Are You Wasting Your Money on Diversity Training?

by Simma Lieberman

If you are planning to spend money on diversity training, WAIT!

You may be wasting your money if you haven’t done any foundation building. If diversity and inclusion are not first integrated into your business strategy, very little will change just by holding one or two day training classes. Organizations in all sectors make this mistake and don’t realize it until it is too late.

If you want to leverage the diversity you already have, increase the diversity of your organization, or prevent cultural misunderstandings you need to create a corporate culture that is inclusive at all levels, and in every system and process.

You can get everyone trained by a great trainer, with a great program, but when people leave your organization they take what they learned with them (if they still remember it) and your organization remains the same. Further, reaching resisters and naysayers of diversity efforts is unlikely only with training—a more multi-faceted approach is needed to help these individuals see the value of diversity in their organizations and to bring a greater number of people on board to the initiative.

Read my strategies and steps below that you should consider to truly create an organization that values diversity.