Diversity and Inclusion

Close the reality gap: innovative, drama-based training to make diversity and inclusion relevant to all employees.

“Really interesting to open up conversations about diversity and inclusion that would not otherwise have happened.”

Diversity and inclusion is now a CEO-level issue. Major organisations worldwide are eager to demonstrate their commitment to increasing diversity and developing inclusive workplace cultures that improve performance and wellbeing.

Yet official figures show there are still clear inequities, and high-profile new stories vividly bring to life the fact that the day-to-day experience of some employees continues to fall short of what’s aspired to. There is a reality gap.

There’s also more open hostility towards diversity and inclusion in wider society. Talk of ‘political correctness gone mad’, of ‘social justice warriors’ and ‘woke culture’, all promote the counter viewpoint that things have actually gone too far. The workplace isn’t immune from these voices and urgently needs to find constructive responses.

We want to help our clients deliver on their commitments by giving them an engaging, relatable way to make diversity and inclusion relevant to all employees.

Our new half-day workshop uses immersive, drama-based content to spark powerful conversations, increase shared understanding, and ultimately fuel positive action.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of participation, learners will:

Expand their understanding of diversity (protected characteristics, the Equality Act and beyond);
Recognise how exclusion happens in the workplace and its impact on people’s lives;
Explore how to harness diversity and inclusion to build better teams (the research, the skills and the attributes);
Understand how we each can be allies to all our colleagues;
Practise the skill of challenging non-inclusive behaviour; and
Identify practical actions to create a more productive, healthier, and mutually supportive culture.

The Programme

Our half-day experiential, interactive training programme includes dramatised content (live and filmed) delivered by professional actors, alongside electronic voting, group exercises, and skilful facilitation. It is designed to be delivered to up to 20 people at a time in face-to-face workshops held either on-site at your premises or off-site at an appropriate venue.

The programme consists of the following modules.

Module 1:	welcome and explanation of purpose; getting to know each other, outlining aims and objectives, and establishing norms for the workshop.
Module 2:	experiences of exclusion; real-time electronic polls and interactive scenarios provoke powerful conversations about individual experiences of exclusion at work and elsewhere.
Module 3:	the law and more; after a run through of the protected characteristics and prohibited behaviours, learners take part in a dynamic exercise to deepen their understanding of what diversity means and bring it closer to home.
Module 4:	inclusion in action; after looking at the benefits of diversity and what makes an inclusive team, learners take part in an ‘inclusion surgery’ using video characters to identify issues and possible solutions.
Module 5:	interactive scenario – in the staff canteen; more live action in which learners get the chance to use stop-start ‘forum theatre’ to help a fictional character challenge non-inclusive behaviour.
Module 6:	summary, action planning and evaluation; at the end, learners identify one or more practical actions they will take back in the workplace, before the session closes with a series of electronic polls to evaluate whether the session met its objectives.

Learning Into Action

We have been delivering training programmes to raise awareness of diversity and increase inclusion since the company started in 2011. In that time, we’ve had customers from a wide range of sectors, including publishing, social housing, finance, broadcasting, further education, utilities, construction, and health.

Results from in-session electronic polling include:

94% of learners found the session worthwhile
89% gained ideas on how to challenge non-inclusive behaviours at work
86% felt more confident to engage in honest conversations
96% recognised their responsibility in helping to create a more inclusive working environment
95% felt inspired to make a positive difference back in the workplace

In follow-up surveys (6 weeks later):

27% of learners had engaged in a ‘difficult’ or ‘honest’ conversation in response to a situation or behaviour they thought was undesirable (almost two thirds had not been in such a situation)
63% reported that they had avoided engaging in a range of non-inclusive behaviours
94% continued to feel that taking part in the training had been worthwhile

Interested?

If you are interested in running this training programme in your organisation, or if you simply want to ask a question about it, hit the button to contact us or call +44 (0)1484 310234.

Our Clients Include