Human library series and workplace revival

The lived experiences of people can instil a sense of compassion and empathy among employees and making them celebrate the diversity, writes Umashankar K

On a breezy evening, a group of five young professionals borrowed a human book. The senior executive, Aarunya (name changed), who is at the peak of her professional excellence by 40, stands in front of them. She is perceived as having ODD—oppositional defiant disorder—being irrationally atrocious and aggressive, having no compassion for her fellow beings.

As Aarunya started speaking, her life events started unfolding. She was born into a humble family, where her mother, a charwoman, struggled to make ends meet, and her father was an alcoholic. Aarunya became self-sufficient after Class 10 by generating income through some academic jobs.

After getting a postgraduate degree in business, she got married. The marriage dissolved soon, leaving behind a child with Aarunya. Aarunya took up a lucrative job in a multinational company.

However, the happiness did not last for long as the child (six years old) met with an accident and suffered cerebral palsy due to a head injury. Aarunya, while climbing the steps of professional excellence, continued to nurture the child. Now, she speaks to her readers unshattered despite the cruel fate.

As the human book concluded the talk, silence ruled the audience.

The story contemplates a few questions:

Are we aware that we are not created in laboratories but evolve through different life episodes?

As colleagues, have we learnt to respect cognitive/behavioural diversity at the workplace and be compassionate for each other?

Can we establish a safe landscape wherein the people openly express themselves?

The concept of a human library originated in Denmark two decades ago as a reaction to the perceptual injustice encountered by the people due to certain social stigmas or horns effect. The movement’s main objective was to make available human books (authors/people) to narrate their life experiences and psychological/physiological aberrations that they suffered in the past. The time slot for each book is approximately 30 minutes, and the readers (audience) can converse with the book and ask questions.

According to a study published by the National Library of Medicine (2020), human library practices promote mental well-being and foster empathy. The human library’s dialogic nature distinguishes it from one-to-many motivational talks and helps people challenge prevailing negative stereotypes or mental stigmas associated with human behaviour.

Psychological safety and human library

People have evolved through diversified socio-personal realities wherein circumstantial adaptations (psychological/physiological) of the people start impacting their inner psyche. Blessed are those who have been positively affected by life, but those who are psychologically disfigured are tormented by irrational taboos. A major challenge in countries like India is the stigmatisation of psychological problems and mental illnesses like irrationally aggressive, mood disorders, gender dysphoria and many others.

According to a survey by Deloitte (2022), more than 80% of the employees in the corporate world have been passively suffering the mental issues, and 78% of the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer) have suffered one or more mental psychological concerns. Indeed, individual psychological concerns are pretty common which can be mitigated with safe platforms wherein they can deliberate on their episodes of pain, discrimination or prejudices.

Gender diversity and human library

The world is moving towards promoting the three core values of human resources: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The stigmas or taboos attached to sexual orientation have been gradually disintegrated from human resource policies (McKinsey, 2022).

Besides, gender dysphoria (an individual identity crisis raised due to the transition from biological sex to third gender) has been treated as sinful to deliberate upon. This marginalised community that comprises 10 million trans (Economic Times, 2020) are going through various personal, social, and economic discriminations.

Fortunately, India Inc., including Infosys, Accenture, and KPMG (and others), has fueled the community transition by rewriting its human resource policies and providing employment provisions for this community (Business Today, 2023). The trend appears encouraging, but the acceptance must come from within, and the individual mindset must be re-engineered. The interaction between the human book and the readers may create a sense of acceptance and build a better workplace for a diversified workforce.

Empathy and human library

The human library is a form of group therapy in which individuals learn to unjudge others. The lived experiences of the human book can instill a sense of compassion and empathy and enable employees to celebrate cognitive, behavioural, or social diversity.

A study from Assist National Proceedings shows that human book series instil a deep sense of empathy, build social connections, and offer therapeutic remedies. Organisations promoting human library series may witness exponential transformation in employees’ mindsets towards their colleagues.

Benefits of human library

Organisations are transitioning from business-centric to employee-centric. The fundamental belief is that employees with a healthy mindset can be an indispensable asset to organisations. Accordingly, the human library series is designed to recondition the human mindset and rejuvenate an organisation’s cognitive/behavioural ecosystem. In brief, the benefits include:

Gradual eradication of the taboos or stigmas associated with gender inclusion or sexual orientation at the workplace.

It builds empathy in readers as they navigate through the human book’s lived experiences and their psychological aberrations.

Optimisation of human efficiency as the roadblocks (prejudice and discrimination) to progression are eliminated.

This is a pathway to creating a psychologically safe place for employees to express life events and build trust.

The human library series helps accept differences and celebrates neurodiversity in the workplace.