Leveraging Diversity

Diversity practitioners from around the country recently joined in on an Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Trust workshop called Leveraging Diversity. 

This workshop explored ways in which organisations are moving from a conventional approach, where organisations work towards “tolerating” and “valuing” diversity for better business outcomes, to a new way of thinking about diversity, where organisations intentionally seek out and utilise the diversity amongst their staff to maximise the full range of its benefits.
 
On the day

Participants first worked on the business case for diversity which is pertinent to their own organisations, accessing the experiences and knowledge of other participants.  While there are many known and researched benefits to diversity practice, different organisations have different reasons for strengthening their diversity strategies based on their industry, leadership, business imperatives, and other factors.  With guides and charts, participants discussed which strategies they would pursue and for what reason in an effort to build a better case for diversity practice in their own organisations.

Next, participants learned about the current shifts in diversity thinking which acknowledges that conventional diversity practices (such as committees, scorecards, events, training, and policies)  may only go so far at enabling individuals and companies to understanding the important differences that we bring to the workplace.  A new paradigm of diversity thought encourages addressing the unconscious biases of individuals, actively using our differences to increase innovation and customer service, and utilising the specific, unique experiences of staff rather than a standardised set of diversity mechanisms.

This wealth of knowledge and ideas in the world of diversity practice enabled participants to workshop their own diversity strategies in the afternoon.

Using their expertise

The workshop’s design is based on the premise that the participants would contribute their experiences in diversity practice for other participants to learn from.  The quality and experience of the participants – and their ability to convey their ideas in practical and relevant ways – created an ideal ground for learning for everyone.  One participant, for example, shared ways in which change management had effectively been managed throughout her organisation over many locations, providing a framework for new diversity initiatives to be disseminated.  Another practitioner highlighted practices in women’s leadership programmes that had been effective in the banking industry in the UK, and how the Australian banks were now beginning to emulate these practices; can we expect a sea change in New Zealand’s promotion of women in leadership?

My co-facilitator, Jan Eggleton, skilfully harnessed these contributions, organising group and individual work time sessions so that participants could wrestle with new ideas over the day.   Given the range and depth of diversity issues and the understanding that there are no simple, off-the-shelf solutions, the challenge to provide enough direction and ideas for each participant to take back to their workplaces was gargantuan.

Throughout the day, however, it became clear that the exchange of information and thoughts, the ability to create solutions through listening and sharing, and the collective energies of participants had lit fire in the minds of everyone in the room.  As they recorded a partner’s diversity action plan in the day’s last session, I could almost see the flames of ideas and opportunities.  Diversity practitioners, in this workshop at least, could imagine and talk about the ways in which their organisations could move into new spaces of diversity practice.

Lana Hart is a facilitator for the EEO Trust. EEO (Equal Employment Opportunities), is an organisation committed to eliminating barriers to ensure that all employees are considered for the employment of their choice and have the chance to perform to their maximum potential.