Category Archives: General Info

The end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – One Year Later

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In late December of last year, the US Congress voted to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) which basically prohibited Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual service people from being open and honest about their sexual orientation. In February, I published a two part blog entry (link here for those blogs) on why this repeal was good for our armed forces and for the US in general. Studies in all sectors continue to show that a fully open, accepting and diverse environment promotes everyone performing and contributing at their peak.

So what has happened to the US Armed Forces during 2011? Perhaps the most telling article from the Associated Press (link to article) appeared on November 29 with the headline, “Amos: End of gay ban a nonevent.” Marine General James

Gen. James Amos, who opposed the military's gay ban repeal, says his concern has proved unfounded (photo by Alex Brandon - Associated Press)


Amos, one of the fiercest opponents of ending the ban acknowledged that his initial concerns have been proven unfounded. General Amos last year testified that repealing the ban had strong potential for disruption within the units. He now states that he is “very pleased with how it has gone” and has seen no disruption, even on the front lines.

I offer kudos to General Amos for being an enlightened leader who did his best to support the decision after it was made. He offered his concerns, but after the decision was made he backed it and supported the accompanying actions. General Amos also shows excellent leadership skills by publically offering his updated views instead of sabotaging the efforts or continuing to complain.

Finally General Amos offered two points of why the repeal was successful. First, the military offered a comprehensive pre-repeal training program, and second, there was continued close monitoring and enforcement of standards by military leaders. These are two actions (training and monitoring) which would also be appropriate for any entity – business, non-profit, or government – to continue to support integrating diversity into our strategic fabric.

Three Components of Diversity and Inclusion Training

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Please feel free to contact me to discuss how I can provide customized and exciting diversity and inclusion training for your organization. Stan Kimer, 919-787-7315. Stan@
TotalEngagementConsulting.com


UPDATED DECEMBER, 2015: I published a new blog to go along with this one – CONTENT of Diversity and Inclusion Training where I provide a sample outline of the topics I typically include in a training session.


Also check out links to additional blogs and resources at the bottom.

I recently was asked to submit a bid to a Fortune 500 firm for design and delivery of a one-day diversity and inclusion workshop for middle managers. As I studied my past material and prepared my bid, I realized that successful diversity training needs to contain three major components that I call heart, mind and action.

First, leaders need to be inwardly and sincerely (in their hearts) be convinced of the importance of diversity and inclusion, and how critical it is to their enterprise’s success. Unless leaders internalize this topic and are truly committed and passionate, they may just half-heartedly go through diversity actions. Eventually this will show through in mediocre execution and performance. True commitment and passion will lead to excellence in execution.

Second, leaders need to be given the content knowledge that speaks to their minds. In addition to inward passion, the intelligent and analytical mind needs to be provided compelling logic, business case information, principles and useable tools. Basically content knowledge adds the structure around the base of passion and commitment. Link to my blog about the business case for diversity.

And third, any successful training must also end with a call to action where leaders put in place ongoing plans to apply what they have learned. So often one day workshops conclude and after a week or two everyone is back to the “same old, same old.” I recommend brief accountability sessions where trained managers document their execution and development plans around diversity, and then share in pairs or small groups for even 10 minutes once a quarter. Passion and knowledge combined with deliberate action will lead to the best results.

FINAL NOTE: It is important that all employees within an enterprise receive diversity and inclusion training. Co-workers are most often the frequent cause of employees not feeling welcomed and becoming unhappy at work, and most often it is the non-management employees on the front lines who interact with your diverse customers.

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Link here to request an e-mail copy of my workshop descriptions.

Additional blog links:

A blog about how Diversity has become a Key Strategic Business Initiative.

In “The Business Case for Diversity” I provide a financial model for calculating return on investment for diversity initiatives.

In “Part 3 – Considerations of Aging” I write about the impact of aging and generational diversity on the workforce.

In “The Various Growing Types of Diversity” I discuss emerging hot topics in the diversity field, which continues to evolve.

A blog about how I provided diversity training for a company after a negative incident, and how it was a win-win for all parties.