Serving a More Diverse Clientele

A county Head Start program was interested in better serving its growing population of children and parents.  As a requirement of participation in Head Start, parents are expected to participate actively in their children’s education.

The agency wanted training on diversity because the parents and young people that the program serves are growing increasingly more diverse.  They needed to make employees with different backgrounds comfortable working in a large group together. 

The training needed to be non-threatening and delivered in a way that would begin an ongoing development process for the participants.  The Discovering Diversity Profile was administered to the agency’s participants along with an interactive discussion, small and large group discussions, and a lecture. 

The session began with handouts, the QuikDiSC Card Game, and the conflict model from the DiSC Classic seminar.

The group completed the Discovering Diversity Profile first and then the results were discussed.  Next, the group was broken into teams to work through the car role-play exercise and the First Thoughts exercise on perceptual bias found in the Discovering Diversity Profile Facilitator Kit.

The groups also worked through the exercise on the Ideal Workplace.  There was a group discussion about leadership, who was in charge of each team, who was taking the notes, and whether people felt empowered as a result of the discussion.  They also discussed the influence of styles on people’s behavior, particularly with regard to discrimination or harassment issues in the workplace.

A tally sheet was used to get everyone’s profile scores, and then a summary and average of the information was created.  From this the areas of attention the organization might want to address as strategic initiatives were determined.  Questions were asked about what leadership can do to ensure that more information is maintained or developed for the different groups, ranging from bus drivers, cafeteria workers, the executive director, and the teachers, as well as the customer service groups and clients they serve.

It was recommended that individuals review their profiles one month after the training.  In addition, the participants needed to use the results as part of their one-on-one coaching with their supervisors.  It was also recommended that participants discuss their action plans with their managers.

Discovering Diversity Case Study from Inscape Publishing