Common questions and comments about diversity training:
"Don't diversity programs divide us more than they bring us together?"
"Every time I think of diversity, I feel as though someone is trying to make me feel guilty because I was born white. "
"I don't want to be labeled a racist… but shouldn't there be a way for people of all races to talk about our experiences and feelings? White people included?"
"Things will never change, so there's no point opening up a can of worms."
"There's no point to diversity programs - white people will never understand."
"White people feel so uncomfortable with race questions that the conversation always becomes about managing their hurt feelings."
"I don't feel comfortable opening up in front of white people because I fear that whatever I say can and will be used against me later."
"Why do we always focus on "hot" diversity topics? Why don't we ever talk about disabilities, or communication styles, learning styles, or personality types? Aren't these diversity issues too? Why is it always about race, gender, and sexual orientation?"
Do these questions sound familiar?
As diversity awareness workshop leaders, we've heard sentiments similar to these for years. And they are all good, valid points.
So when we design our workshops, we design them with the intent to carefully and completely answer each of these questions - and more.
Because if people walk away from the workshops with negative, or even neutral feelings, we have done a disservice. That's why we work hard to make sure we create a culture of learning: an atmosphere of safety, guilt-and-blame-free-honesty, and wide-ranging dialogue.
We always begin that process by working with you to get a feeling for the kinds of issues your specific organization is experiencing.
We then tailor our programs to make sure we are prepared to respond with intelligence and care to any objections your organization may have.
And most of all, we make sure that participants walk away with specific skills they can use right away, for diversity issues and other relationship-building activities.
Because in the end, true diversity efficacy is about building relationships.
Diversity Skills are Relationship-Building Skills.
The key to effective diversity initiatives is to realize that:
- No one can memorize all the rules of social interaction as they pertain to diversity issues.
- These "rules" are often frustrating, because what offends one person may not offend another.
- And these can often run dangerously close to stereotyping, because not all people think alike, so each rule does not always apply.
Instead of focusing on avoiding offense, we focus on building a relationship based upon a willingness to learn.
People can always talk through their differences if the skills are present and their relationship is healthy.
But when mistrust, collusion, and poor feedback skills are present, dialogue is impossible. Learning specific relationship-building skills means that a great deal of learning about diversity can take place organically by simply caring for those relationships.
Isn't that better than walking on eggshells and memorizing a list of rules that don't always work, and which seem to change constantly anyway?
We facilitate the process of building healthy relationships as they pertain to diversity issues.
We do so by focusing on creating a learning environment, in which honesty and learning from one another is actively encouraged and rewarded.
Here's the crucial part:
The learning environment that participants create in the workshop is the same kind of environment that participants will create in their relationships. The activity of creating learning environments for the workshop is the same activity as creating healthy relationships. In this way, participants are practicing and learning diversity efficacy skills from moment one of the workshop. It's part of the design.
Our diversity awareness workshops are also specifically designed to:
- Remove blame, guilt, and finger-pointing;
- Provide concrete techniques for diversity awareness conversations;
- Provide training on how to create environments for learning from one another.
Some of the topics covered in our workshops include:
- It's nobody's fault!: putting diversity in a context we all can use;
- Paradigm shifts: just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist;
- Nobody's perfect: the joy of learning from one another;
- Making decisions: the difference between generalizations and stereotypes;
- Creating a culture: air to the birds, water to the fish, continuous learning for humans;
- Practice, practice, practice: listening to and learning from one another
- Applying the skills: applied diversity efficacy examples and Q&A
After our workshops, participants will:
- Understand how to value differences.
- Understand the role of relationship-building in diversity efforts.
- Understand how to construct environments for building quality relationships.
- Develop skills in diversity related relationship-building.
- Practice applying these skills in situations specific to their environments.
Our workshops are available in two, three, and five day session formats. Other formats can be developed as needed.
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