THANK YOU for making the time to participate and contribute to the EDI Training for the Managers and Supervisors, as coordinated by the Ministry of Education. Please find below the descriptions and the most currently-used visuals for the following modules:
Inclusion Literacy
How to be an Ally
Active Bystander Training
Unconscious Bias
Also below are the results of the polls from each of the sessions. If you would like one of the slides as a PDF, or have a question or some feedback, please feel free to send us an email directly at info@iexcellencestrategy.com.
Module 1.
Inclusion Literacy
Outcomes-driven organizations lead with intention, clarity and a strong sense of excellence. This module was focused on:
Establishing a basic literacy around diversity and inclusion;
Providing a common understanding of the journey towards inclusive excellence;
Acknowledging real-life challenges of fostering a more diverse or inclusive workplace; and
Affirming the contribution of inclusion towards psychologically healthy and safe workplaces.
This module introduced:
A 3-dimensional framework of diversity (Inherent, Experiential and Thought diversity);
A model for the stage-by-stage process towards institutionalizing inclusivity in a workplace culture (below); and
Deloitte’s research on the three factors employees need to feel included (below).
Source: Deloitte and Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (2013).
Module 2.
How to be an Ally
5 Traits of Being an Ally
Allies LISTEN
Allies crave the CREDIBILITY, not the credit
ACTIONS, not words
They’re AWAKE
They’re self-aware to their own experience of oppression or disadvantage
Resources
Better Allies - Karen Catlin
Module 3.
Active Bystander Training
Active Bystander Scenarios
SET #1
What impact will this scenario have on your colleague/team/community?
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions does the scenario trigger?
What potential impact would not disrupting the behaviour have?
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions might you feel in the scenario?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Groups 1, 2) During the holiday season, a new BIPOC employee joins your team. During a lunch break, one of your colleagues asks the new employee, “Where are you from originally? Do you have any special traditions around Christmas?”
(Groups 3, 4) A new employee is sharing their story at a Ministry of Education community event about why they came to live in Canada. She talks about the anti-homosexuality legislation in her country. Someone interrupts and says, “You don’t look gay.”
(Groups 5, 6) During a team meeting you overhear a colleague talking about the anti-racism effort at the ministry, referring to it as part of “the socialist agenda.” During the Q&A, the same colleague asks, “So, we’re all about diversity now and I feel like there is a contradiction. Let’s be honest, we don’t really want all kinds of diversity, right? I mean, I feel like we’re not allowed to have a diversity of opinions on diversity?”
(Groups 7, 8) You’re in a meeting with a group of your colleagues. In the middle of the meeting, a colleague says a racial slur. Everyone falls silent and people exchange uncomfortable glances. Your colleague notices and asks “What? What did I do?”
Alternative ending: How would you respond if instead, your colleague notices and says, “What? I was just kidding.”
(Groups 9, 10) You notice one of your managers avoids talking to an Asian colleague, preferring to communicate through text or e-mail. If they have to talk, they stand a few feet away from them to talk. They sanitize their hands immediately afterwards. They don’t do this to any of your other non-Asian colleagues. After a meeting ends, this manager says to you that they blame their Asian colleagues for “starting the pandemic in the first place.”
SET #2
(Groups 1, 2) Your supervisor wants to address diversity in the workplace. In meetings, when the topic emerges, they look at your colleague, the only individual who identifies as an Indigenous person on your team. You notice that your colleague shifts uncomfortably and averts their gaze when the topic emerges.
(Groups 3, 4) During an online meeting between you, your supervisor, and two other colleagues, there are questions around the ministry’s plans to provide specific supports to Black and Indigenous students. One of your colleagues seems exasperated and says, “I still really feel like this is favouritism. Maybe this is unpopular right now, but I’m of the school that all lives matter.”
(Groups 5, 6) A colleague of yours who is a woman of colour is speaking in a meeting where a manager constantly cuts her off. They don’t seem to realize they’re doing it and nobody is saying anything. When your colleague raises her voice so she can be heard, your supervisor stops her and asks for her to wait until everyone else has finished speaking.
(Groups 7, 8) A meeting is winding up and as people are leaving, you overhear a conversation between two colleagues. Colleague A makes a discriminatory comment. Colleague B, who is a person of colour, gives Colleague A feedback on their comments but A tells B that they are being overly sensitive and “Everything is political these days!” This is not the first time that Colleague A has received feedback on their offensive comments.
(Groups 9, 10) A Director says a homophobic/transphobic slur during a meeting. A colleague speaks up about it but the Director brushes it off and says, “It was just a joke. Besides, I’m not hurting anyone since nobody from the LGBTQ+ community is here anyway.”
Module 4.
Unconscious Bias
At the core of inclusive leadership and intercultural capacity is self-awareness: a deep understanding of one’s implicit (or personal) bias and the systemic biases that affect all kinds of decision-making. As an extension of the emphasis on self-awareness in the MBTI training, this module was devoted to understanding key forms of implicit bias that commonly affect workplaces (affinity bias; confirmation bias; and social comparison bias) in general, and three behavioural biases that specifically disadvantage women in the workplace. This module led participants in identifying and sharing examples of unconscious bias in the workplace and other work-related environments.
With a specific focus on bringing awareness to and disrupting unconscious and cultural bias in the selection process of new hires, this session provided an understanding of how biases are formed in our unconscious, and specifically addressed the following:
Gender Biases:
Maternal bias;
Competency/Likeability trade-off bias;
Performance attribution bias.
Affinity bias;
Confirmation bias
Social comparison bias;
Attribution error;
Distance bias.