National Inclusion Week - Why Inclusion is so important to Janhavi Surve

“Being included and having a diverse team expands your perspective and teaches you to look at things just a bit differently. And it does beyond just work. Understanding the different ways, the team go about their own lives sometimes makes you pause and think about how you want to live your own.”

Janhavi Surve has been part of the One Picture team for nearly three years. As we reflect on inclusion and diversity in the workplace as part of National Inclusion Week, we wanted to hear from some of the team, their experiences and learn what more we can do to be inclusive moving forward.

How did you get into the world of Strategy and Insights?

I had a research paper as part of my post graduate curriculum at AUT. It was fascinating and for the first time, I felt like I had found an area I would actually enjoy working in.

What is the best thing about your career?

That it teaches me to think. The part I enjoy the most is when I start putting down my thoughts on ‘virtual paper’ and the thinking starts flowing and the dots begin to connect to tell the full story and what it means. All efforts and late nights feel worth it when it all comes together. And getting the chance to work across so many industries is a bonus.

Do you feel our workplace is diverse and inclusive?

In many ways, yes. Diversity and inclusiveness are such broad terms, but we do tend to use them in a linear way.

“At OP, we have diversity of thought, experiences, ways of working and personalities among other things. And we provide everyone equal opportunities to grow irrespective of their backgrounds - what matters the most here is the willingness and gumption to get things done. In the traditional sense as well, we have definitely grown in diversity over the past year, which is a real positive.”

What do we need to work on at One Picture to make it better?

To ensure we can take the occasional time and focus off deadlines and think about how we can maintain the wonderful work culture we have. It’s great to be busy, especially in the current scenario, but we all need to get together and share some light moments and experiences together so that we understand each other as people.

Totally agree Janhavi. There is always more we can do to bring more of ourselves into the workplace.