Inclusion FAQ
- What would you recommend if we are only just starting out on the Inclusion route?
- Our organisation has a range of diversity activities that it feels like it's a tick in the box.
- I know that our leaders should be leading by example but they seem to be unaware that anything is wrong! What do you suggest?
- Who benefits from raising awareness of unconscious bias?
- I have global responsibility for this and really don't know where to start.
- I just want to get an idea of where we are as an organisation in terms of the whole inclusion agenda.
- What about 1:1 work?
- The challenges I have are specific to our corporate culture. I am not sure an off the shelf approach will work for us.
What would you recommend if we are only just starting out on the inclusion route?
If this is the beginning of your inclusion journey, then raising awareness is the
key. We can offer a selection of ideas to do this - it is also dependant upon the size
and location of your organisation. To begin with, one of the key groups that you should
be aiming at are your critical staffing people. Anyone who is involved with selection
or assessment we would recommend undergo an awareness raising programme, perhaps our 1
day unconscious bias intervention. Just to ensure that the thought processes they are
following and the conversations that are taking place post assessment are raising
awareness of unconscious bias at this level. The second thing that we would recommend
is that anyone involved with pay review, bonus or promotion boards also have an
understanding around their own micro-behaviours and potential unintentional incivility
that may either impact their decisions or the behaviour of the individual that they are
working with.
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Our organisation has a range of diversity activities that it feels like it's a tick in the box.
Many of our client organisations have made great strides in terms of diversity.
Some through the sheep dip training approach and some through more specialised
interventions. However, as we know in most areas of seniority, diversity is, in fact,
going backwards and at best not moving forwards at the rate it should be to reflect
communities and client bases. We believe that in raising the awareness of issues such
as unconscious bias, mirco-inequities and micro-behaviours across the organisation we
will empower and move forward diversity programmes. Exploring these things in a safe
environment enables individuals to understand their own thinking processes and understand the
beliefs that drive many of their decisions. Once an organisation arrives at a critical
tipping point with this, great changes will be realised.
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I know that our leaders should be leading by example but they seem to be unaware that anything is wrong! What do you suggest?
Our leadership and senior management interventions are run by a team of consultant trainers
who are used to dealing with leadership and strategic issues at that level, thus when
an intervention that begins to explore a senior leadership teams approach
to unconscious bias is designed, it is done from the approach of improving business performance and
individual leadership practice. Through our team testing approach, we can also offer
a more hard hitting reminder as to what specific bias is at work within the leadership
cadre and facilitate the teams own conclusions as to the impact their team bias will
have upon business going forward.
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Who benefits from raising awareness of unconscious bias?
Everyone. What we know is that unconscious bias, when left unaware, can be insidious.
It's the small conversations that don't happen, the micro-behaviours, the not selecting
for specific projects or indeed the selection for the less desirable ones. The impact
of unconscious bias can be felt through your talent pipeline at every level of management
within the organisation. Dealing with unintentional incivility making inappropriate
micro-behaviours a thing of the past within your organisation has an enlightening effect
on all groups.
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I have global responsibility for this and really don't know where to start.
We can start flying people around the globe to discover more about this. Although
there is little to replace face to face training, we are experienced in dealing with
groups large and small via web enabled programmes and web enabled coaching. We have
brought together global teams to gain an understanding of where unconscious bias sits
within their team and some of the practical business challenges that run out from this.
They then work together to successfully look at what the possible solutions.
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I just want to get an idea of where we are as an organisation in terms of the whole inclusion agenda.
We can help with this - either by way of an organisational needs analysis or by
exploring where inclusion will impact your business outcomes in the short, medium and
long term. Our inclusion audits can be run via the classic route of focus groups,
interviews and questionnaires or may be complemented by using sub-conscious audits;
helping us to pin point exactly where and in what area the overwhelming bias within
the organisation lays.
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What about 1:1 work?
Many senior people who are either short on time or want to examine more closely how
unconscious bias impacts their leadership practice may benefit from our 1:1 coaching
programmes. All of our coaches are fully qualified organisational or occupational
psychologists with deep experience either within leadership strategy and/or culture
change. This makes their approach to coaching one of driving better overall leadership
practice rather than purely driving inclusion.
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The challenges I have are specific to our corporate culture. I am not sure an off-the-shelf approach will work for us.
Although we are able to offer a series of interventions that are already defined, we also have a background in designing bespoke programmes that drive true cultural change. As a pre-curser to this we will immerse ourselves in the needs of your organisation and ensure that any intervention is not only designed specifically for you but delivered by trainers that either relate to your challenges directly or are culturally, ethnically or behaviourally matched.
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For more information
If you would like to learn more about our solutions and interventions, please send us a message here, email inclusion@people-development-team.com or call us on 01920 485569.