Overview: In this masterclass, participants will engage with other business colleagues to explore the topic of diversity and inclusion. It will focus primarily on gender diversity but will touch on other areas such as age, sex, race and diversity of thought.
Expected outcomes
* Understand why diversity has become such an important topic today in business and in society
* Explore pre-conceptions from the room on their views on the topic in an open, trusting and non-judgemental environment
* Demonstrate the overwhelming research highlighting the organisations benefits from a profitability, brand, innovation and talent standpoint
* Explore unconscious bias and understand that we cannot stop having biases but we can learn to be mindful of them
* Explore how company cultures form, and the impact of culture and privilege in building effective diversity & inclusion policies
* Examine strategies to support leaders, managers and also organisations to make changes and to support a diverse culture.
Flow of session
The session will challenge the participants and encourage and give time for active discussion among participants. It will include videos, exercises and challenging questions, it will also be entertaining to keep them engaged for the time.
Timing
11 – 1 – the session would be 90 – 100 minutes with plenty of time for questions and discussion
Presentation approximate timings
10 minutes: introduction and opening discussion
On arrival we start with a video and give participants an idea of the objectives as well as explore some of their comments, which we will capture in advance.
We will ensure everyone knows they are there to start a conversation and we are not expecting solutions today but hopefully some changed mind-sets
10 – 15 minutes: Problems and Barriers
Highlight why we still have significant problems with diversity and inclusion
Highlight statistics and data on these challenges
Emphasise how this is integral to the future world of work and benefits in getting this right
Discuss the role of men and their challenges in this conversation
20 minutes: Privilege and Culture
Outline the hidden privileges that we all have
Explore the dominant culture of organisations and how this can have a huge bearing on the openness and inclusivity
Call out Privileges in the room
25- 30 minutes: Unconscious Bias
What is it and why do we all have it?
What it can affect in work and in life?
How it can impact appraisals, hiring and promotions in work?
What we can do about it and what are other organisations doing?
15- 20 mins: The role we all can play
It starts with awareness – explain the importance of just having people think about the position they may hold and the things that they may say
What to do when they leave this room – importance of positive, effective communication
What simple things can we start doing as individuals and an organisation
How we need to look at gender as a male issue
Building some emotional blocks as we refer to mothers, sister, nieces, family and friends.
5 – 10 mins: Final Discussion and feedback
An opportunity to reflect on the session and remind them of the objectives. Confirm that we are not looking for the answer straight away.
To register your interest in attending please email dtimoney@itag.ie
