Racial and Cultural Diversity
Concept Training's Approach
The basic approach of a program involving sensitivity training needs to address three questions:
- Why am I here?
- What can I learn?
- Why should I change?
The program needs to answer these questions forcefully, and directly in order to be effective. However, the program needs to recognize the emotion-laden nature of the changes it wishes participants to implement, and the participants' natural inclination not to change.
Therefore, the structure for this program comes from Concept Training's "Interpersonal Communication" training program. We focus on the ethnic and cultural diversity issue as a communication problem. Most communication problems, and virtually all prejudice, comes from perceptual biases and barriers. While we are aware of some of our biases and barriers, we are blind to many of them.
By shaping the program from the "communication" perspective, we hope to overcome much of the initial resistance to this kind of training among personnel, and their reluctance to change their perceptions and behaviors.
Most people believe that they communicate very well, and are shocked to discover that they have significant perceptual barriers (prejudices) which both inhibit and limit their communication ability. We propose to begin the program with the more "neutral" communication errors, and move immediately and logically to the more emotionally charged ethnic and cultural diversity issues.
Needs assessment:
make employees aware of the need for this type of training.Why am I here?
Why do I need this kind of training both as a person and an employee?
Training Focus:
As people we need this kind of training because from time-to-time we all need to challenge our perceptual barriers to be more effective communicators as well as human beings -- as employees there are legal and ethical issues that mandate more sensitivity.Program training:
make managers aware of their ethnic and cultural biases. "I am glad our company is doing this, but I don't need it."Training Focus:
Using interactive training activities, demonstrate how everyone falls into perceptual traps, and where perceptual barriers come from -- Knowledge, Experience, and Expectation. Concept Training will develop discussion materials and exercises designed specifically to help identify and address ethnic and cultural perceptual barriers. The materials and discussion will also focus on the overriding issue of "fear of change."Behavioral reinforcement:
motivate managers to utilize the training in their day-to-day activities. "I went to the training, but I am still afraid to change, and I really don't want to anyway."Training Focus:
Help personnel identify communication behaviors that are effective with everyone to promote effective communication both within the organization as well as with customers. Help personnel understand how this training connects with larger communication issues, and through an explanation of the Johari Window, how this training can enhance teamwork, management efficiency, problem solving, etc.Program Outline:
Objectives:
- to develop an awareness of the need for ethnic and cultural diversity training among managers, supervisors, staff
- motivate managers, supervisors, and staff to be willing to challenge their ethnic and cultural assumptions
- identify for managers, supervisors, staff specific perceptual barriers they need to address regarding different ethnic and cultural backgrounds
- help managers, supervisors, staff develop alternate perceptual patterns regarding ethnic and cultural differences
- address managers' , supervisors', staff's fears about changing their perceptions and behaviors
- help managers, supervisors, staff develop alternate behavioral models to facilitate interactions with individuals from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds
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