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Hi this is Jeff.
Ability For Success topic in April was “how to create inclusive and diverse workplace effectively?”
One interesting fact about today’s session is that I am the only non-Japanese participant and I’m the only one who is currently living in Japan.
We have two guests from Seattle, Ayano and Yurina. They are both college students.
They share a similar goal which is to make the society a better place.
Their motivations are different but equally inspiring.
In Yurina’s childhood, one of her classmate had autism.
Yurina soon become friends with this classmate.
Yurina did not really think too much about the classmate’s difference at the time.
Before Yurina is able to get to know more about this classmate, the classmate is transferred to a special aid school.
Now when Yurina looks back this memory, she often wonders if she could have helped more to help this classmate to be included and learn better in the same classroom.
The idea the grow to be the root of her goal to improve the society and human rights for minority.
Ayano, another guest, has a very tough childhood.
She was bullied at school and she decided to refuse school and all the pain.
The painful experience makes her able to understand the feeling of helplessness and isolation in a much deeper sense.
She wants to help people who are having similar feeling of pain and helplessness.
She then came across Dialog In The Dark, an organization which hosts events in a complete dark environment so people can experience what it is like to have visual impairment.
She was not able to bring Dialog In The Dark to Seattle but she is still actively looking for opportunities that she can contribute to make this world a better place.
Yurina and Ayano’s stories are so inspiring so we spent much time talking about them.
We then discussed how to create a inclusive and diverse workplace.
We talked about the key elements of an inclusive and diverse workplace: employee, employer (decision maker), and environment.
Mizuki mentioned each elements are equally important and they interact with each other.
In order to create a more inclusive and diverse environment, we can start from improving one of the elements and it will gradually influence other elements in the cycle.
Our next session is on 22-May-2016 in Japan time.
Topic is “How to evaluate ability and performance effectively and properly?”
Reserve your seat here now for free!