Diversity Training: Celebrating Diversity in the Workplace

COURSE SUMMARY

More than ever, a workplace is a diverse collection of individuals proud of who they are: their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, their ethnic background, and all the other components that make an individual unique. One of the challenges for workplace leaders is how to help these diverse individuals work as a team. We all know what happens to organisations that don’t have effective teamwork: they fail. And, failing to embrace diversity can also have serious legal costs for corporations. This one-day workshop will give you ways to celebrate diversity in the workplace while bringing individuals together.

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN

• Describe what diversity and its related terms mean
• Use terms that are politically correct and avoid those which are not
• Apply the four cornerstones of diversity
• Avoid the pitfalls related to diversity
• Use a technique for dealing with inappropriate behaviour
• Develop a management style to encourage diversity
• Take action if you or one of your employees feels discriminated against

WHAT TOPICS ARE COVERED

• Defining diversity
• How does diversity affect me?
• Identifying stereotypes
• Wise words
• The cornerstones of diversity
• How to discourage diversity
• The stop technique
• Managing for diversity
• Dealing with discrimination

COURSE OUTLINE

Defining Diversity

Participants will begin by defining diversity and related terms, including affirmative action, bias, stereotype, and Equal Employment Opportunity.

How Does Diversity Affect Me?

This session will help participants identify how a changing world has affected them. Participants will also score their pre-assignment (a self-awareness inventory) to identify possible areas for improvement.

Identifying Stereotypes

During this session, participants will explore stereotypes from different angles through a lecture and two group exercises.

Wise Words

In this era of political correctness, it’s sometimes hard to keep up with words that have become inappropriate. We will take a look at some phrases that are considered universally incorrect and some basic guidelines. We’ll also take a humorous look at some phrases that have gone too far.

The Cornerstones of Diversity

Diversity experts Armida Russell, Amy Tolbert, and Frank Wilderman have identified four cornerstones of diversity development: knowledge, acceptance, understanding, and behaviour. We will examine each cornerstone in detail during this session.

How to Discourage Diversity

There are some practices that discourage diversity more than they encourage it. We will look at four common mistakes and how to avoid them.

The STOP Technique

Diversity expert Lenora Billings-Harris has developed a four-step technique that you can use when someone is behaving in an inappropriate manner. It’s called STOP. Participants will learn about the technique through a lecture and will then practice it in a role play.

Managing for Diversity

During this brief lecture, we will look at some simple things managers and employees can do to encourage diversity in their workplace.

Dealing with Discrimination

To wrap up the day, we will discuss how to deal with discrimination as a manager and an employee.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the course, students  fill out an action plan.