Building Bridges (Diversity)

The reality in many organisations is that the workforce will continually become more diverse. Although it is generally accepted that diversity is a gift to be treasured and valued, many organisations do not experience this in practise. To them diversity has become a burden that drives people into different camps and destroys harmony. When this happens, commitment and productivity are lost because employees feel disregarded, time is wasted with conflicts and misunderstandings and money is spent on legal fees and settlements. An environment where all employees feel included and valued yields commitment and motivation. It also enables your organisation to draw on the multiplicities of talents and strengths of all your people.

To have lasting impact, a diversity strategy should be holistic and inclusive and have a dual focus:

1. Structural: Creating employment policies and practices that support the organisation's commitment to diversity, integrating workforce diversity goals with all organisational design activities and  creating an organisational structure to support the company's commitment to diversity
2. Personal and interpersonal: Providing staff and managers with an opportunity to become more aware of and sensitive to diversity issues and to develop the skills to operate effectively in a diverse environment.While it is important to note that training alone cannot resolve other diversity-related issues or challenges that may exist in your organisation, effective, company- wide diversity training does play a vital role in the success or failure of your overall diversity initiative.

The challenge with traditional diversity training is that it often focuses largely on cultural diversity. After having attended such training (which people generally perceive as being ‘interesting’) many organisations experience that the newly obtained cultural awareness does not positively impact on the way people look at and relate to each other - the area where the change is most needed.

Understanding why people from another culture do not for example make eye contact with you can help you handle this better. But it does not encourage you to want to develop a deeper level of understanding of the people involved, nor does it give you the practical skills to build and maintain a more positive relationship with them.

Objectives

Building Bridges has been designed to go beyond traditional diversity training by:

• addressing the underlying values and beliefs that shape behaviours . It challenges people to reflect on their own identity, the stereotypes they hold and the long and short term cost of this to themselves and to others
• creating a safe and open climate where people feel free to share with each other what is important to them, why this is important, and, in the process, develop the foundation for more open and honest communication
• developing tangible skills they need to create a more positive and productive working environment for all members of the organisation.

Approach

Our approach is not one of casting some people in the role of perpetrators and others in that of victims, but one of creating openness and building trust and better understanding amongst people. Participants are encouraged to express how they see things and how they feel about comments that are being made, within the boundaries of good group dynamic principles. In this way, the programme helps participants look at specific behaviours that cause pain or problems and find ways to avoid them.

Our focus in the programme is not on the past. Though we help people reflect on the past and how this shaped us, we challenge them to move beyond this to create the kind of organisation they want to be part of.

Group size  

Ideally 16 people and maximum 20.

Duration

Two days.