Observations from "The Trenches"
By Mauricio Antonio Velasquez, MBA
President, Diversity Training Group
My purpose with this article was to share with you some troubling trends (frequent observations) I am seeing and experiencing in my diversity training and consulting travels. Please understand I am a consultant and trainer first and an academician second.
I am "in the trenches" everyday. Having consulted with hundreds of firms and trained over 65,000 professionals in diversity and related topics, I reflected on all of these experiences. I present my observations for discussion to advance our profession and my vocation.
I knew I had to address this conversation when participants started to come to my sessions early and ask for permission to miss the class. I also started to receive some very troubling emails from total strangers including this one, "you can't train all of us, some of us you will have to kill!" This person shared with me that he had, in the past, participated in a poor training session. Where do these feelings come from and what else am I seeing in our field?
"No Front End Work" - 1st Observation
Many organizations are not conducting a needs analysis before designing and
developing diversity training and other inclusive workplace initiatives. They
are not identifying and studying their issues. How can you address what you
don't know you don't know about your own increasingly diverse employees and
customers? Organizations continue not to study or ignore the very compelling
business reasons for engaging in this kind of work.
Impact
The first generation of diversity training is hit or miss and very
off-the-shelf. The audience experiences a disconnection between their training
and their actual workplace reality. Add to this all of the trainers that rely
heavily on theory and don't bring practical, pertinent, and useful content to
the workshop, and you have a potential conflict waiting to happen. This will
slowly undermine the efficacy of any diversity efforts and hurt our field as a
whole. Trust the process, assess where you are and envision where you want to go
individually and as an organization.
Too much "Blame and Shame" Training - 2nd Observation
Diversity Training Group (DTG) is performing too much rescue diversity training
and consulting. We come in and pick up the pieces. A prior consultant came in
and blew the place apart. Many diversity consultants are confrontational-in your
face-make you pay for the wrongs of your fore fathers - oriented. Too much
diversity training out there continues to polarize organizations. These terrible
programs only contribute to the backlash. Also, I must add that most training I
see out there is awareness-based and provides no skills or tools. If you are not
building a diversity tool kit for your participants, you are not equipping your
personnel for the new workplace.
Impact
These training interventions are slowly killing our field. I believe
participant-centered, inclusive, custom-designed, skill and competency-based
training is absolutely necessary to any organization in an increasingly diverse
work and marketplace. What skills and what tools do our leaders, managers, and
supervisors of our increasingly diverse future need to learn, apply, and
practice to be more successful and effective?
Resistance and Cynicism on the Rise - 3rd Observation
Many people are angry in my sessions about what they think this diversity
training and related programs are all about. Management is supportive but not
committed and I can tell because they are not coming to the workshops or
participating in the consulting meetings. Many people think our work is a fad.
However, helping organizations create and nurture more inclusive work places is
here to stay. Our approach at DTG is to create corporate cultures or
environments where everyone can be successful and contribute to their fullest
potential.
Impact
Acknowledge the cynicism and resistance and don't deny these issues. If we
ignore the cynicism and resistance, these issues will subside. Constantly
emphasize clear and regular communication, pre- and post-work and evaluation
with any diversity interventions and related activities.
No Plan - 4th Observation
Organizations are doing all kind of things in the name of diversity and
inclusive work places but ask them if they have a plan of action. Ask them how
they are measuring their endeavors for impact. What is their metrics? My company
has to evaluate where an organization is and help them put together a plan after
the organization has been engaged in this work for many months or years. It is
better to have a plan in place than to build it after you have started the work.
Impact
Do your best practices homework. Study other organizations in your field and
comparable fields and find out how they are measuring their diversity endeavors.
Don't recreate the wheel, take someone else's tire and put a white wall on it.
If we don't begin to discuss what is going wrong in our field, how can we improve. I believe there will always be a place for great diversity training and inclusive work place consulting. DTG has never been busier. Please visit our web site where five million have visited for more information (www.diversitydtg.com).
If you would like to contact me, please find me at
mauriciov@diversitydtg.com.
Diversity Training Group
692 Pine Street
Herndon, VA 20170
Tel. 703.478.9191
Fax 703.709.0591
