More on Diversity
We have unique competences in:
- Providing strategic counsel for human resources directors, equal opportunity officers, and senior business leaders in developing initial and sustaining strategies;
- Developing organizational culture surveys;
- Developing and delivering diversity awareness training to all members of the organization;
- Developing Train-The-Trainer programs for in-house staff to deliver diversity education and training programs; and
- Delivering electives in all fields of diversity-related issues.
- Helping organizations appreciate the power of inclusion to transform culture.
ESI offers interactive workshops designed for all members of the organization that sensitize employees to the issues that often arise regarding race, culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, marital status, parenthood, and other differences that tend to divide people in the workplace and disenfranchise non-majority groupings.
Introductory sessions tend to be 1-2 days in length. We use a series of “action learning labs,” role playing, and interactive small group discussions to allow the participants to “experience” diversity, not just talk about it. In each case we err on the side of active rather than passive learning to engage adults in ways they learn best.
Because we all are first human beings and secondarily black, Asian, Latinx, European, gay, straight, old, young, male, female and so forth, we recommend beginning diversity initiatives with the MBTI® (click here to see more on the MBTI®™) in a session we call Introduction to Human Diversity. This session lays the groundwork for discussing other diversity issues in an exciting, highly positive, and interactive way. The session excites participants by showing that diversity training and education can actually be fun and informative.
Advanced sessions build on Putting Diversity to Work. In these sessions we explore ways, unique to your business or market segment, in which understanding and valuing differences can enhance the bottom line. The training is real time, action oriented, and business focused.
For those charged with organizational leadership, we offer courses in Leading and Managing a Diverse Workforce. These courses prepare senior leadership for the challenges of leading multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-faith, and linguistically-rich workplaces of the future.
We suggest involving the organization in diversity education only as a part of an overall diversity strategy that holds business leaders accountable for acting on the knowledge and awareness they gain. The effects of this strategy may impact succession planning, job assignments, marketing activities, work-life balance initiatives, holidays celebrated, food served in the cafeteria, and other related areas of organizational life. In short, understanding and inclusion must work hand in glove.
