Smita Tharoor

Smita Tharoor, who lives in London, is a motivational keynote speaker and thought leader exploring unconscious bias and how it influences all of us. She is the co-founder of Culturelytics, a company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to understand work cultures and the founder of Tharoor Associates, a training, coaching and organisational development company.

In her podcast series, Stories of Unconscious Bias, which she started amid the pandemic last year, she has interviewed people around the world to share their stories and life lessons, on how they manage their unconscious biases. The podcast series currently has the global ranking of being in the top five per cent of podcasts listened to, out of 1.8 million podcasts.

Her experience working in the UK, the US, India, Europe and Asia gives her a unique advantage in understanding the expectations and needs of different cultures. “We take our upbringing for granted and it was only with the benefit of hindsight, I realised how lucky I was,” says the sister of Indian politician and member of parliament Shashi Tharoor. “Growing up in pluralistic India taught me the value of tolerance and the appreciation of accepting differences. We are defined by our narrative, our personal story, our experiences. Just one particular experience can lead to a lifelong belief. By having a podcast series, I was hoping the listener would realise they, too, have similar stories. By hearing others share their stories, we can reflect on our own stories and hopefully challenge our own unconscious biases.”

She recounts how she got started on the podcast journey and Indian actor Vidya Balan being the first guest in the launch episode. “In April 2020, while I was stuck in Delhi because of the nationwide Covid-19-induced lockdown restrictions, I read an interview with Vidya Balan in a newspaper. She was talking about lockdown and lessons learned during this period. She said she hated cooking because she always felt that the chore was demeaning and not part of being a successful woman. I didn’t know Balan. But the interview got me thinking about why she had felt that way. She had unconsciously believed this and had fought going into kitchen all her life. Now during the lockdown, she realised that she could cook if she wanted, and it did not demean her. I reached out to her to ask if she would allow me to interview her, which I did and I decided to launch the podcast interview. There was no looking back since then,” she says.

Three seasons down, the series boasts 33 fascinating interviews. “I don’t know half of my guests. The interviewees are varied,” she adds.

For instance, Nandita Das, Indian film actor and director, talks about skin tone. Sydney-based Neena Bhandari, a journalist of Indian origin, talks about having poliomyelitis at the age of three and self-belief. British photojournalist Giles Duley speaks about losing his limbs in a landmine blast in Afghanistan.

Lemn Sissay, a poet of Ethiopian origin and chancellor of Manchester University, talks about identity and race. “The ordinary stories are powerful primarily because they are ordinary, and it could be us,” she says.

S.P. Rawal, 80, shares his story of India’s partition in 1947, while Naira Manzoor, 24, shares her experiences growing up in Kashmir. Anna Harrington’s biological parents were Pakistani and English, while she was adopted into a White family where she stood apart.

Aditya Atri, who lives in Delhi, talks about living with fourth-stage cancer and asks, “How should a cancer patient behave? Are you defined by your cancer?”

Kate Nicholls, the author of Under the Camelthorn Tree, talks about other people’s unconscious biases when she was attacked in Botswana.

“So, unconscious bias is fundamentally about our life experiences and how we are influenced and make snap judgements, based on our personal stories,” she says.

How can unconscious bias training be imparted? “It should be offered for the right reasons, not just to tick a box. Unconscious bias is much more than discrimination. Its training should address our stories; how we have biases sans the realisation and how our narrative influences us in ways we didn’t even realise,” she adds.

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We take our upbringing for granted and it was only with the benefit of hindsight I realised how lucky I was. Growing up in pluralistic India taught me the value of tolerance and the appreciation of accepting differences.

I arrived in London after my undergraduate degree in the 80’s with a firm sense of my own identity and a belief that the world is an accepting inclusive place. It was only through sharing stories that I began to realise that I truly had an accepting, liberal, non-judgemental, secular upbringing. There was very little in my backpack that was influencing me unconsciously. I was very fortuitous.

We are defined by our narrative, our personal story, our experiences. These have an impact on how we make judgements and form opinions. A lot of time that’s just fine but every once in a while, we make snap conclusions that have a negative outcome either for the other person or ourselves. Just one particular experience can lead to a lifelong belief.

Knowledge is power, and I firmly believe through learning and reflecting we can effect positive change.

Since starting my own company Tharoor Associates in 2009, I have had the privilege of hearing some wonderful stories from different parts of the world. These stories were all shared in the context of understanding our Unconscious Bias. As I heard them, I realised that other than some obvious cultural differences, we all have very similar experiences. I wanted to share these stories with a wider audience, so I decided to have podcasts on the unconscious bias.

I have had the huge privilege of talking to a wide range of people around the world from California to New Zealand to Bombay with London in the middle. They share their stories and how those experiences have impacted on their unconscious biases. They tell us, the listener, what they learned from those experiences.

To begin a real process of change, we have to look at our own Unconscious Bias and move away from these potentially damaging patterns of behaviour. Assumptions are internal; we carry them around like a backpack on our back. Before any change can be made in any relationship, we need to look into our backpacks.

I do hope that these stories will resonate with you and will help you the listener reflect and look into your backpack. Happy Listening.

She is the recipient of the “Global Diversity Leadership” Award at the 2017 World HRD Congress. She is a consultant with the Disability Arts, Culture & Human Rights group Together!2012.
She is passionate about the unconscious bias and how it impacts on all aspects of leadership development.

Smita Tharoor: 2019 WE Local Europe Keynote Speaker

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