L&D as a Transformative Agent for Change in Our Organizations & Our Communities

Learning & Development (L&D) professionals have a unique opportunity in their organizations: the learning experiences we create touch every employee and many of our customers. And we have a powerful skillset to make the most of the moment, as we spend our days engaging, educating and creating positive behavior change.?

It’s easy to get swept up in the day-to-day of the job. I do it all the time: heads down focus on each deliverable, each deadline, each team member.... until …?

TorranceLearning’s office landlord, Ron Weiser, a state party chair and University of Michigan Regent, made offensive public comments this spring about women leaders that sparked angry public discourse and stirred some to call for his resignation. As a woman business leader who leases office space from Weiser, this hit close to home.?

Weiser’s statements made me angry. Ok, really angry: in part because, at first, I did not see a path to action in a way that rang true to my values.?

As an L&D professional, though, I’ve got skills and a perspective that are uniquely suited to taking action and creating change. That’s the path the team at TorranceLearning and I chose. We’re interested in the ways we can educate and engage in conversations about inequity. We decided to use this opportunity to continue the conversation to drive change for the better.

How TorranceLearning Responded

TorranceLearning has experience and talent in research, message construction, and instructional design. In our work with clients, we provide great content, we use micro-learning design, and we think about the learner and the context of the moment. So we had the wherewithal to do something impactful with the skills and opportunities at our disposal.

We also happen to enjoy spectacularly placed real estate. Our front door and our windows open up onto downtown Chelsea, Michigan. It’s a well traveled community space that has high visibility.?

So we took those assets and turned them into a vehicle for engaging and educating the community.

We formed a team led by our Racial Equity Learning Strategist, Jessica Jackson, and made up of instructional designers & learning experience developers. The team created a microlearning campaign for our enormous storefront windows. The display is gorgeously designed. It starts with Amanda Gorman’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” which sets an uplifting and engaging tone. After all, our purpose is to engage and welcome people into a conversation.

The windows also display well-cited facts about gender and racial equity. We then give specific actions that people can take — do research, ask questions, look around you and see who isn’t being represented. QR codes provide quick access for finding additional information and learning about our diversity curriculum.?

Finally, a selfie station invites people to document and engage with their learning. It’s a reminder for them of what they’ve learned and an invitation to their peers to learn too, taking the conversation beyond the small town of Chelsea.

That’s right: microlearning, learning experience design, engagement, social connection, stories, facts, actions & reinforcement. The components of a great learning experience. We used our strengths to impact our community in a thoughtful and positive way.

Practical Steps You Can Take

As L&D professionals we touch large numbers of learners -- sometimes every person in our organization -- so why not use that position to spread positivity and cultural awareness too? Here are? some ideas for ways that you can impact your organization or your community towards diversity and equity.?

Start with yourself: People who have had more social advantages in our culture (I know I sure have) often don’t see the inequities that exist, precisely because we seldom ourselves face inequality in the same way. Simply being aware of this fact helps to start framing your perspective in new ways.?

Engage very directly with your learners who come from historically marginalized populations. Look around the table when building a course — who is and who isn’t represented at the table? Don’t assume you know what all people want or need.

Actively source media that includes and portrays a wide variety of diversity. Engage with businesses and vendors owned by people from marginalized groups.

Ask good questions during your projects. For example, what are the access points and the barriers for our learners with this particular topic? What motivates them? What could trigger a stereotype threat??

Listen to underrepresented groups — not just when designing DEI courses, but as a regular practice in all of your work. Your courses may unintentionally exclude underrepresented voices, simply because they are presented from the perspective of a group with more access or privilege, accidentally using language or images that communicate exclusion in unintended ways.

For example, it isn’t enough to have images that include a variety of races and genders, but to be aware of power dynamics and the stories the images are telling — stories that white people may not even notice at first glance.

Consider ways you can make an impact beyond your curriculum. Be a model for other teams in the way that you recruit onto your teams, how you source your vendors, and how you engage with your communities.?

Now what?

Our hope at TorranceLearning is that by providing some information and education, and easy first steps, the L&D community will have the confidence to lead our organizations into a more just and equitable society. If the L&D community isn’t an active change agent, who will be?

If you want to learn more about designing for inclusion, a great place to start is this resource for L&D teams: L&D’s Role in Cultivating Racial Equity in the Workplace.?

And if you’re in the neighborhood, stop by for a look, a scan, and a selfie. #CultivateEquityHere

With: Bill Kerschbaum, Jessica Jackson & Carla Torgerson