Launch of our Conscious Inclusion Workshop

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new Conscious Inclusion workshop.

The Need for Change

After speaking to many Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) professionals, we started to understand that some D&I initiatives failed to have the desired impact or did not reach all employees.

To help tackle that, we identified that understanding the management of Diversity & Inclusion is essential for all leaders and managers, from entry-level to CEO.

Who is the workshop for?

Understanding Diversity and Inclusion is for everyone, particularly leaders and team managers.

The content

The workshop is designed over two days and is face-to-face to immerse the participants in an experiential learning journey. Other workshops are online and cover one topic at a time. For maximum impact, we wanted to create a learning space where we could weave the issues together in a structured way and where participants can also learn from the group wisdom.

As organisational psychologists, we know that D&I is all about identity and belonging. The psychology associated with each is fascinating and linked to self-esteem and safety.

This workshop explores the neuroscience and psychology of identity, group dynamics and 'them versus us' dynamics.

By examining our relationship to our identity and sharing in a safe group setting, participants start to understand – at a deeper level – their own (and others') identities.

They experience how their identity links to their groups and how groups form and create cultures that include or exclude others.

We examine at how people relate, the impact of incivilities, and the conscious and unconscious biases that we have and our organisations have.

We then move to a systemic perspective to examine issues such asprivilege and our responsibility to privilege. We investigate intersectionalityand stereotyping and start understanding how D&I initiatives need to becomediverse to speak to different levels of consciousness in the organisation.

All this learning feeds back into the workplace:

- How do I manage and relate to others? What are my mindsets and biases toward diversity and inclusion?

- How do I manage my team dynamics? Do we create them verus us dynamics with other parts of the organisation?

- What biases do we apply to the way we work? In recruitment, promotions, procurement?

- What cultures are we as leaders supporting, and what behaviours are we tolerating?

- What do I want to stand for as a leader, and what responsibilities must I acknowledge and grapple with?

‍The result

Leaders who can lead their teams better and improve team performance by:

- Understanding the responsibilities their authority holds concerning privilege.

- Appreciating how intersectionality impacts their teams and increase their awareness around managing these team members differently.

- Noticing 'them v us' dynamics and actively working to reduce these stereotypes.

- To create a fundamental change in managing diversity and inclusion through your teams and organisation.

- Create diversity and inclusion initiatives that speak to the organisation's levels of consciousness.

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We want to thank Maria Takaendisa, Cathie McKay and Julie Nelson for their help and support in creating this workshop.

To learn more about the workshop, you can contact Jonathan Lancaster here. You can also see our workshop summary on the website here.  

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