Prasanna Ranganathan

When it comes to inclusive leadership, it’s time to stop with the platitudes and start with the plans. Inclusive leadership is not simply about identifying biases and including different perspectives. Inclusive leadership underscores that a fundamental part of being a leader is prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) in your organization, devoting the necessary time and resources to this work, and making DEIB work a key leadership competency for leaders across your business. How you make and bring your DEIB commitments to life is one of the most important decisions you will make as a leader and, in this keynote, Prasanna helps audiences understand how they can do this work in an intentional, impactful and action-oriented way. Because DEIB work is work and it’s work that leaders everywhere cannot ignore.

Portraying diversity on the one hand and merit on the other as oppositional forces has been the primary tool used to discredit diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives since the very beginning. Often manifested in corrosive questions such as: don’t you want to know you were the best person for the job and not hired because of diversity?, this false fight has been a strategic and systemic tool to ensure that historic and current systems of power, oppression and privilege remain intact. In this keynote, Prasanna addresses and shatters this false fight head-on, by exploring the importance of diversity; what we can do individually and collectively to foster diversity and inclusion in our organizations while meaningfully addressing issues of underrepresentation; and how to combat the common myths and misconceptions around diversity and inclusion that keep us spinning our wheels. The time for action is now and with this keynote, Prasanna will give you the tools to help you get there.

Representation matters. As storytellers, we have the power to not only reflect the world in which we live, but imagine the world we seek to build. This is an awesome power and responsibility and central to this work is a commitment to diversity and belonging. In his keynote, Prasanna will explore the importance of diversity in storytelling and what we can do as individuals and organizations to tell more inclusive stories. With a blend of personal stories, pop culture references and diversity and belonging best-practices, Prasanna will take you on a journey that inspires you to think about how to leverage the power of storytelling to build a bold new world that truly includes and reflects everyone across all dimensions of diversity.

The importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) in storytelling cannot be overstated. We know that inclusive stories can change the world. But do we recognize the power of storytelling to drive meaningful progress when it comes to DEIB? In this session, Prasanna examines why and how DEIB professionals and business leaders need to leverage the power of storytelling to make change happen within their organizations and across industries, without relying on individual employee experiences of oppression to drive necessary action. He examines where storytelling currently stops when it comes to DEIB and where it needs to go if its full power and potential is to be realized.

As a legally blind professional with a degenerative eye condition, Prasanna is very clear: “there is nothing wrong with me. There is no flaw or defect in me that needs to be fixed. My disability arises in my interaction with the world around me that is designed for people who see.” In this keynote, Prasanna will explore the social model of disability, accessibility, and inclusion and how we all have a role to play in ensuring that disability inclusion and accessibility are not just features or compliance mechanisms but animating approaches and design philosophies that inform all aspects of our work. Because for far too long disability inclusion has been left out of DEIB work and that needs to stop now. Weaving his lived experience as a person with a disability together with his professional experience as a human rights lawyer and DEIB professional, Prasanna will share personal reflections and tangible advice on how individuals and organizations can create workplaces that are accessible, barrier free, and inclusive to people with disabilities.