Wisdom of the Collective with Aparna Bhasin
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How immersing herself in community helps this leader create lasting impact.
In this episode, leader and founder Aparna Bhasin talks to host Charlotte Otter about how she's shifting her consulting work towards participatory research that embeds itself in community.
Aparna Bhasin is a founder, facilitator, and coach. Her business, Aparna Bhasin Consulting, recently hit its ten-year milestone and gave her the opportunity to rethink.
Having been thrust into leadership early in her career, leading a team of over 120 in multiple states in India, Aparna compares leading large teams to leading as a founder.
She finds that collaborating with groups is far more effective than working to prop up one individual leader.
She says that participatory research, while still more common as a concept in the global north, is grounded in how communities have always functioned in the global south.
And she talks about how, when living in the US as a student, she was confronted by the very intentional conversations around diversity and felt that identity was being forced on her.
Aparna says we have a great opportunity to learn from indigenous communities and tap into wisdom that has already existed for centuries.
This is a conversation with a deeply thoughtful leader who's shifting her own business model towards genuine community impact and participatory methods.
This podcast is a companion piece to Charlotte Otter's book We Need New Leaders, published on 3 June by Practical Inspiration Publishing. Find it online or in all good bookshops.
In this episode, leader and founder Aparna Bhasin talks to host Charlotte Otter about how she's shifting her consulting work towards participatory research that embeds itself in community.
Aparna Bhasin is a founder, facilitator, and coach. Her business, Aparna Bhasin Consulting, recently hit its ten-year milestone and gave her the opportunity to rethink.
Having been thrust into leadership early in her career, leading a team of over 120 in multiple states in India, Aparna compares leading large teams to leading as a founder.
She finds that collaborating with groups is far more effective than working to prop up one individual leader.
She says that participatory research, while still more common as a concept in the global north, is grounded in how communities have always functioned in the global south.
And she talks about how, when living in the US as a student, she was confronted by the very intentional conversations around diversity and felt that identity was being forced on her.
Aparna says we have a great opportunity to learn from indigenous communities and tap into wisdom that has already existed for centuries.
This is a conversation with a deeply thoughtful leader who's shifting her own business model towards genuine community impact and participatory methods.
This podcast is a companion piece to Charlotte Otter's book We Need New Leaders, published on 3 June by Practical Inspiration Publishing. Find it online or in all good bookshops.
Chapters
- 00:03 Introduction to Aparna Bhasin and her Consulting Work
- 02:51 Shifting Research and Organisational Approaches
- 04:10 The Importance of Participatory Research
- 05:54 An Inciting Incident: Sharing Data with the Community
- 07:52 The Influence of Thesis Research and Community Change
- 10:18 Parallels with Corporate Communications and Change Management
- 11:39 The Emergence of Participatory Research
- 13:13 Anti-Colonialism and Educating Clients
- 16:02 Leadership Style: Shared Leadership and Adaptability
- 18:11 Adapting Leadership to Different Situations
- 20:26 Diversity and Transformation
- 25:53 Coaching and Supporting Emerging Leaders
- 29:41 Reputation and Thought Leadership
- 33:06 Shifting the Archetype of Leadership
- 35:28 Book Recommendation and Tips for Emerging Leaders
- 38:30 What Brings Joy
