Series Sessions
- Scene One: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Leaning into our discomfort about inclusion - Scene Two: Friday, March 23, 2007
Including and Engaging people with disabilities - Scene Three: Thursday, May 10, 2007
Including and Engaging people of all socio-economic levels - Scene Four: Thursday, July 12 2007
Including and Engaging People who are Transgender and Bisexual in the Workplace - Scene Five: Thursday, September 27, 2007
Including and Engaging People with Body Modifications - Scene Six: Friday, November 9, 2007
Including and Engaging Women of Color
Scene One: Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Leaning into our discomfort about inclusion
Presenters: Patti Digh and David Robinson, The Circle Project
Patricia Digh
David Robinson
"The work of diversity is messy and chaotic - too often we try to 'fix' it with tame solutions that only perpetuate the problem," says Patti Digh, co-facilitator of this session. "Many organizations avoid messiness even though it is the stuff that drives innovation, creativity and real learning. And we too often focus on behavioral change...but in our experience, behavior - like water - follows the structure of the land. To really achieve change around inclusion issues, we need to look more at the 'structure of the land' in our organizations. That, too, is sometimes messy."
If the real work of diversity and inclusion happens at the far edges of our comfort zone, how can we learn to step toward our discomfort when our impulses tell us to run away? What is the difference between how we behave on those edges and how we think we behave? How does our need for safety keep us and our organizations from really engaging in the work of inclusion? What in the structure of the land of our organizations keeps us from achieving what we need around diversity and inclusion?
This session will address those questions and provide tools for moving ourselves and our organizations toward true inclusion.
Outcomes:
- Participants will be introduced to 9 diversity competencies that will help their organizations move from "exclusion" to "inclusion."
- Participants will explore diversity as a wicked problem and recognize how many of our diversity interventions are actually tame solutions that exacerbate the problem.
- Participants' basic assumptions about diversity will be challenged in a way that could change their understanding of diversity in themselves and their organizations.
- Participants will gain a fuller understanding of the need for experiential learning in addressing diversity challenges.
- Participants will have an active learning experience. The meaning they make from it will be personal to each individual and the organizational context in which they find themselves.
Process:
This is a highly experiential, interactive session oriented more toward learning (a process that leaves us changed) than toward problem solving (a process focused on changing our surroundings). It will not be a traditional learning environment; people will be invited to explore, lean into their discomfort, experiment, make meaning of their experiences, and have fun. We will:
- Utilize both cognitive tools and experiential and creative techniques
- Use improvisational theatre, metaphor, story and other narrative tools
- Explore culturally expressive personal and organizational "masks"
- Be 85% experiential-not in the sense of simulations or games, but as unmasked engagement with others
- Invite participants to extract meaning from experiences as a collaborative learning community
Tools:
All the exercises in the session serve as tools for personal development and for engendering change in an organization. In addition, the explicit tools will be:
- The Circle Project Inclusion Model
- The 9 Circle Project Competencies
- The "Structure of the Land" Organizational Change Model
- The Circle Project Toolkit
Presenters: Patti Digh and David Robinson - The Circle Project
Who should attend this session:
Diversity change agents; diversity champions; diversity council members, affinity group and employee network members; managers and leaders; HR managers and specialists, diversity managers and trainers; individuals and individual contributors; organizational development consultants
Scene Two: Friday, March 23, 2007
Including and Engaging people with disabilities: Don't "dis" abilities! Engage employees and their expertise
Presenters: Barbara Ceconi, President, and Kurt Kuss, Associate, Access Umbrella, Inc., Brookline, MA.
Barbara Ceconi
Kurt Kuss
What if a person with a disability came to work on your team? "Hi everyone! I'd like to introduce Adriana, she's our new IT tech. She'll be working with her pal, Jazz, her guide dog. Please give Adriana a warm welcome and show her the ropes, okay?" says your boss matter-of-factly.
Would you be comfortable engaging Adriana - showing her the ropes? Clarifying her needs? Helping her integrate into your team? Developing a working relationship with her?
Or would a series of questions race through your mind? "How is SHE going to do this job?" "How is she going to learn how our team works when she can't see us?" "How is her being here going to affect me—I already have too much to do." "Will I have to help her finish her work?" "Doesn't anybody realize how she is going to impact our team's performance?" "This is crazy!"
Will anyone talk about these questions? Probably not!
"People with disabilities are often on the edges of our comfort zone," says Barbara Ceconi, president of Access Umbrella and co-facilitator of this session. "Too often, we step lightly, or sometimes even walk away when faced with the prospect of considering someone with a disability," she says.
"When people with disabilities enter, or attempt to enter the work environment—as they are doing more than ever—people seem to react to their assumptions and fears without considering how adaptation is a part of everyone's life," says Kurt Kuss, associate with Access Umbrella, Inc., the other co-facilitator of this session.
It doesn't have to be this way; Kurt says there are all kinds of ways to make a situation productive, but you have to be aware and know what to do. "That's why a session like this is helpful," he says.
In this session, participants will confront and deconstruct their conscious and unconscious preconceptions about people with disabilities. Participants will gain a heightened awareness of the attributes of people with disabilities and acquire methods for addressing the most critical workplace issues. Participants will have an opportunity to practice and use selected tools and strategies, and choose applying them to one of two situations
- how to increase individual awareness, or
- how to address systemic opportunities for change. Both situations offer solutions for better including and engaging employees who have disabilities.
Outcomes:
- Understand the implications of disability demographics and how these relate to business and social justice issues.
- Acquire greater personal awareness and comfort in order to appreciate the attributes of the person separate from her/his disability.
- Increase awareness of how internal attitudes affect personal and professional choices, and interactions with people with disabilities.
- Practice applying strategies and tools to implement change in the organizational system so that people with disabilities are more included and engaged.
Tools:
- Them & Us
- C.A.R.E.
- Hot Shot
- Attitudinal Checklists
- Structural Checklists
Presenters: Barbara Ceconi, President, and Kurt Kuss, Associate, Access Umbrella, Inc., Brookline, MA
Who should attend this session: Diversity champions and change agents; managers, team leaders, and supervisors; diversity council and affinity group members; HR managers; individuals and individual contributors; career coaches; diversity managers and trainers
Scene Three: Thursday, May 10, 2007
Including and Engaging people of all socio-economic levels: Working with the unmentionable difference - Class
Evangelina
Holvino
Maureen
Scully
Most Americans are not comfortable admitting that we recognize this distinction in our supposedly "class-less" society, but we do!
Two values support the very foundations of the United States: equal opportunity and fairness. Class differences can challenge precious cultural assumptions about meritocracy and upward mobility in our society.
We know class differences exist in the U.S. - for example, in levels of income, schooling, housing, and health care benefits, to name a few. But in the work environment, how does class come into play?
"While class is ever present in organizational life, it is rarely discussed directly, or with legitimacy, as an issue of inclusion and diversity," says Evangelina Holvino, president of Chaos Management and co-presenter for this session.
Unlike other dimensions of diversity, class status is assumed to be "earned" - and changeable if one is "good enough." The strong faith in meritocracy means that Americans like to believe that class status really does reflect merit. "Americans are ambivalent about class, believing that hard work determines who gets ahead, yet knowing about all the obstacles," says Maureen Scully, management professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston and co-presenter.
In the workplace, individuals may be categorized as either worthy of advancement or not "fitting in" according to how they talk (dialects, accents, vocabulary), how they dress, and their comportment. A person's style and non-verbal behavior may affect perceptions of intelligence and ability to get a job done. Managers assess what constitutes "merit," sometimes privileging "high status" forms of knowledge over others. In organizational structures, pay grades reflect and reinforce societal evaluations of the "worth" of a job.
In this session we will bring class issues out into the open, pushing people's comfort zones and stimulating new learning.
Outcomes:
At the end of this session participants will be able to:
- Use specific language to understand and talk about the role of class as an important social difference in organizations (including concepts like class divisions and meritocracy).
- Identify at least four of the complex dynamics of class in organizations and their implications for inclusion and engagement, such as myths about class and class symbols.
- Appreciate aspects of the communication and cognitive styles typically associated with different classes, beyond the tendency to urge assimilation and "improvement" for those from working class backgrounds.
- Explore what they/their organizations are doing/can do to increase inclusion and engagement of those employees typically left out because of their class, including creating a widespread sense of "doing meaningful work."
- Experience and evaluate tools and strategies to either a) increase their own awareness of class as it manifests in their life, or b) implement class-related changes in the organizational system to which they belong.
Tools:
The personal meets the structural:
- The class privilege walk line.
Personal awareness:
- Myths about class.
- Class background dialogue.
- An appreciative approach to class contributions.
Organizational change:
- The schema of class structure in organizations.
- The meritocracy matrix.
- An educational model for class in organizations.
Presenters: Evangelina Holvino, President, Chaos Management, Ltd, and Senior Research Faculty, Center for Gender in Organizations, Simmons School of Management, Boston, MA. Maureen Scully, Management Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Affiliated Faculty, Center for Gender in Organizations, Simmons School of Management, Boston, MA.
Who should attend this session: Diversity champions and change agents; managers and team leaders; labor / management intermediaries; union leaders and members; diversity council and affinity group members and leaders; HR and diversity managers and leaders; leadership development and succession planning specialists; career coaches; individuals and individual contributors with special interest in the topic.
Scene Four: Thursday, July 12 2007
Including and Engaging People who are Transgender and Bisexual in the Workplace: Sex - face it - we all bring it to work!
Jillian Weiss
Robyn Ochs
Everyone brings their sex to work because it's part of who we are. Sex has two parts: biology and gender; gender refers to culture or who we've learned to be.
Not all sex is received equally in the work environment; transgender and bisexual people encounter particular challenges. Why this disparity?
"Many people have a hard time understanding identities that are ambiguous, and both transgender and bisexual fall into this category," says Jillian Weiss, Ph.D., J.D., a presenter at this session. "While the reality is that sex, gender and sexual orientation all exist on continua, we want things to be simpler than they actually are," adds Robyn Ochs, Ed.M., co-presenter.
Because of this conceptual difficulty, tolerance and inclusion often elude bisexual and transgender people, who may encounter intolerance - and lack of understanding - in both heterosexual communities and gay/lesbian communities.
Transgender people are radically rethinking identity; to what degree others will tolerate them in the process is an issue. At the same time, they have to manage their own anxiety around their gender. Bisexual people have an identity that radically challenges the notion of a hetero/homosexual split; their very presence seems to generate discomfort in some people.
Although these population groups are relatively small, their members experience significant discrimination in the workplace. The organizational goal should be to retain a productive employee and make employment decisions based on performance-related issues.
In this session, participants will have the opportunity to expand their awareness and knowledge about transgender and bisexual people, who they are and why, and what they experience in the workplace. In addition, participants will explore what some organizations are doing to better include and engage them. Participants will have the opportunity to expand their diversity competency in one of two ways:
- learning more about how their own personal views and awareness may impact bisexual and transgender people in their work environments, and
- learning how to implement change in the organization so that bisexual and transgender people feel more included and engaged.
The goal is that everyone come away more knowledgeable about these groups and with tools and strategies to apply to improve the work environment for all.
Outcomes:
Participants will:
- Understand transgender and bisexual identities, and the nature of these population groups.
- Be able to articulate the issues that transgender and bisexual people face in the work environment and how some organizations are working to better include and engage them.
- Have increased personal awareness of and comfort with people who are transgender and/or bisexual.
- Gain familiarity with a few key tools to apply when implementing systemic change to better include and engage transgender and bisexual employees are
Tools:
- Managing anxiety - learning how to reduce anxiety about moral opinions, what to say and what to do
- Comfort with difference - how to be comfortable with bisexual and transgender co-workers
- Policy - types of policies that can create a welcoming atmosphere for bisexual and transgender employees
- Training - presenting information to management and co-workers about bisexual and transgender identities on cognitive and emotional levels
Who should attend this session: Managers and team leaders, diversity council and affinity group leaders and members, diversity and HR managers, facility managers, diversity trainers and facilitators, diversity champions, employee relations specialists, individual contributors and employees
Presenters: Jillian Weiss, Ph.D., J.D. Principal Consultant, Jillian T. Weiss & Associates, and Assistant Professor of Law and Society, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ, and Robyn Ochs, Ed.M., a professional speaker on bisexual identity and editor of Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Boston, MA.
Scene Five: Thursday, September 27, 2007
Including and Engaging People with Body Modifications
Donna Stringer
Jaime Barber
"You know, you will never get ahead in this company if you keep wearing that nose ring."
"I am amused when older employees turn up their nose at my tattoos and pierces—when they all wear make-up, dye their hair, and have body nips and tucks!"
"I love my eyebrow ring—all my friends have one—it's the bomb!"
"Do you see any executives on the top floor with tattoos? Take a hint!"
"You can't work in customer service—no customer wants to see you stretching your ear lobe!"
"I love seeing young people with tattoos—it gives me permission to finally wear short sleeves and show the tattoo I've been hiding for 40 years"
The faces and bodies of the young American worker, and some older workers as well, are changing, and they are increasingly decorated with ink and metal. About half of people in their 20s have either a tattoo or a body piercing other than traditional earrings, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (2006). That figure is growing. According to a 2004 Harris Poll, 49 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 have tattoos.
What difference does a tattoo or a visible piercing make in the workplace? "This is a question I frequently ask corporate managers," says Donna Stringer, President of Executive Diversity Services and co-presenter for this session. She says what should matter is whether the individual contributes to the organization. For example, Jaime Barber, an employee of a Seattle-based company who will co-present with Donna for this session says, "I am a valued employee and as productive as any of my colleagues who don't have tattoos or visible piercing. Furthermore, I don't see my tattoos affecting my performance any more than that of other employees who wear make-up, dye their hair or modify their body in other ways.
The reality is that most of us modify our bodies in one way or another: removal of hair, growth of facial hair, use of make-up, wearing earrings or other adornments, and most recently surgeries to reduce the signs of aging. The younger generation has simply added to the options of the older generation. The question is: why are some body modifications acceptable and others are not?
The purpose of this session is to explore the relatively new dimension of diversity that organizations are experiencing. Some body modifications seem to generate conflict about the "appropriate" way to present one's self in the work place. Participants will have the opportunity to explore applying the tools on this issue on two levels: to examine their own personal comfort with different body modifications and how that discomfort may affect working relationships, and how to change organizational systems so that body modifications are not a barrier to organizational opportunities. If the goal is engaged employees that feel included, then expanding everyone's diversity competency in working with people with modifications is worth the effort.
Outcomes:
- Learn the basic demographics associated with body modification. What is it? Who's doing it? Why?
- Learn the history of body modification and it's meaning around the world.
- Gain awareness about personal perceptions and biases regarding people with body modifications and how those biases impact inclusion and engagement.
Learn to use personal tools for greater effectiveness in understanding and working with people who have body modifications:
Learn to use tools that can affect change in organizational systems to more effectively include and engage people with body modifications:
Tools:
- Individual awareness:
- Assumption checking
- Intent and impact dialogue
Organizational systems:
- Is it a difference that makes a difference?
- Coaching tips
- Policy/practices review worksheet
Who should attend this session: Managers and team leaders, HR managers and specialists, individual contributors and employees, diversity council and affinity group leaders and members, diversity managers and facilitators, diversity champions.
Presenters: Donna Stringer, President, Executive Diversity Services, Seattle, WA, and Jamie Barber, employee of a Seattle-based company experienced with body modifications.
Scene Six: Friday, November 9, 2007
Including and Engaging Women of Color
What managers and co-workers need to know
Deepali Bagati
Anika Warren
"Why are you focusing a whole session on women of color?" some might say. "Haven't African American women kind of arrived—I mean, aren't companies bending over backwards already trying to include this group?" Is there really anything new here?"
Hmmm, notice that assumption! Women of color includes African American women as well as women from many other groups!
Who are women of color? What do they do? Why should you care? How can you leverage this diversity?
Referring to Catalyst research, Anika Warren, co-presenter for this session points out, "Women of color often refer to the glass ceiling as the 'concrete ceiling'—made up of stereotyping, excess scrutiny, lack of mentors and role models, and exclusion from informal networks."
"Catalyst Census 2005 shows that women of color hold just 1.7 percent of corporate officer positions and represent only 1.0 percent of Fortune 500 top earners," says Deepali Bagati, also co-presenter. "This suggests that little has been done to remove the multiple and intersecting barriers that hinder the advancement of women of color," she adds.
The purpose of this session is to jostle participants' assumptions about women of color with the latest research and thinking about this group.
By answering the who, what, why and how about the workplace experiences of women of color, participants will walk away with actionable strategies and recommendations for creating inclusive workplaces and engaging and advancing this diverse talent.
Outcomes:
Using Catalyst research and organizational practices:
- Know both the demographics and the potential that women of color bring to the talent pool, the workforce, and the marketplace.
- Know between group and within group differences for women of color subgroups.
- Identify the barriers that women of color experience as they come into the workforce, and as they try to move up in the organization.
- Become familiar with tools and strategies that individuals can use to expand their awareness about how they may erect barriers for women of color, consciously or unconsciously.
Presenters:
Deepali Bagati, Ph.D., and Anika Warren, Ph.D., Directors of Research, Catalyst, Inc., New York, NY
Who should attend this session:
Managers, team leaders, and supervisors; individuals and individual contributors; diversity champions and change agents; diversity council and affinity group members; HR managers; career coaches, mentors, and succession planners; diversity managers and trainers.
Tools & Process:
Participants will have the opportunity to expand their diversity competency by working with tools in two breakout groups:
- Organizational Culture Change
Tools: Catalyst Change Model & Organizational Best Practices - Individual Development
Tools: Visualization exercise & 5 Point Guide for Everyday Use