Should we be putting the brakes on diversity training?

Shall we, shan’t we? We are talking of course about whether you continue with ED&I training or whether you put the brakes on it.

Perhaps you think this is an odd question for us to be asking given that Jaluch delivers ED&I training but there has been some adverse and hostile media attention given to diversity and bias training which is causing a few people to reconsider their approach.

As far back as 2020, a Whitehall spokesperson said that unconscious bias training would be scrapped for all civil servants after a government review found little evidence that it works. The topic of diversity training (including unconscious bias and microaggressions) has remained in the media since then with some going so far as to say diversity training isn’t just pointless, but even damaging, polarising views, and driving behaviours underground etc. Unconscious bias training, in particular, has had a real drubbing.

What one employer said

Here is what one CEO said as reported in The Times, May 2022: “I think unconscious bias is complete crap. I don’t buy it — because after every single unconscious bias training that has ever been done, nothing’s ever improved.” That CEO lost his job over his comments, but the sentiments have been echoed (more discreetly or within a better context) by a number of high-profile leaders.

We don’t want to explore all the ins and outs of unconscious bias training here so have added a link below if you want to read more.

All training should provide value commensurate with the cost of it

What we do want to talk about is money. Any ED&I session costs money and most D&I sessions are ultimately about money i.e. ensuring profitability, managing reputational risk, minimising legal costs relating to claims, reducing staff turnover, improving employee morale productivity etc. Buying in or delivering the right training is important as we all value money (don’t we?) for without money we would all be out of a job.

In recent years, our experiences with ED&I training have been mixed. Some hugely successful rollouts delivered for our clients, but money not necessarily well spent for others. Most of this we would suggest is predictable and this is what we want to explore here.

Should we park ED&I training for a year or two?

Given economic challenges coupled with the negativity reported in the media, if you do back away from ED&I training, be aware that you could be risking a lot. Here are just a few reasons to continue with what you are doing:

Job applicants increasingly like to check out what prospective employers are doing in the D&I space
Employees increasingly like to think that their employers are addressing social issues including ED&I
Inclusion is critical for retention. When it’s been tough recruiting, we need to protect valued staff. Also, inclusion is critical for engagement, productivity and quality.
Employee, customer, and investor expectations are changing continuously and if you don’t update/educate your employees on all things ED&I then mistakes will be made and misunderstandings occur.

Procuring D&I training?

Aside from those times when what the employer wanted was just plain unreasonable (one employer demanding “I want you to change everyone’s behaviour” in a 60-minute session, with 50 attendees), we do think that people – and the media generally – are in a bit of a muddle about what D&I training is for and this mismatch of expectations and understanding drives some of the negativity. Here are a few options that might feature in people’s thinking when booking training:

To educate
To change behaviours
To empower certain groups of people
To set (or re-set) standards or introduce a new policy
To reinforce cultural change or organisational values
To keep certain angry or particularly vocal individuals happy or quiet
To tick a box
For PR or because our investors are insisting on it
To disempower certain groups of people
It sounded like a good idea at the time…

We can guarantee though that if you deliver one programme of ED&I and expect to tick all of these boxes you are officially in cloud cuckoo land ?- especially if you budget for just one hour of training per person.

Perhaps if we focus on shared learning, we might achieve more?

In our leadership training sessions, we talk about treating people like adults, not children. As adults we want to be presented with information and ideas, given an opportunity to consider and reflect, do our own research, discuss with colleagues and be allowed to choose our own course of action.

In contrast, in child ego state (Transactional Analysis terminology) we wait for our parent ego state employer to tell us what we should be saying or thinking or doing. In child ego state we then respond to our ‘parent’ employer’s messaging by either:

accepting what we are told
rejecting what we are told and seeking to manipulate things to better suit our preferences, or
stamping our feet in protest like a toddler

A combination of these behaviours across a group of employees is inevitable the minute we deliver training in ‘parent’ or ‘tell’ mode. And, of course, it is courses like this that make media headlines with employees kicking off about being told what to think and how to behave.

Often not deliberate…

The key problem is that too many organisations have been drifting into ‘parenting’ their staff, mimicking what has been happening for years in our education system. This means that now they ‘tell’ them what to do, tell them how to think, how to behave etc.

So let’s challenge your thinking on this…

Any business that put signs up in toilets during Covid ‘telling’ their staff how to sing happy birthday whilst washing their hands is a classic example of acting like a ‘parent’.

Any business that has punished an employee who has deviated from or challenged company messaging around culture or diversity is also operating in ‘tell/parent mode’.

Any business that has replaced menu options in their canteen with vegetarian or vegan food only on certain days is also in ‘tell’ mode.

Perhaps controversially, any employer who encourages its managers to talk to their employees about their health and wellbeing (menstruation, depression, anxiety etc.) is also in ‘Parent mode’.

With this latter example, where is the line going to be drawn between asking managers to manage and support and asking managers to ‘mother/parent’ their team members? Just because we have a shortage of GPs who might otherwise provide support does not mean that managers should be expected to take on the role of ‘listener and consoler’.

Is ‘tell’ mode sustainable?

Reverting to ‘tell mode’ is the lazy way to change a culture or develop staff and experience shows that that is seldom sustainable or satisfactory.

It is ‘tell’ mode ED&I training that hits the headlines with people pushing back against being told what to say, think and do. And with every person who doesn’t verbally kick out against it, there are probably another ten who disagree but choose to say nothing, instead deciding it’s easiest to not mix with people ‘not like me’ in case I say something wrong or, I’ll keep my head down so no one knows I disagree or, I’ll ‘quiet quit’ i.e. do the bare minimum but otherwise disengage from the organisation.

If you are ever tempted to ‘tell’ your staff how to think and behave then don’t be surprised if you don’t change any behaviours, instead you will probably find you have driven unwanted behaviours underground and created a shed load of mistrust and unhappiness across your team.

We will…

We will benefit from ED&I training if we learn to resist the temptation to just tell people what to do or say.

We will have a more engaged workforce if we revisit our definition of inclusion to ensure we include even those we disagree with.

We will have a greater opportunity to change cultures if we focus our ED&I training on sharing information, educating, and creating an environment for discussion and the sharing of ideas that is non-judgemental and adult in its approach.

Our top tips for successful diversity programme rollouts

If you value your money and are genuinely interested in cultural change, developing ideas, and shared learning across your team then here are our top tips:

Don’t let people opt in or out of the training. If it’s important, then you need everyone on board and discussing the relevant issues. Find a way to work with those who are hostile or reluctant to attend D&I training, don’t just work around them.
Don’t let a small minority dictate what can and cannot happen or be said etc. Inclusion means we all have to find a way to work together – requiring adult behaviours and compromise from all sides.
D&I training should be just one spoke of the wheel when considering all things culture. It will build on other ideas, reinforce values, and create opportunities to share and engage between team members. Training cannot be standalone if you want to change behaviours.
To avoid negativity, consider approaching it from the angle of ‘Respect in the Workplace’. Respect, after all, is what most of us would really value from our managers, colleagues, trustees, directors.
View training as a facilitated discussion, rather than as a PowerPoint lecture. Ensure your facilitator finds time/creates opportunity to include the quieter ones in the room to ensure full participation
Check out what you know about Group Think – amongst many other things, this will remind us that someone’s silence during a discussion does not confirm their agreement.
In the context of engagement and inclusion, understanding what emotional intelligence is and how we can develop it can be just as critical as educating your team about The Equality Act. Make your training blended with lots of ideas and concepts rather than being somewhat one dimensional.
Make sure that you share ideas around Accountability and Responsibility. We will never have a culture that is sustainable and inclusive if we don’t all play our part, but not everyone understands the part they have to play.

Finally…

We hope you found value in the content of this article. If you have any questions about concepts such as transactional analysis, group think, respect etc please do get in touch with us at Jaluch. Below are just a couple of links for reference.

A summary article of Unconscious bias training

Two recent examples of where diversity training ended badly:

A great book on bias: Filter Shift (How Effective People See the World) by Sara Taylor.

Should we be putting the brakes on diversity training?

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