How workplaces are wrong about diversity training

Diversity in the workplace isn't just good for the well-being of your employees - it's also good for businesses.

In 2015, a McKinsey report found that companies with top quartile teams for ethnic and racial diversity were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their national medians Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were also 15% more likely to have higher returns than their industry averages.

Image credit: McKinsey

But diversity isn't just a business game. It is a human game.

But diversity isn 'tis not just a business game. It is a human game. And as more companies begin to incorporate diversity programs into their training and recruiting practices, many fail to develop truly meaningful and empathetic initiatives that go beyond quotas. and checkboxes at the surface level.

A target recent investigation conducted by Harvard Business Review revealed that certain tactics routine such as mandatory skills assessment tests to reduce hiring bias, annual performance reviews to assess pay gaps, grievance systems to rehabilitate biased managers, and staffing programs. mandatory diversity training to educate employees just not doing enoughto bring organizations into the 21st century. In fact, some of these initiatives could even have a negative impact on the health of the organization, bias instead of mitigating the damage.

Laboratory studies show that this type of force-feeding can activate bias rather than eliminate it.

According to sociology professors Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, "These [diversity initiatives] are designed to prevent lawsuits through the thoughts and actions of managers. Yet laboratory studies show that this type of force-feeding can activate stigma rather than eliminate it. As social scientists have found, people often rebel against the rules to assert their autonomy. Try to force me to do it. X, Y or Z, and I will do the opposite to prove that I am my own person. "

This study does not indicatea case that you should give up your company's diversity program for fear of failure. This means it's time to take a more empathetic and aware approach to diversity - in the workplace and beyond.

Adam Foss, former Assistant District Attorney in the Suffolk County Attorney's Office in Boston and founder of Prosecutor Impact , spoke to INBOUND Studio - a series of interviews highlighting relevant themes at the intersection of popular culture, business and advocacy - to discuss diversity, empathy and the complexity of the privilege.

At Prosecutor Impact, Foss creates training programs for prosectors, teaching them to take a more empathetic and conscious approach to their work and improving the communities in which they practice. He discovered that cultivating empathy, rather than just diversity, isnecessary to create real cultural change.

"Empathy is the main driver of success in the criminal justice system, because it is so devoid of empathy, or anything that requires it. 'empathy, "Foss explains in the interview. "I think that 's why we are in the mess we are in now with incarceration population, its size and who it affects. It has marginalized people - period. To really start to take that turn and be successful and see that change, there has been a willingness to create empathy in educating people. "

The training of Prosecutor Impact focuses on building empathy through academic and experiential learning, educating prosecutors on topics that deepen their understanding of the communities they serve, and confronting them directly with the realities of the world. 'imprisonedation to strengthen their capacity for empathy.

"People are okay with that part: getting this new visceral experience, learning these new things, " says Foss. "Where it gets difficult is when you need to start tackling issues such as the role of race, the role of gender, religion and sexual orientation harder. "

"When you start asking yourself these questions, people defend themselves or deny their privilege by talking about their [difficulties] and how they have compensated m. And those two things are really dangerous and counterproductive when trying to change cultures. "

Refocusing diversity initiatives in the workplace

Foss admits that discussing privilege is "a difficult conversation to start", but it is a conversation worth it. Realizing the privilege you have is the first stepe to capitalize on it in any meaningful way, and many conventional diversity programs fail to address this.

Focusing on empathy and self-awareness rather than quotas and training to instantly eliminate bias is a more holistic and realistic approach to embracing a workplace and a more diverse world.