Black Meetings and Tourism

Black Meetings & Tourism February/March 2009: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 33 have moved methodically to create the environment neces- sary to build solid training programs. Correcting years of discriminatory practice is no easy task. How do you influence behavioral change? If it's inflammato- ry comments, do you confront the issue head on in a calm demeanor and discuss it between the parties immediately. Do you take it to your human resources professional. Do you take it to your boss. What if it's your boss. What if you, as the supervisor recognize the error of your ways immediately and realize this issue needs to be resolved. Each organization differs in their approach to these prob- lems, but one thing is certain, the quicker each party moves to resolve the issue the better it is for all concerned. The Corporate Leavers Survey, conducted by the Level Playing Field Institute in January 2007, shows that each year in this country, "more than 2 million professionals and managers in today's increasingly diverse workforce leave their jobs, pushed out by cumulative small comments, whispered jokes and not-so-funny emails. The cost to U.S. employers is $64 billion on an annual basis – a price tag nearly equivalent to the 2006 combined revenues of Google, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks and Amazon.com. Social and behavioral scientists have identified several causes for systemic barriers to inclusion in the workplace. Here are just a couple starting with stereotyping. People make order out of their daily lives by gener- alizations that put things in categories. Then they subconsciously seek out confirmation of these stereotypes regardless of whether the stereotype is true or not. Stereotyping is probably the single biggest obstacle affecting workplace inclusion and diversity. Another cause is "ingroup" bias. Think of it as "us" against "them." This "ingroup" bias doesn't necessarily have to fall along racial lines, but it often does to the detriment of a minority. An extension of stereotyping is the threat of stereotyping, where just the threat of being stereotyped creates poor job performance – the self-fulfilling prophecy of low expectations. While these are psychological barriers they are all very real. So is it racism or just insensitivity. An argument can be made to substantiate both sides of this discussion depending on how one shapes the argument. In the case of Cracker Barrel it appears to be racism more than insensitivity but it could be argued it's both. For any diversity training program to have teeth and affect change, it must have the support of top leadership. CEOs and senior management must be out front and visible and articulate a clear message. As mentioned above most change for inclusion doesn't occur unless there's a business case to me made. Making money is a great motivator. Changing employee behavior is extremely difficult and requires more than one approach to solve, but first and fore- most, there must be a "zero-tolerance" policy for harassing or discriminatory behavior. One more way to combat discriminatory behavior is by establishing a transparent monitoring program. This can be accomplished through anonymous workplace surveys or sta- tistical analysis where companies measure racial disparities on a variety of issues from management to salary numbers. This analysis must be conducted at regular intervals – at least once a year. From a historical perspective the early days of diversity training largely involved one-day cours- es on compliance with Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. These were usually one-time events that did absolutely nothing to change behavior and alienated some. But diversity train- ing has evolved. Many approaches were tried from 1964-1999 from direct confrontation with White males to some watered-down version of discovery and awareness that accomplished absolutely nothing. There was a severe backlash and the phrase "reverse discrimination" entered the lexicon of public discourse. Today's programs are more than complying with EEOC regulations. Programs of the new millennium involve long- term continuous education. The target of diversity training is no longer just White males, but is more likely to include an entire organization across racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation lines. All employees must have a cross-cultural understanding and a world-view. The methods of diversity training vary from one company to the next. Some employ more classroom sessions, others involve roll playing performed by actors, some involve teaming up with a person different than themselves for an extended period of time up to a year. Many of these programs take place over days and weeks as opposed to hours like their predecessors of the 1970s. And technology is driving some to use web-based training through elearning courses. For any diversity training program to work, there must be clear goals and objectives. Here are some examples of goals and objectives to consider: compliance with EEOC rules and regulations, an emphasis on similarities as well as the differ- ences, learning to effectively work across cultures, developing leadership skills in connection with other corporate training, improving customer service, leveraging diversity for business growth, developing relationship skills to build an inclusive workplace, preparing employees for international work and resolving internal conflict. Many of the companies mentioned at the beginning of this article were mandated by court order to create a diversity-training program. Some hired a chief diversity officer and setup internal committees to gauge progress. But, many organizations lack a fundamental understand- ing of the tools necessary to execute an effective diversity- training program. To combat this problem many have turned to outsourcing. There is no harm in outsourcing such an important task when you lack the expertise in-house. In fact, it's probably better to do so. So how do you choose from the hundreds of com- panies out there that claim they are the ultimate in diversity training? "ingroup" "us" "them"

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