Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Series (four sessions)
RECOGNITION AND RESOLUTION TRAINING
It is the leader’s responsibility to create workplaces which operate with a code of ethics inclusive of everyone. Such a code of ethics creates a foundation for a positive organizational culture. Managers ensure teams, personnel, and operations adhere to the organizational policies and procedures, and they initiate redirection as needed to avoid the development of misalignments. Together, leadership and management lead by example. They create the organizational culture that ensures inclusivity, diversification of ideas and theories, and organizational interactions and outputs that embody the business’s purpose.
During this Recognition and Resolution training, leadership and management will learn how to identify and address inequities and discrimination by practicing the following recognition techniques: Observation, data analysis, and reporting. Leaders and managers will learn how to identify inequities, biases, and discrimination. Leaders will learn to create policy modification and organizational transformation implementation techniques. Managers will practice, learn, and gain the tools to change workplace culture, habits, and interactions to be influenced by respect and understanding. Together, leaders and managers will learn how to resolve inequities to motivate professional work ethics and operational adoption of respect, understanding, and appreciation of differences.
Leadership and Management takeaways:
- Adopt and practice marginalization recognition techniques.
- Learn how to empathetically engage in discussions and responses to influence and motivate resolutions in positive and impactful manner.
- Create policies, tactics, and workplace habits of cohesion, inclusivity, and respect.
- Stronger awareness of lasting harmful effects of implicit bias and discrimination.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODULE
Connections 4 Success works with leaders through weekly or bi-weekly 1:1 meetings to further develop leadership’s capability to create effective DEI elements by assisting leadership to develop the following:
- Policies
- Appropriate Reactive & Resolution response tactics
- Monitoring and Reporting Tools
- Empathy coaching techniques
PROACTIVE VS. REACTIVE RESPONSE
When inequalities are brought to the attention of leadership and management, they must quickly respond to avoid any disruptions to the organization’s culture or ability to meet goals. Reactive responses are sometimes necessary, but it is best to be proactive to avoid the emergence of issues as often as possible. Leaders must develop the framework for how the organization’s workplace culture views differences, explores opportunities for individualism, and breaks through the unspoken barriers people face due to their skin color, gender, socioeconomic status, and beliefs. The belief that differences are beneficial and a philosophy of encouraging dialogue based on differences fosters growth, creative thought, and positive change. By establishing the cultural guidelines, leaders will set up their workforce for a positive and inclusive workplace experience, and put people in a better position to respond should inequities arise.
During this training, leadership and management will learn to anticipate problems before they arise. By developing appropriate policies, processes, and procedures, leadership can set in place preventative measures to reduce the likelihood that employees will be put into the uncomfortable position of coping with the results of inequities or discrimination. These preventative measures will also create proactive responses rather than requiring a “band-aid” response which will only temporarily relieve uncomfortable or discriminatory situations. The goal of this training is to help leaders and managers to create mindset shifts, policies, processes and procedures for long-term solutions to differences through respectful environments and structured conversations, planned or ad-hoc idea sharing convenings where collectively the team addresses differences and finds solutions reflective of the collective groups ideas.
Leadership and Management Takeaways:
- Awareness and comprehension of where prejudices stem from
- Understanding of the difference between reactive response and proactive policy
- Create policies and guidelines for inclusive idea generating and sharing
- Ability to demonstrate and teach the techniques of reflective listening
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODULE
Connections 4 Success works with leaders through weekly or bi-weekly 1:1 meetings to further develop leadership's capability to create practical DEI elements by assisting leadership to develop the following:
- Proactively adopt and practice policies and techniques of listening and communicating to understand differences.
- Engage in discussions with colleagues on how differences forge creative ideas and practices.
- Create policies and guidelines for inclusive and respectful idea-sharing and generating.
COUNTERACTING UNCONSCIOUS BIAS & WORKPLACE BULLYING
Organizations operate most effectively when team members are engaged. Employees become engaged when they feel respected and appreciated, and their buy-in to the organization’s purpose creates an emotional attachment which positively affects the organization’s capability to thrive.
Too often, discriminatory actions take place with unconscious biases or direct workplace bullying. During this training, leadership and management will be immersed in scenario building to demonstrate emotional response and the impact of these disrespectful acts of unethical behavior and discrimination in a professional environment. This training focuses on scenarios and impact from the bully’s, victim’s, and bystander’s perspectives.
Everyone holds unconscious biases of cultures, socio-economic statuses, races, and genders which influence conscious perceptions and responses to others in the workplace. Leaders and managers will role-play scenarios to feel the emotional response to an inappropriate eye roll, comment, or gesture. These experiences will be used as a platform to develop educational experiences for team members on cultural diversity, race, and gender differences
Leadership and Management takeaways:
- Capability to counteract and eliminate nonverbal and verbal degradation and discrimination
- Development of detection for unconscious biases
- Create a company culture of conscious awareness and respect
- Strong awareness of emotional response and negative impact each has on personal development and organizational success
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODULE
Connections 4 Success works with leaders through weekly or bi-weekly 1:1 meetings to further develop leadership’s capability to create effective DEI elements by assisting leadership to develop:
- Workplace Anti-bullying Protocols
- Appropriate Reactive & Resolution response tactics
- Employee engage opportunities to break down barriers and preconceived ideas others
BUILDING and FOSTERING INCLUSIVE TEAMS
Inclusion can only begin with a purposeful mindset to collectively create change by implementing appropriate policies and encouraging opportunities. Leadership and management will learn how to open their minds to remove preconceived notions of the structures, positions, opportunities, and ideas of individuals different from themselves.
Instead, leaders and managers will learn to think, conceptualize, and plan for how something will work based on capabilities, knowledge, skills, professional traits, creative and critical thought. Leaders will learn how to become proactive in creating organizational cultures and purposes that attract diversity. Cultivating change begins and ends with purposeful engagement and realignment of messaging to attract diversified populations, ideas, and personalities. Managers will learn how to foster new and various ideas and methodologies that work best for the organization’s purpose and outputs.
Fostering inclusiveness by diversifying, innovating, and expanding opportunities, ideas, and outputs builds resilience and the ability to persevere. Organizations need to have a mindset shift from verbiage to actual implementation, and practices to attract a diversified workforce rather than force diversified recruitment efforts.
Takeaways:
- Recognition of disproportionate PR and recruitment and management efforts
- Create proactive organizational shifts to diversify talent attraction
- Strategic approaches to hire, train, promote, and lead for innovation and sustainability
- Overhaul misdirected perceptions with open-mindsets for growth
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODULE
- Problem Tree Analysis Disproportionate Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Strategies (human-centered design research & understanding tool)
- Problem framing, redirection strategies to shift organizational policy and operational approaches to attract and engage a diversified workforce
- Planning, implementation tactics, and roll-out of organizational shifts to embody true diversity, equity, and inclusion operations
