody irrespective of social background can participate. So your ability is what matters. Your skills, your knowledge, your qualifications, your capabilities, these are what matter. Nothing else should matter, right? In spite of that because of the way in which society is structured sometimes there are problems of inequality and this is not unique to India. Please don't think that this is a problem that we are facing in India. It's a universal problem. It's faced all over the world. The fact that we have laws in place that we are thinking about it, we are talking about it means that we are, we may be a little bit more advanced in addressing this problem compared to many other societies in the world. Now coming to the specific aspect of your question about gender equality in the workplace, firstly there are a lot of national level laws and rules deriving from the Constitution. So it's very important that the organization pays attention to these rules and regulations and laws and the judgments of various courts in ensuring that there is equality at the workplace. But laws can work only if they are implemented, right? So in order to be implemented there needs to be a will. So in some organizations the people who are at the top may take the initiative to ensure that everybody is treated equally irrespective of whether they are male or female or irrespective of their cultural background. If it doesn't happen it is up to the individual. So the point of this particular module is that we cannot leave it only to the laws and to the organization. You as individuals have to learn to take responsibility. So as men and women who are aware of the need for gender equality, if you stand up and question inequalities, if you stand up and say I need to be respected for who I am as a contribution to the organization, that is a very important big step towards gender equality. So beyond that you have to identify specific areas where equality is a problem, whether it is in the way in which you are being treated, whether it is in terms of pay scales, whether it is in terms of your coin, recognizing your contribution to the organization, becoming a part of different groups and teams. So at every stage it is very important that women demand equality but equally men ensure that women are treated equally. Thank you very much. We are not able to spend more time on each of these questions but please do look at the material and the videos we have given you. And thank you very much for asking that question. Just maybe one more question on this issue of respect. If you can go to one more center. Dr. J. Y. Patrikar, College of Computer Science and Information Technology. Welcome and good morning. No audio from this side. Can you hold the mic a little closer to you? No, they are not audible. There is some connection problem in there. No, you are audible but it is feeble. The sound is feeble. Very low. Yes. Please continue. No. We are not able to hear you. I am sorry, please check your audio and we will be back again. Sorry. Can we go to another center? Good morning sir. Good morning. Okay, we are back to Arvind Gavli. Yes, good morning. What kind of activities can be taken place in an organization in order to generate equality? Okay. Precisely, that is the point of this particular activity that I am asking you to do about respect. There are a number of activities and we have actually provided a link to some of these activities. The material we have given you talks about some of these activities but I think we can also connect you to more such activities. So, in a few minutes we are going to do one particular activity to make people understand about the specific issues and problems faced by men and women in the organization. So, the first, behind all of these activities, there are two concepts. One is to have empathy for the other person irrespective of what their social background is, gender background is. The second is to inculcate empathy which means to understand the problems from their perspective. Okay. So, for example, one of the issues we often talk about is that women have to do a double role. They have to do a lot of work at home as well as in the office whereas men do not do so much of work at home. So, how do we translate this understanding into creating an organization where we empathize with the situation of women and then provide them facilities so that they can work contributing equally to the organization. So, there are a series of activities. Just do a simple online Google search and you will come across a lot of activities. You can also look at some of the corporate videos of companies. Many Indian companies offer this kind of gender sensitivity and you can look at these videos. But I had a specific question for you. So, I was asked what respect means to you. So, if you've written something about respect, can you tell us what respect means to you and how you wish to be treated in order to get respect? Can you respond to that specific question? Sir, according to me, respect means performing equality in men and women in organization. All having equal rights to do any activity in the organization or having equal criteria of each and every activity. Thank you. So, basically what you're saying is to be treated as an equal gives you respect. That is, you don't want to be treated as unequal or discriminated against. If everybody is treated equally, then that itself denotes respect for an individual. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you very much, Arvind Gawli. We have to move on. We are short of time, but thank you very much for that, for sharing that. I'd like to go back to the document, the activity that we had given earlier on gender sensitivity. Can you put up that slide? Just hold on, sir. Yes. So, all the participants, what you see is an activity that the student from Dr. Arvind Gawli College actually asked us. So, I'm giving you one example of an activity that you can do. So, now, you may think of yourself as men, as persons belonging to the masculine gender, as women, or maybe there may be some people who do not identify themselves as either a man or a woman for various reasons. Just think of yourself as a human being or a third gender. So, you can attempt one of these exercises, depending on what you identify yourself with. So, for example, if you are a woman, you can do the exercise too. So, you have to first write a few points about what you can do as a woman. And second, imagine that you are putting yourself in the shoes of a man. And what is it that you will find it difficult to do if you were a man, rather than being a woman? And similarly, if you are a man, please write a few points on what you think you can do. That is, as a man, I can do these things. But as a woman, that is, if you as a man were to suddenly find that you have to perform the role of a woman, you will find certain things difficult to do. What are those difficult things? Please make a note. And similarly, the third exercise. So, I'm going to give you a few minutes to quickly write these points. And then we'll come back and request you to share your views. So, this is one of the empathy exercises that we can do in an organization. So, this is something you can do anywhere. You can do it at home. You can do it in the college. You can do it at the workplace. So, please take a few minutes to respond to this. What you can do by imagining, by thinking about what you are as a man or a woman. But suppose you had to perform the role of the opposite gender. What is it that you will find it difficult to do or you want to do? Please take a few minutes. Okay. I hope you've had time to reflect on these questions. I know some of you, if you start writing it, you can keep you busy for a lot of time. Several hours. And you can play around with this exercise during your leisure time later and share it with your friends and see how they respond to it. But we have to move on. So, I'd like one of the centers and ask them to share their views on what they have written in response to this exercise. Okay. This is KLE Society, College of Engineering. Oh, sorry. We are back to Arvind Gavli. Yes. Good morning, sir. I can see you. Good morning. Can you identify yourself? Yes, sir. As a man, I can do the work till late night also. But as a woman. No, it can't. Can you please identify yourself? Tell us your name. Sorry, sir. My name is Rishikesh Rajeshrike. I am from BECSE. Okay, Rishikesh, go on. As a man, I can do the work till late night also. But as a woman, we can't because the reason is also us or our society because we cannot provide that much security to the woman. So, we have to change our view. So, women can also work to the late night also and we can provide the security to women also. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's a fantastic response because what this indicates is that the problem is not just about us. The problem is the society around us. So, which means that men and women can have equal capabilities. So, the Nobel Prize winner in economics, Avatya Singh, talks about this. That we may as a society, as a country, as a family educate women but women cannot use that ability to earn a living or to contribute to a family or to contribute to her own success in her career because of issues of safety and security and so on. So, because of that, how do you address this as an equality problem? So, companies, for example, try to provide security to women by bringing them to office in their own office vehicles, for example. Because they value the contribution of women, not as women, but as people who have certain qualifications. So, in response to one of the earlier questions that came in about how we can bring about equality, this is one way in which you can bring about equality. So, Rishikesh, you have identified a very good problem that men can do certain things in terms of staying back late in office but women cannot do that because of safety and security concerns. And therefore, if companies can ensure the safety and security of women while coming to and from office, that itself creates that equal opportunity for women to also develop careers. So, thank you very much for that input. This is exactly the kind of thing that we are looking for. Can you go to another centre, please? Or is there any other individual who's online? Okay, Amrita. Hello, sir. Hello. You know that the earlier centre was very clear and audible in terms of sound. There seems to be some problem with your audio. It's a little feeble. So, please look into it but please go on. Please identify yourself first. Yes, now it's better. My name is Parth Sarthi, sir. Your name is what? Parth Sarthi. Parth Sarthi. Okay, you share my name. Okay. The perspective of a man, what I would like to share is that men are always supposed to act brave and show that they have no emotions and they are very heroic in terms of whatever consequences happen in their life. Whenever we express our true emotions, we are shown as weak. Okay. Speak a little loudly, please. Okay, sir. As a man, whenever we show our true emotions we are termed as weak or not being man enough. Yeah. In the case of a woman, whenever they face an issue, it's very hard for them to come out openly about it because the society around them claims them first instead of the culprit who has done the wrong. Okay. And then when women seek out, people call them brave and heroic instead of just acknowledging their basic rights that these people have. Okay. It shouldn't be heroic or brave to ask for your basic rights, I believe. And in the case of the third gender, I believe that they are seen as a taboo or sort of separate part of society that must not exist in many of the cases and people mock them. I believe that they should, as a third gender, that is what they feel and they should also be given equal rights and acceptance. Okay. Okay. So thank you, Parth. That shows a lot of sensitivity, but it also requires a lot of courage to say what you've just said. Okay. I would just like to ask you a counter question. So if men are expected to be always brave and they're not expected to show their emotions, do you think it is good for men or it's not very good for men? Sir, I had mentioned it under a thing that is actually bad for us because there is this idea that in Hindi, it's like... Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The whole person opens up or shares his emotions or a man cries. Yeah. People are out there mocking or claiming it as weakness. Yeah. Okay. Okay, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for sharing because, you know, emotions are crucial to what we are as human beings, right? We are nothing without emotions. So emotions are a part of what we are and it's very important to recognize emotions. So the reason we are talking about respect is that respect is to do with emotions and emotions determine how well we perform or how well we do not perform. So it's better to acknowledge the emotions and not hide behind false assumptions about bravery and heroism and so on because once we are open, as you yourself mentioned the word open, once we are open about our own feelings and we are allowed to express them, that leads to better interaction and association between human beings, which is always the best thing that can happen when we are working together in an organization or even in informal groups among friends. Can you ask one of your women colleagues to respond also? Because I'm so far getting responses only from men. One of your, I can see your women colleagues. So can they respond about what they can do as women and what they cannot do if they were men? Would any of you like to respond? I'm sorry, I can't hear you at all. No, I'm sorry. I can't hear you at all. Yes? Sorry, can the team at IIT Bombay, can they hear her? No, their audio, the audio is very low. You have to increase the audio gain. Can some coordinator there, is there any coordinator who can help them out? You have to increase the audio gain from itself. Can you type your response through chat? Using chat, can you type it? No, I'm sorry. Type your response on chat. There's some problem with the audio. Maybe the audio in the system is low. Yes, it's much better now. Please go ahead. Maybe they should type it, sir. Okay, what I suggest is we're losing time here. I'm sorry to cut you off. Please type your response using chat and then we'll get back and respond to it a little later. But we would very much like to have your feedback. Please do share. We'd like to move on. I'd like to request Dr. Smita to respond to any questions that may have come up from YouTube. A lot of our participants are watching via YouTube. But I think those questions are equally important and we need to make the rest of the participants aware of these questions because they express certain concerns and also our responses to them. Yes, sir. She is responding to them. Smita, can you tell us a little bit about these questions that are coming up there and what your response is? He wants to... We can then move on to the next topic. What kind of questions are there? Good morning, Professor. While she begins, I'd just like to say that Dr. Smita Pandarkar has been involved in all of these four modules in terms of preparing the content as well as the methodology and the quizzes and activities. So yeah, please can you respond? Can you tell us a little bit about the kind of questions that are emerging there? So we had several questions. In particular, focusing on what an individual can do to mobilize and initiate change. So one very interesting question that came up was from Navjit Singh and he asked why even after conducting large-scale campaigns on cultural awareness, still there are so many incidents on hate crimes. Why is it so? Because it's not only a problem in India but worldwide. So I mean the easiest response or the most simplest responses to say that every individual is responsible for initiating change themselves and making a commitment as individuals rather than immediately seeking group support or collective action. Campaigns are of course designed to inspire individuals who maybe then come across other individuals who are also interested in pursuing the same sort of change. So there are a few questions that are looking for answers as to how they can effect change in India today and especially as youths who have a lot of energy and passion and positivity about maybe bringing the sorts of changes and improvements to India that they see in foreign countries. So I mean I, of course there are no easy answers here but I would suggest that if you make a list of priorities about the kinds of issues that are important, for example you see that the government has sponsored a campaign on Swachh Bharat. So maybe if that is an issue that resonates with you and you find is important, then you can start by doing something locally, something small like maybe picking up litter in your own society. Now this is something I have done myself as well. Rather than the first step being to inspire other people through words, it is probably best to set an example as Mahatma Gandhi said about being an exemplar, about setting a good example, doing what you find is important and then hopefully inspiring other people through your actions. So maybe begin by making a list of priorities what issues are important to you and then put into practice some of your beliefs and your visions and then see if you inspire other people to do the same. Thank you, thank you very much for that. I'd just like to add one point to this. What Smitha mentioned was about the individual taking responsibility and this is a question that emerged also as what we can do as individuals. This is a very interesting question because while institutional procedures, rules are required, they are not adequate by themselves. So when there is a problem, institutional rules are required. Also institutional rules, norms, procedures for addressing discrimination or harassment, they can be used by individuals when they face problems. But in order to bring about change, individuals have to change and that is one of the reasons why this particular module is called cultural consciousness. So it is like a skill, like other kinds of skills that you acquire. It is a kind of consciousness, attitude and skill that we have to inculcate in ourselves because this is not something that all of us are taught about as we are growing up either at home or in college. So what we can do as individuals to address this and the problem is very well put when this person, Navjoth, I think, said that in spite of so many awareness campaigns, this persists and we should not assume that this is unique to India. If you are regularly reading the media, this is a problem almost in every part of the world in some of the best organizations where we did not expect such kind of behavior to occur. So it is all the more important therefore that individuals take responsibility not to accept this kind of behavior and to intervene even when you are not the person who is suffering because a person who is victimized or suffering is already in a situation where he or she finds it difficult to address it. So it's very important that every individual takes this responsibility to ensure that equality and respect is maintained in the workplace. So thank you very much to all of you for sharing for the feedback. We are going to move on to the next topic in which we are already a little bit late. This is on global and cultural awareness. So I would like to request Dr. Smitha to stay there, not move away. Maybe she has to respond to a few more questions. This is on global and cultural awareness. So Dr. Megistri Dalvi gave us a very interesting video about the context in which today's workplace is changed. So today we work in a very global workplace where we are interacting with people across organizations all the time either in real time or in modes that use the electronic means of communication. But other than that, we are not just dealing with co-workers. We are dealing with customers and clients and funding agencies with a range of people who are from so many different cultures. And I think in some ways, we in India may have an advantage because we are already like the world. We have so much of diversity in the country that many of us are constantly learning to adjust and cope with the diversity and the cultural behavior attitudes of many other people. We don't always do it successfully, but we try. So it becomes much more complicated when the workplace becomes globalized. So Dr. Dalvi talked about the many different communication issues both formal and informal that arise. And I think a couple of important points that she mentioned are worth paying attention to not just for communication but these are life skills as Prof. Fatah keeps saying all the time. So one is observe and learn. So we are not born with these kinds of skills. We don't always know how to deal with others. We are constantly meeting people from new cultures. So initially it is always best to observe to see what is the accepted kind of behavior and then adopt that. And the second point that she makes is about ensuring that you proactively learn about learning to live with difference. So both formally and informal context learning about simple things like time, about greetings, about how we deal with people at different levels of seniority, learning acceptable words. So there are so many different things and many of these are also related to the earlier topics about professional conduct and email communication and so on. So you can see how communication becomes a very complex exercise when we are dealing with diversity in the workplace. So we would like to take some feedback and some sharing on this particular topic about global and cultural awareness. Can we go to some of the centers? And if Dr. Smita has any questions from the YouTube chat, you can share that as well. Maybe we can start with that and then go on to the centers. So we are with Dr. J. Vaipathrikar College. Can you hear us? Hello. Your audio is feeble. Either you have to speak very loudly or you have to do something to your audio system. Hello. Yes, please go ahead. We can hear you. Good morning, sir. Myself, Usha Shete. Good morning. Tell my feedback about the topic which we have entered up that is gender sensitization. As a woman, I feel it is difficult to, difficult to mean, like to be physically powerful and the way men handle situations that is emotional balance while handling any difficult situation. I think it is difficult for men to handle difficult situations without losing their emotional balance. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So this is a continuation from the previous topic on gender and diversity. So you're saying that emotional balance is very important at the workplace because we're all working under a lot of pressure situations that are constant crisis, emergencies and so on. So dealing with issues based on emotional balance is very important and you're saying that women are better at this than men. If that is what I understand. Dr. Usha. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I don't know how many of the men agree with you but there are a lot of studies which actually show that this is the case. Okay. So a lot of studies have been done by psychologists and others and increasingly in human resource management there is discussion about what is called as emotional intelligence. So what you call as emotional balance, emotional maturity and so on comes in an emotional intelligence which people need to acquire so that they maintain equanimity in the context of conflicts and debates and emergency situations, crisis and so on. So yeah. So in fact this is for a long time we failed as human beings as a society to discuss emotions because we felt emotions bring in subjectivity but we are emotional beings and emotions do affect how we behave, how we work how we contribute to the workplace and so on. So it's very important that we understand how we understand our own emotions but more importantly how to manage our emotions because that contributes to better professional conduct in the workplace. Okay. So thanks for sharing that. Do you also have something on the other topic that we have just come to that is global and cultural awareness? Any of your colleagues? I think we are not able to hear them. I think we can move on to another centre. Thank you Dr. J. Y. Patrik. See Dutta Institute. Welcome. For some reason Dutta Institute is in black and white and not in colour. It should come. Do you have something to share with us on the topic of global and cultural awareness? Okay. Does somebody have the mic? Okay. Dutta Institute we can't hear you. You are not audible. Would you like to type your question using chat? The letter. This is AKS University Satna. Welcome. Good to see you all. AKS University Satna. Welcome. Would one of you like to share? Good morning. Very good morning to you. Hello, please continue. Hello. Hello, you are audible. Maybe it is a network problem sir. We are delaying from you. There is no problem. We can hear you loud and clear. Just go ahead and ask your question. I will share your thoughts. Just go ahead. Please go ahead and ask your question. We have an internet bandwidth issue. There is a lot of delay. We are back to... Sorry. Good morning sir. Good morning. My name is Sushant Sankpa. Yes, Sushant. Go ahead. Sir, my question is how the global and cultural awareness affect on our success and failure in our life? So would you like to respond to that? Yes sir. Sir, can you tell us the answer to your question? Sir, I have to answer from you. I understand. But I want to know your own thoughts on it. Why you think this is important? Sir, because global and cultural awareness can make our life... There are different cultures in India. And how they affect on our success or failure? I have a question on that. Okay. Okay. Would one of your friends like to respond to this? Based on listening to the video of Dr. Megheshri Dalvi. So any of the men or women sitting in the audience here, would you like to respond to the question that Sushant has posed about why global and cultural awareness is important? Yes. Good morning sir. My name is Rishikesh. Morning. I want to add that. Because many times while we are working in the organization or any companies, we have to travel from one state to another. Means if I am working in a Pune, so that is the Maharashtrian culture. And if I want to travel or shift to the Bangalore, then that is another culture. That is the different culture, cultural I have to adopt. So that is the cultural awareness we should consider. So we can do our job clearly or carefully. So that is cultural awareness is important in that aspect also. And if we want to travel or shift to another country, then for the international level, global and cultural awareness is also important. Yeah. Thank you both Sushant and Rishikesh. Yeah, I think the person behind also wants to respond. Myself, Sheikh Sahil. I want to tell to Sushant, my friends, culture and global awareness doesn't matter. If you have a lot of knowledge and skill, so no one care about your culture. You know what I mean? If you are doing the business or you are doing the education or research, anything, you have the need quite of knowledge and you have good skill. So you can trump anything. Okay. Thank you. Thanks Rishikesh, Sushant and Sheikh. So, you know, all of you have very interesting points to make about whether culture awareness matters, why it matters and how it matters. So Sheikh is right in saying that our own individual abilities matter. Okay. But what we have seen is that a lot of organizations today, they try to look beyond individual abilities. So one of the things that they will try to test you when they have group discussion or interviews or they'll ask your professors for reference letters, they will ask you whether you are a good team player. Okay. So an individual may be brilliant, maybe a genius, may be very good at what he or she does. But then you can't really contribute to the goals of the team or the organization. So today's organization is all about working well as a team. Individual abilities alone are not enough. Okay. So that is why team players, one of the characteristics or features that organizations look for is their awareness of working with other members. That organizations where people with diverse cultural backgrounds are able to come together and work as a team, they come up with more innovations, better designs, better products and overall growth of the organization. So in a modern workplace where people come from different backgrounds, there can be very simple kind of differences. How do you, for example, deal with time? So are you punctual? Do you always do things in the last minute? That's a typical characteristic of Indian people. That's what many people from outside of India say. It's not that we like to delay things, but things are usually done at the last minute and they do get done. Ho jaega, that's what we say. Okay. And some people get tense about it. Other people like to prepare well in advance. Some cultures in meetings, there can be a lot of argument and debate. It doesn't mean that people hate each other or fighting with each other. They just like to express their views openly. In other cultures, people may discuss things beforehand and not actually fight or conflict over things in public. So the inability to understand these cultural differences may mean that sometimes you don't fit well within organizations and you may not be able to contribute. So several examples are given about these things in the video and in the activities and quizzes given by Dr. Meghashree Dhalvi. So I would suggest you go into those in more detail so that you understand very well how to deal with these. There are case studies from information technology companies, software, finance and so on, which are available freely on the internet, where you can actually find out how sometimes organizations can get into trouble if they don't actually understand this global and cultural awareness. For example, an IT company may be working with clients abroad in the US or Europe or Japan or China and so on. So for us, and a better understanding of those cultural differences actually contributes to the growth of your own organization because that is what matters ultimately. So even though culture is not a part of what we do, it's not part of our work, because we are human beings, it comes in unconsciously and therefore paying attention to it ensures that you do better at your own business. Thank you all three of you. Can we go to another center? This is Marion College. We are not visible, but I guess they are audible. Marion College, can you hear us? We can't see you. Yes, we can hear you. Okay, so it doesn't matter even if we can't see you, just go ahead and share your thoughts. So please introduce yourself and go ahead. Hi sir, I am Sohana Mehdi from Marion College. Sir, my question is, when we are in a workplace, as pointed out earlier, we will have different ethnic groups or Asians like that. So if you are in a team, how can we go together so that our objectives will be the same? Okay, so your name is Sohana Mehdi? Sohana. Pardon? Sohana. Sohana Mehdi, okay. Sohana Mehdi, thank you for asking that question. So why do you think these differences on the basis of ethnicity or cultural background, how can they affect our ability to work together as a team? Do you have any thoughts on that? Sorry sir, I can't hear you. I am asking you, a particular team in an organization can have people from different ethnic backgrounds. Will it affect the way in which we work? Maybe sometimes working in a team, if people are there from different groups, I think it's a bit not that difficult, but it's a bit difficult because there will be some problems with communication and the things we are conveying will not be understood by the other people. Okay, so why is it difficult? Let me know. Because in an organization, people are chosen or selected based on their educational qualifications and work experience. So why will communication be a problem? Can you think of some reasons? Okay sir. So I would like you to think about why communication can be a problem. So I will give you an example. So there are five people in a group, in a team, all of them working on an information technology project. So all of you are qualified and have experience on software. So why will communication be a problem? It can be because of language. Okay. So language or accent can be an issue. So we all, those of us who speak English, we speak English in many different accents. So accent can be an issue. So suppose your team member, like I had yesterday, was speaking to somebody from Ethiopia and a third person from Albania. I'm from India and we all had different accents. So it took me also a little bit of time to talk to people speaking English in different accents. So what do you do? What do you do when you find it a little difficult to communicate with people with different accents? We try to express our ideas. Okay. So what do you need is patience, right? Sometimes we will try to interact more with them. Exactly. So you need patience. You need to interact with people more. So that over a period of time, you get to understand their accent. Maybe you ask them to repeat what they have said. Okay. So it helps if you are dealing with a common topic. Okay. So when I'm watching a Hollywood movie, for example, I can't understand the accent half the time. I have to look at the subtitles. But when I'm talking to a person from the United States who is doing research in my own topic, I find it easy to understand because many of the words are common. Okay. So the problem is sometimes one of unfamiliarity with the topic you're working on, okay, the workplace. But if you're talking about the same topic, then it becomes easier. So you need patience. You need to give it time, interact with people more, ask people to repeat if you can't understand. Okay. And over a period of time, you'll overcome that. So the first point is to accept that there is a communication problem, but that is not a problem that cannot be overcome. It's not a hindrance. It's not a barrier. Okay. So that's the fun of it that in the modern workplace, we come across people from so many different backgrounds and we can learn from them. That's exciting. Okay. Right? It's not something to be afraid of. It's not something to get off. So the moment we think that other people are different from us, we get scared and then we think we cannot communicate. Okay. So my accent is also different from yours. Isn't it? But we learn to communicate. So over a period of time, we need to keep talking to each other and use different means of communication, both written and oral and so on, so that we overcome these barriers. Okay. So patience, respect, giving it time. These will solve most problems. All right. Thank you, Sonameri. Marine College. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We just have time for maybe one more center, remote center or maybe one of the individuals sitting at home and doing this. And then I'd like to respond to some of the questions coming via chat on YouTube. If anybody has a question, can you please press the hand raise button in the bottom of the user list? Yeah. Please raise your hand if somebody wants to share. May I just interview the professor? Pardon? So I've been answering all the questions on YouTube. So we needn't go to those questions. Yeah. But you know, the people who are in the remote centers are not necessarily watching the responses on YouTube. So it'll be good to share them with the others. Okay. Yeah. So can you, you can just maybe identify a few questions and then tell us how you responded to these? Okay. I'll just, I'll just get them. Please go ahead. Now you can go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes. I can hear you. So there is, there is one very interesting question that's come up about the degradation of cultural values. This is Tamil Selvan Dhanapal. Apologies if I mispronounced your name. He says the values of our culture is degrading. The younger generation don't know its importance. How the cultural awareness would help them. So I've attempted to respond to that by sort of talking about the, the term cultural values itself and how it's constantly evolving. And also that it's a rather vague term, especially in a diverse country like India where you have, you know, myriad cultures and of course then they are subject to interpretations as well. So I don't know if you want to, it's not an easy question to respond to because the government can also, intervene on such an issue like they might with Sacha Bharat where fines can be imposed on people who do not follow rules. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So the reason we're talking about consciousness, awareness, respect is because we want every individual to think about these issues. So it's not about having one set of cultural values which are applicable to everybody which can be taught in a college or a university. It's not like moral science which are taught in school. So we are talking about cultural differences and that each of these cultural aspects are valid for every individual who belongs to a particular culture and these are constantly changing, evolving, people are thinking, people are transforming, modifying, cultures are interacting with each other. So the only sort of cultural value we are talking about here is learn to respect others. Learn to value the difference, learn to value that other people's cultures also may have valid points. So once that is in place, then we are all able to work together for a common objective. I would also like to comment on a certain pessimism that is there in that comment that younger people are losing cultural values. In fact, a lot of us older people think that things are actually becoming better. So a lot of prejudices or biases that existed earlier are gradually beginning to disappear. So younger people seem to be more open in that sense to working with other people. Of course, there are problems in every country and there are conflicts, there are differences which sometimes become violent and so on. But what we actually see is a greater willingness to engage with other people, people who are different from us. A greater willingness and excitement to open up and work with people from many different cultures and to move, to become mobile, to not just stick close to people of your own background. So I think in terms of greater openness and acceptability, the younger generation actually is somewhat better than the previous generations. Was there any other comment you would like to share? Yeah, if we can just go to one of the other questions. So Malika Jain asks, how can persons manage or overcome harassment in the workplace? Yeah, would you like to respond to that? Well, we also received a question earlier about this. If I can just go back to that question. This is somewhat linked to it. Apurva Raikur had asked, when I find my senior doing any unethical practice like discrimination, how should I react? I would respond by saying that in any institution or organization there is always a chain of command. This is something that Dr. Leena Jha has also mentioned in her sessions as well as Dr. Meghashree Darvi. And following that chain of command and working internally within the organization is an important first step. If you are aware of instance of discrimination, prejudice or harassment, then it is important to approach the person directly in an attempt to resolve the issue. Otherwise if that fails then of course there are other people in supervisory positions who may be approached for arbitration. And so it is important to work through the hierarchy to avoid going straight up to the person at the top most level like a CEO or director. This is one thing that I believe Dr. Jha had mentioned in one of her sessions about a sort of a practice often seen in India where employees tend to bypass their supervisors and report directly to a person who is at the highest level. So it is something that in many companies, CEOs from foreign countries also see as problematic. So there are several steps that are often mentioned in HR policies as well that is facing a problem. It is important to follow these steps. Thank you. I think this idea of chain of command is a very important one and I think these questions were asked some of these questions were posed to Prof. Rajesh Zelle as well and he gave a similar response. So the first is not to accept any kind of harassment or discrimination. That happens as Dr. Smita mentioned. First thing is to directly take it up with the person concerned and in many cases it stops there unless people are very bad and there are few of them it stops there. If it still doesn't stop, better to go up the chain of command and go to higher functionaries to get these issues resolved. That is one point that I wanted to respond to but also I think here we should go back to what we were discussing earlier about taking individual responsibility because it's there can be individuals who harass and they need to be dealt with but if you want to change the overall organizational culture each of us also has to take individual responsibility to make sure that this doesn't happen. I just speak up when it happens not just to you but to others also to positively transform the organizational culture by interacting with people in such a way that you set a positive example so I think the idea behind this module can sometimes be misunderstood that there is a problem which has to be addressed but why we are calling it cultural consciousness is that each of us has to be proactive in ensuring that the workplace is a positive workplace for everybody that is respected. If we do that then a large part of the problem is solved because you are working in an organization where everybody is setting an example about how to behave and that is where your generation has a lot of responsibility. Just to wind up on this session I would like to suggest that if you have access you should watch this television show called Outsourced it's a humorous television show where an American comes to work in a suburb of Mumbai and sets up this is an online shop where you can buy a lot of novelty products so there are a lot of intercultural issues where there are people in this workplace from America who are working but there are a lot of Indians also who are from many different parts of India so the kind of cultural conflicts they experience and how these are treated by each other how they come to understand each other it is treated very humorously so those of you who have access to YouTube can watch this TV show called Outsourced so with that I would like to wind up this first half of the session today so please go for a break half an hour we will be back at 11.30 sharp to take up the issues of integrity in the workplace and sexual harassment in the workplace so we will be back in half an hour