Seeking Pride, Not Prejudice

The leaders of a state government agency wanted to avoid behavioral mistakes that would cause the department to be subject to a complaint.

It was soon discovered that just presenting basic guidelines was insufficient to address the agency’s severe problems.  The office atmosphere was so bad that trust was unthinkable and honest communication seemed impossible.

They weren’t truthful in their communication.  It was an accepted part of the organization’s culture.

The employees clearly didn’t respect one another, and they ignored initiatives out of stubborn pessimism.  Their morale was so bad, in fact, that overt hostility would have been an improvement.

There weren’t arguments; they were passive aggressive and just shut down and were nonresponsive.

Several reasons were identified for the employees’ abysmal attitudes.  The employees had little tolerance for each other’s styles or backgrounds.  Also, their fear of change was almost tangible, while the constant political squabbling did not help matters.

The agency was a mix of political appointees and merit employees.  There were conflicts between nonpolitical veterans and the governor’s appointees.

With so many issues demanding attention, the training needed to have clear goals.  The stated objective was to teach EEOC compliance, and that was still vital.  However, the training also was to improve the employees’ respect for differences and increase their acceptance of change.

To accomplish these goals the Discovering Diversity Profile was selected.  The Diversity Profile helps organizations create a fair and equitable workplace through voluntary methods.  It is also believed that the profile promotes attitudinal and behavioral change.

When you don’t have respect and trust for your coworkers, who they are, and what they bring to the table, you can’t meet diversity requirements.

The workers completed the Online Discovering Diversity Profile as pre-work.  In addition to discussing the profile’s general insights, the Building Bridges to Understanding seminar from the Discovering Diversity Profile Facilitator’s Kit was used and eased the participants into conversation about sensitive topics.

If they think it’s about race or gender, they shut down immediately.

The group’s Discovering Diversity Profile scores were averaged to find the agency’s strengths and weaknesses.  Then centered a conversation on those categories in which the group scored highest and lowest.  Once the participants knew where they stood, they were able to brainstorm on how to improve in all the Discovering Diversity Profile’s categories.

Despite the expert facilitation, however, the behavioral issues within the agency bubbled to the surface during the session.  One participant directly challenged training on the reliability of the Discovering Diversity Profile and questioned the point of the training.  The participant was so confrontational he had to be intervened.

The interruptions did not stop there.  Many of the participants took every opportunity to mock an older, foreign-born colleague who was in the sessions with them.  It was shocking that the participants could be so blatantly insensitive, especially while they were discussing the importance of diversity.  The participants said, Oh we’re just kidding.  He doesn’t mind. 

Because of this, the training continued to press the point that their “joking” was inappropriate.  It was made clear that their attitudes needed improvement, but it was decided to avoid accusations or threats as the solution.

Because compliance was the official point of the training, understanding the law was a very important goal.  Emphasizing the EEOC guidelines throughout the session helped to accomplish this initial goal.  It was pleasing to see that some participants adopted the training’s lessons on a higher level. 

Many workers learned what subtle behaviors to avoid and what assumptions they could modify.  Such breakthroughs helped individual changes become group improvements.  As an example, the participants were asked to think about their treatment of the older, foreign-born employee.  In addition, a few individuals had an improvement in their attitudes.

The Discovering Diversity Profile helped the participants learn about the areas of diversity they needed to improve upon.

“Lasting change is always a difficult task, especially regarding diversity and cultural sensitivity, but it is possible,” a woman said following the training, “It really made a difference.”

Inscape Publishing Case Study