Everyone has biases. Just being aware of them is not enough to create change or move an organization towards diversity and inclusion success. This program helps people understand the origins of their bias, its impact on their personal and professional work, and provides a process to filter out bias and actions based on wrong assumptions.

Topics covered:

• How conscious and unconscious bias impacts interpersonal interactions at work, and how those interactions impact and impede the whole organization
• How to recognize bias and prevent acting on wrong assumptions
• Looking at personal history and experiences that create individual bias, perspectives and determine how we make decision.
• Breaking the bias cycle

According to research by the European Community Programme and Social Solidarity, diversity and inclusion lead innovation when three factors are in place

1. Leadership needs to have a diversity mindset
2. Leadership must include key dimensions or visible diversity
3. People need to know each other and let go of preconceived assumptions and bias

When people share stories they build trust, make connections and feel safer participating. They share ideas and even disagree.

Culturally Intelligent story sharing helps create a shared experience even when individual experiences are very different. This fosters a more inclusive environment where innovation and creativity can flourish.

Every one of us has multiple identities. Those multiple identities influence our thoughts, perceptions and behaviors every day in our lives at work, and in our communities.

Our multiple-identities are like panels that make us each separate but connected beautiful diversity quilts

The late Dr. Roosevelt Thomas stated Diversity is any collective mixture characterized by differences, similarities, and related tensions and complexities.

We each have our own collective mixture, and our beauty is in our complexities, in knowing who we are as people with our own multiple identities in relationship to others, and being curious and willing to know a whole person in all of their multiple identities.  Too often people only see themselves and others through a narrow, single lens which limits the quality of their interaction and work together.

During this hour participants will create a snapshot of all of their identities and share how those identities impact their every day lives, establish priorities, and determine their actions.