As a part of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group, I'm working on cultivating excellent trainings that focus on building those three things in our workplace. But there is some debate about the effectiveness of diversity trainings, and there are LOTS out there. Where to start? And is this the right place to start?
Where To Start
When you think about DE&I, there are a lot of different ways to improve the environment and experience in a workplace (or a life). Providing education is just one way that you can start. You can examine who you are - go straight to the data on diversity. You can think about who you hire, who you advance, what those processes look like. Also what message are you putting out in the world? Which images, which faces, what representation? And you can start taking a pulse across your people: how do they feel about their share of belonging, fairness, opportunities, decision-making, and voice?
Diversity Training Challenges
If you are looking at changing the culture, you need to include education as a part of the mix. There's a lot of debate about the effectiveness of diversity trainings and trainings on unconscious bias. Harvard Business Review has pointed to a disappointing lack of behavioral change in the wake of diversity trainings in the workplace: https://hbr.org/2019/07/does-diversity-training-work-the-way-its-supposed-to
I've attended webinars on DE&I initiatives in which presenters discussed one of the biggest challenges in these trainings: How to present actually-safe spaces where people are not defensive and are comfortable enough to be honest, say what they think, they are open to new ideas and highly vulnerable. Fast Company shared more on how diversity training can make people resistant, confused, and angry: https://www.fastcompany.com/90535289/5-reasons-diversity-training-are-not-successful-as-anticipated
What are the best ways to deliver diversity training in a way that has a chance to drive cultural changes in an organization?
Right now I've started my training search with excellent content from Salesforce Trailhead.
Trailhead for DE&I
Salesforce offers Trailhead as a way to teach you how to use their products and learn about other topics.
Their standout differentiator, aside from being high quality and free (what a great combination) is their content format. They have organized their learning in bite-size soundbite pieces - allowing you to devote full attention to the topic for 10-20 minutes, and then complete that section and get back to work. Later you'll complete another small, contained module, and another, and get to a deeper, broader understanding. This is very helpful when you don't have the time, patience, interest or flexibility to dedicate a few hours straight to your learning.
I'd definitely recommend the Equality trailmix they offer as an easy starting point for a 30,000 foot view of DE&I principles.
The trailmix is called: Cultivate Equality at Work
Reflect on the value of diversity and inclusion at work and what you can do to promote equality.
And the modules cover:
- Business Value of Equality
- Understand the Importance of Diversity and Inclusion at Work
- Impact of Unconscious Bias
- Recognize unconscious bias and its impact on employee performance.
- Equality Ally Strategies
- Learn practical ways you can become an ally and promote Equality for all.
- Inclusive Leadership Practices
- Use the five principles of inclusive leadership to create a culture of Equality at work.
- Inclusive Marketing Practices
- Use the six principles of inclusive marketing to create a culture of Equality.
