Blaming or shaming participants without their express and informed consent is unethical if not unkind. If a respectful workplace is the goal of the training, the training must be respectful. If an egalitarian environment is the goal for management, the exploration of cultural and social differences among groups must encourage mutual understanding through deep dialogue. This does not mean that diversity training should avoid engaging emotions and the psyche of those participating. In fact, the opposite is true if a change of behavior in the individual stakeholder as well as in the system is the goal.
Deep diversity is an authentic response to real issues in organizations.
Deep Diversity Out of the myriad of stories told among my colleagues, external consultants, and our internal counterparts, one theme emerges more than others, diversity requires a systematic, informed approach in any organization. Five of the eight qualities speak to the commitment, clarity and readiness of the organization to the effort. These represent the deeper diversity work and achieve the most success when a part of other intentional organizational development efforts. I was recently asked to mediate a conflict between two supervisors. The requesting managers recognized that diversity was a factor based on the fact that one was an Hispanic male and the other a white female in a traditionally-male craft.