Given the incident early this year at Starbucks, diversity and unconscious bias training have become a buzz-word for a lot of companies. If your organization is doing the same thing, here are useful tips you’ll want to keep in mind.
Send the right message
Without the proper messaging or direction from your executive team, making your employees attend the training can backfire. It can lead to a plot of resentment, compromising the results you want, the Medium says.
Pick the right team
Look for dialogue experts to get the conversation going. A company that provides unconscious bias training and has considerable experience in carrying out these trainings is a sound choice to go for. With help from communication experts, you can provide the training that’s going to suit your team and the needs of your organization.
Don’t normalize bias
It’s not enough to provide training when all that does is normalize bias. Instead, look for training programs that make it clear how harmful biases can be. That realization is the first step towards making a positive change in your company.
Look for actionable strategies
Awareness can help but that’s not where the work ends. You need to provide workshops and training sessions that provide practical, actionable strategies. These strategies will help keep your employees from going back to their bad habits and biases. The goal is to change that so that by the next time an employee makes a decision, she or he won’t need to rely on unconscious biases to arrive at a decision.
Don’t be boring
Look for training experts who know how to pull this off in a way that’s going to engage and interest your employees. Boring lectures are only going to be a waste of time and resources. Hire a training company that uses a slew of effective training methods instead.
