Diversity and Inclusion Training – No Longer Optional: A Guest Blog

Diversity and Inclusion Training is more critical than ever!

I do like to publish guest blogs from time to time on my consulting topics of diversity, career development and leadership.  Here is the latest from Carol Pang from findcourses.com.  Also I myself offer a wide range of customized diversity training for my clients!

In the wake of the events of summer 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement reached a peak after the killing of George Floyd, diversity and inclusion has come to the forefront of many companies’ priorities. Recent research by LinkedIn shows that while overall C-suite hiring fell 18% in 2020 year-on-year in the US, the hiring of chief diversity officers (CDO) grew 84% as a proportion of total C-suite hires.

Why should companies care about diversity and inclusion training?  It’s clear that organizations can no longer ignore diversity training at the workplace. Research by findcourses.com shows exactly why that’s the case.

Seventy-two percent of companies offering D&I training experienced financial growth. These companies are more likely to have a high level of diversity in their workforce compared to the companies who didn’t see any growth in the same period.

For Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, D&I is not just the right thing to do. “When thinking about our mission, there’s strength in our differences,” says Texanna Reeves, Executive Director of the Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence at Merck.

Apart from having to translate medicine packaging into different languages, Merck has to consider how the medicine will be received culturally. For a company like Merck, which has a presence in 120 countries, having different cultural voices at the table provides a significant competitive advantage when making major decisions.

How to grow diversity and inclusion in your workplace?   You may be convinced of the benefits of offering equality and diversity training at your company but you’re wondering what’s the best way to go about it. Read on for 3 great tips on how some companies are leading the charge in implementing meaningful and effective D&I programs.

Tip 1. Deploy a multi-pronged inclusion approach.  The most effective D&I training programs are multi-pronged, just like the top leadership or sales training programs. For BCG Digital Ventures’, a corporate investment and incubation firm founded by BCG, formal training on unconscious bias is only one piece of the puzzle. The company also offers employee resource groups where employees who share identities, as well as allies, can get together and discuss the issues that come up for them at work and elsewhere.

In a recent celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, BCG DV put up Kinsey scales (which show the spectrum of sexual orientation) inside bathroom stalls. Employees are invited to anonymously mark where they fall on the scale. Max Avruch, BCG DV’s learning and organizational development specialist, says, “It was a way for us to show diversity on our walls and to show people there is a spectrum around orientation.”

Avruch emphasized that the company culture stems from its embrace of “radical inclusion” – an approach that aims to embrace diversity in a genuine way, not as a mandatory HR initiative. “It’s the notion of really trying to include everyone and not feeling like there’s segregation that can easily happen in a work-type community,” Avruch says.

Tip 2. Be proactive in addressing unconscious bias.  One of Merck’s D&I initiatives is the Unconscious Bias Education Toolkit. This toolkit is an arsenal of resources that aims to tackle the unconscious bias that can occur during the hiring process.

The resources in the toolkit facilitate D&I training in an easily digestible way with videos under 3 minutes and training sessions below 30 minutes. Reeves says, “We’re really empowering our leaders to take ownership of it. The key is to be able to make it simple enough but effective so that they will truly utilize these resources.”

Merck aims to challenge their employees to take a proactive approach to being consciously inclusive. Thus, apart from the toolkit, Merck also incorporates lunch-and-learns, interactive theater and virtual reality into their D&I training programs.

Now you can harness virtual reality technology in your training.

Tip 3. Harness the technology of virtual reality.  Virtual reality is a great way to implement D&I training at your company. VR allows employees to practice their learning in a safe environment. For example, in a VR scenario, the user can be of a different race or gender or in a wheelchair. The user then experiences what it’s like to be confronted by someone who is displaying prejudice toward them.

Danny Belch is the Chief Strategy Officer at STRIVR, a VR coaching company with roots out of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Belch recommends that organizations who are interested in using VR in their D&I training “take some time and work with some companies who have been doing this for a while, as they know what’s worked and hasn’t worked in VR.” Belch adds, “This should be a collaborative effort. The VR people should not be creating the D&I training and the D&I people can’t create the VR training.”

Final thoughts.  If you’ve been hesitating, now is the time to get behind the idea of implementing and enhancing D&I training at your workplace. It’s not just the right thing to do. Once you start the process of implementing D&I training initiatives, you will begin to reap the business benefits of having a workforce that has a high level of diversity training.

About the author:  Carol Pang is a Digital Content Editor for findcourses.com. Prior to this, she has 12 years of experience in the corporate and financial sectors. She believes that people are fundamental to an organization’s success, and that effective training can create a motivated and engaged workforce.

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Here are two of my blogs about diversity training:

Components of Diversity Training

Contents of Diversity Training

 

 

Diversity, Inclusion and the “Naïve Offender”

It is very easy in today’s complex multi-cultural world to inadvertently offend someone. (graphic from wikiHow)

When I hold a diversity and inclusion workshop with a client, early in the discussion, I ask people to think about where they may be on the “diversity spectrum” when considering this subject. I assert that people generally fall into four categories. Where are you?

Change Agent. These are the leaders on the diversity subject. They are full vocal supporters of diversity and inclusion, and are often the leaders within their organizations on this subject. They may teach workshops, are not afraid to initiate discussions with other leaders and employees, and are adroit at articulating the business case and value of diversity.

Active Supporter. These people “get it.” They understand the value and importance of diversity and inclusion and seek to grow in their knowledge. They take steps in their daily work to assure diversity and inclusion is a component.

Hopefully we can all aspire to be change agents or at least active supporters in terms of diversity and inclusion (photo from Plays-In-Business.com)

Neutral. These are people who most likely have not given the subject much thought, and simply go along with the flow in their areas. Often, they may not have been educated on this subject.

Deliberate Offender. These are people who can do quite a bit a damage within an organization. They are anti-diversity and often ostracize or criticize diverse groups or constituencies within the enterprise. They may even go as far as to spread false information and fear about others.

But in addition, there is a fifth category where even those of us who are change agents and active supporters may find ourselves from time to time – the naïve offender.

What is a naïve offender? This is a person, who on occasion, unintentionally makes an error or a misstep in terms of some aspect of diversity. Often a person may even have good intentions, but accidentally say something offensive to someone else. Frequently these missteps simply come from a lack of knowledge.

What are some examples of a naïve offender?

• Using a word or phrase that is offensive to the hearer. For example referring to sexual orientation as “sexual preference,” which is used by those people trying to perpetrate that gay people chose to be gay and can change, or an older white man, who calls all younger men “boy” addressing an African-American man as “boy,” which conjures up cultural references to slavery.

• Saying something in jest which can offend certain hearers. Examples could be taking about how you are going to party it up and drink tequila and eat tacos to celebrate Cinqo De Mayo, or making reference to nooses or chains with African Americans.

• Speaking more loudly and raising your voice to someone who does not speak English fluidly. Simply slowing down and avoiding complicated words and idioms would be helpful instead.

• Treating all Hispanics or Asians as collective groups and not appreciate that Latin America and Asia are comprised of dozens of countries with their own distinct culture.

• Unknowingly referring to a transgender person or a gender fluid person by the wrong pronoun.

Even as a diversity trainer, I make mistakes as a naïve offender. I was presenting some material that was 3-4 years old using the terms “hearing-impaired” and “sight-impaired” when those communities now prefer using the words deaf or blind. The word impaired connotes that someone has a fault or is not capable.

What should you do if someone “naively” offends you? I would think that based upon your past relationship with someone and their body language and tone of voice, you can discern if the person is making an honest mistake or is truly belligerent, e.g. a deliberate offender. If you sense the person is a naïve offender, turn it into a learning moment and graciously point out their error. Lashing out at the person or ostracizing them will not be helpful to them, nor your community.

And what are some hints and tips for the naïve offender? How can you continually improve in this area?

• When you make a misstep and realize it, immediately and sincerely apologize.
• When someone points out a diversity mistake that you made, thank them for pointing it out.
• Continue to educate yourself about diverse communities you interact with, especially those you may be less familiar with.
• Think of ways where you can grow more as an active supporter or change agent of diversity and inclusion.

May we all be gracious and continue to grow in building a world where all diversity is fully understood, respected and included.

The below closing graphic illustrates these categories of people in regards to diversity and inclusion, along with another graphic sharing that effective diversity and inclusion training needs to incorporate the mind (business logic), the heart and taking action. Read my other blog about these components of diversity and inclusion training.