What Really Happens In A DEIB Training Session?

Approximately 8 in 10 US employees have participated in some sort of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) training. DEIB workshops have proliferated in recent years as everyone from Fortune 500 to governmental organizations has stepped up their diversity efforts.?

But for those who want to create a more inclusive work environment but have never used a DEIB session to do so, they might be wondering how exactly these sessions work.?

Purpose Of DEIB Training

Before you enlist the help of a DEIB training organization, you should understand the goal of these workshops. In short, the goal of DEIB training is to help an organization accomplish its DEIB goals. Training sessions do so by addressing unconscious bias, learning about one another, and interacting and being vulnerable with co-workers in the hopes of creating a more inclusive and supportive workplace.?

These workshops are not meant to be a panacea. Nor are they one-time fixes that will magically change a company’s entire culture. They should be viewed as a piece of a larger strategy used to achieve DEIB goals.??

As far as what participants will learn, this depends on the goal of the workshop.?

At The Executive Learning Lab , we offer dozens of workshops, each designed to address a certain aspect of workplace culture.?

Here are just a few of our workshops:

• Microaggressions with a Macro Impact
• The Ghosts of Yesterday: Identifying & Dismantling Systems of Oppression Lab
• Championing Equity: Inclusive Decision-Making Processes Learning Lab
• Creating Safe and Affirming Spaces for our LGBTQ+ Colleagues
• Confront and Interrupting Implicit Biasi Lab
• Supporting Paraprofessionals in Building Cultural Awareness Lab

What Does A DEIB Workshop Look Like?

The specifics of what happens in a workshop depend on the theme and focus of the workshop. That being said, there are some common activities that you will see in each DEIB workshop, regardless of its goal.?

Brave Spaces

DEIB workshops push boundaries. They challenge our worldview and at times, can become emotional. To create an impactful session, we start each workshop by establishing brave space norms. These rules of engagement are designed to create a safe space where everyone feels like they can express themselves freely. Here are some brave space norms we used in a recent workshop:

● Make space & take space

● Use ‘I Statements’?

● Practice giving and receiving forgiveness

● Active listening & ownership of learning

● Feel free to share experiences & lessons, not identifying details

Highly Interactive and Engaging

A two-hour lecture isn’t going to change anyone’s thinking. When we’re dealing with such engrained habits as implicit bias, participants must be stimulated in ways that make them question their beliefs.?

At TELL we use breakout groups and group exercises to give participants time to discuss among themselves, learn about one another, and to ask themselves and others difficult questions. Expect a high degree of interaction when your DEIB trainer steps into the room.?

Reflection

In one of our exercises for our workshop on confronting and interrupting implicit bias, we asked participants to create their own circle of trust. A circle of trust is simply a group of people that a participant can confide in and feel safe with. Then, we asked participants to consider how similar each of these members are. What we normally find is that most people in our circle of trust have the same attributes, such as race, age, religion, accent, etc.?

We went on to explain that this is affinity or in-group bias (the preference for those who look and behave like us) and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Through reflection exercises such as these we are able to involve workshop participants in a more intimate and stimulating way.?

To have employees address their own unconscious biases, we need to leverage self-reflection as a tool.

Discussion Based

DEIB training workshops do not take place in a bubble. We do not put each co-worker in a room alone to contemplate their identity. To get the most out of these trainings, co-workers must interact with one another.?

By dialoguing with one another, employees gain a more nuanced understanding of their co-workers. Having conversations about identity allows co-workers to share their experiences, actively listen to one another, and show compassion for fellow employees.?

The Key Ingredients Of DEIB Training

Just because a workshop may have a goal of creating a more equitable and inclusive workplace doesn’t mean it will achieve its goal. Here are a few things companies and instructors must do to ensure an impactful session.?

Buy-in From Employees

Not everyone will happily spend a couple of hours in a DEIB workshop. Some employees will push back against such sessions. To convince employees that DEIB is beneficial for everyone, we recommend spelling out exactly what DEIB is .?

In a recent poll, the Washington Post found that after being supplied with an accurate description of DEI, an employee is more likely to support attending a DEI session.?

The key is education. Even before the workshop takes place, it's important to educate those you want to attend on what is to come. It’s also vital that you have buy-in from higher-ups. If employees see their managers and executives in attendance, they will also take the session more seriously. In this way, employees may voluntarily come to training as opposed to feeling forced to do so.?

Giving Employees A Toolkit

Employees do not want to feel like they’re at an HR lecture. They don’t want to be forced to memorize HR policies and be told how they should not act in the workplace.?

They want to leave the workshop feeling like they learned skills they can apply to create an even better place to work for all. Specifically, this looks like learning how to identify potentially harmful behavior and responding to it so as to create a positive result.?

Keep Groups Small

Teaching an entire workforce in one sitting might be difficult. Ideally, class sizes should have no more than 25 students; as research suggests, this is the optimal class size for learning. Small class sizes mean more engaged employees who are encouraged to ask questions and interact with instructors.?

However, we know this is not always feasible. If you’re teaching a larger group, just be sure to make use of breakout sessions so co-workers have a chance to interact and learn about one another.?

To learn about what really happens during a DEIB training session, book a call so we can talk! Each session can be personalized to address the needs and goals of your company.??