Welcome to F1GMAT’s #askAtulJose series. I am Atul Jose. In today’s episode, I will guide you on how to create an inclusive environment narrative for your Columbia PPIL Essay.

The biggest challenge when I create narratives for F1GMAT’s Essay Guides is in understanding what could be categorized as inclusive.

Here are two strategies to shortlist relevant experiences:

1) Find the Outgroup

If you look at any social media or live television debates, tribalism is very strong across ideologies and identities. So any action that crosses the tribe barrier and takes you out of your comfort zone in accommodating a person from a different group from the majority of the team will be counted as creating an inclusive environment.

A lot of applicants think that to mention an example, it must be some dramatic event. That might not be the experience for everyone.

For instance, I worked with a Product Manager who was responsible for an 8-person team. And there was a specialist in security from an Eastern European Country. This person felt completely alienated from the team, primarily because there were language barriers. But most importantly, the person didn’t have the know-how to find restaurants that served his native cuisine. A simple act of the manager, along with the team, taking the person to a restaurant serving his home country’s cuisine built a strong bond within the team. In addition to that, the cultural event in the company didn’t feature the security specialist’s country. The product manager communicated this with the HR team and encouraged the person to work with the DEI team to build a portfolio around his country. These 2 simple acts of creating an inclusive environment were more than enough for Columbia to understand the Product Manager’s inclusive mindset.

2) Lack of Representation

If you are part of a group or an identity that is a minority in a particular job function or an industry, and you had to use your skills to change the culture from the top down for your identity, use them for the essay. This is a common example for women candidates from the Oil and Gas & Construction industry where the working hours, the facilities on-site, and even the time of the meeting is designed with men in mind. Many successful candidates communicated the issues, created peer groups, built allies, and initiated measures to create an inclusive environment for women professionals. This often is a good example even for those who are working in Investment Banking.

So you can create narratives with 2 strategies – one as a leader/peer looking out for an underrepresented team member and the second as the minority who had to change the culture of the company even in the smallest ways.

If you need examples of Essays around the Columbia PPIL narrative. Download F1GMAT’s Columbia MBA Essay Guide or you can reach out to me