The
Diversity Training Profession is a Multi-Billion Dollar
Industry
Three recent movements have resulted in the
diversity training profession becoming a lucrative industry.
One is a couple of United States Supreme Court rulings
in the late 1990s that supported the use of diversity
training to protect organizations from discrimination
lawsuits. After that point, more organizations started
diversity initiatives and diversity training programs
in an effort to increase legal protection. [Read
the History of Diversity Training in Strategic
Diversity & Inclusion Managment Magazine (Spring, 2007) for details.]
Globalization
is another movement that has increased the popularity
of diversity programs. Global economic ties encourage
multinational and international cooperation that require
cultural competence in order to gain a competitive
edge. Most international mergers, for example, fail as
a result of an inability to overcome cultural differences.
This is one reason that more than 50 Fortune 500 businesses
wrote briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 to argue
their support for affirmative action college admissions
policies. The briefs consistently noted the importance
of higher education diversity programs in contributing
to long term economic security.
The
third movement is the trend towards a shift away from
production industry to knowledge and service industry.
What an individual knows and how well she shares her knowledge
are critical competencies in the modern organization.
Sharing knowledge in a diverse and global organization
requires competencies beyond technical expertise.
One
reason diversity and knowledge sharing have received
increase attention is the success of the Silicon Valley.
The high tech park outside of Boston was predicted
to be the most successful of such enterprises that
emerged during the 1990s. Experts agree that Silicon
Valley emerged as the most successful model due to
the considerable diversity among those working together
in the high tech area. Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC San
Diego, and a number of other California universities
attracted undergraduates and graduate students from
across the globe, most notably China, Singapore, Europe,
India, and Taiwan. Many of the foreign students were
studying engineering and the Silicon Valley was the
place to get experience. Of course, they found their
way to Silicon Valley as interns, employees, and even
company owners.
Beyond
the people diversity, early Silicon Valley offered
a culturally-rich environment in its early stages
of growth. One reason is that the location at the time
was cheap compared to real estate in San Francisco
Bay Area. Bohemians, who were artisans and musicians,
lived in this cost-effective area that the thriving
IT park soon engulfed. The young engineers would work
together all day and spend their free time in coffee
shops, pubs, and other public areas conversing about
their enterprise. We learned that their creative juices
flowed in a stimulating, open-minded way as they consumed
music, sidewalk art, spirital, and other Bohemian offerings.
Today, the area real estate is too expensive for Bohemians
and the tech bust has changed the atmosphere. However,
today about one third of Silicon Valley companies is
owned by foreign-born high tech entrepreneurs, and
the majority of them were educated in the United States.
One reason they are successful is that they travel
between their birthplace and the United States conducting
high tech business. What we learned is the close link
between diversity and innovation.
Diversity
and inclusion is now a global movement. The European
Union architects understood that one of the strengths
of forming a union was the increased availability of
expert knowledge brought about, in part, by the diversity
across sister countries. That is why managing diversity
is of highest priority in the strategic plan to create
a sustainable union. Another example comes from Singapore,
which has created strategic business “islands” that
locate multinational companies in the same enterprise
next to each other in order to encourage knowledge sharing.
Many
organizations use diversity initiatives to create similar
environments, however they admit needing support in creating
the full circumstances for doing so. Learn
about how to make a case for a diversity initiative by
following the link below corresponding to Starting Your
Own Diversity Initiative.
Higher
Education, Healthcare Profession and Fortune 500 Companies
Have Led the Way
Higher education has been a leader in the implementation
and development of multicultural education curricular.
The Westinghouse Workplace 2000 study report made it clear
that higher education must prepare graduates for working
in a demographically different world. Multicultural education
was also viewed as a way to attract and retain students
of color. Long discussions and cultural wars have been
fought over changing the canon or core general education
courses. The result is that
the vast majority of universities and colleges have introduced
ethnic studies and multicultural education as part of its
required general education requirements.
In
many ways the healthcare system has been the model in
focusing on cultural competencies. One possible reason
is that the disparities in healthcare deliver have a
dire consequence because poor care decisions can result
in creating more problems for clients--the costly of
which is death. One certainly wants to avoid making a
poor decision due to linguistic and other cultural differences.
Healthcare facility accreditation also rests on showing
programmatic efforts to promote cultural competence.
Cultural
competence in healthcare enables effective work in cross-cultural
situations. According to Laurie Anderson, PhD, MPH and
colleagues, a culturally competent healthcare setting
offers an appropriate mix of the following:
-
A
culturally diverse staff that reflects the communities
served,
-
Providers
or translators who speak the clients' language(s),
-
Training
for providers about the culture and language of the
people they serve,
-
Signage
and instructional literature in the clients' language(s)
and consistent with their cultural norms,
-
Culturally
specific healthcare settings.
-
These
features will reduce inequities in healthcare delivery,
reduce health risks, and protect the profession legally.
The
Demand for Expertise is Greater than the Available Talent
Since 1999, Fortune 500 companies have actively engaged
in the design, development, and implementation of diversity
initiatives. A diversity initiative goes beyond the Supreme
Court rulings in that the organization is seeking to promote
an image of being inclusive. This is due to demographic
shifts in the United States. No longer can an organization
assume that recruitment is simply a matter of selecting
the best candidate among the applicants.
The
applicant pool today tends to be better educated and diverse,
especially in service jobs. An increased number of women
and people of color among applicants create a challenge
for many organizations because old criteria for determining
who is the most qualified do not work. Organizations will
hire the best talent that will contribute to a competitive
recruitment and retention edge. A diversity initiative
is ideally a strategy for gaining a competitive edge.
In its simplest form, a diversity initiative involves
the development of a mission statement, forming a diversity
steering committee, and disseminating information about
the organization’s commitment to diversity (Refer
to Starting A Diversity Initiative below for more details).
One
reason that more cultural competency experts are needed
is that today each Fortune 1000 company has some form
of long term diversity program and that smaller companies
are quickly following suit. Professionals with specialized
knowledge about how to capitalize on diversity are
needed to take existing programs to the next level
and assist those companies that are just now getting
on board. Thus, we see the rise of the Chief Diversity
Officer .
It
is interesting that with the increase in appreciation
for diversity and efforts to harness it in the service
of productivity, the number of existing experts and training
programs are not growing quickly enough. One reason is
that many westerners believe that diversity expertise
is a matter of being liberal-minded, rather than a competency
for which training is needed. However, the diversity professionals
who are experts have developed their competency by receiving
degrees in social science, years of trial and error experience,
and a considerable amount of personal work in train-the-trainer
seminars and workshops.
Those
who are among the best know that training skills are merely
one component of diversity expertise needed today. Others
have not been properly trained, but have earned their
position as an in-house diversity professional or consultant
on the basis of being a pioneer or advocate. The pioneer
is a person who has been in the forefront of promoting
diversity within an organization for a long time. An advocate
is someone who is outspoken in efforts to promote inclusion
within an organization. It is their conviction that gets
them the position, rather than specialized knowledge--Notwithstanding
the fact that some of these pioneers and advocates have
acquired considerable expertise. The point is that many
pioneers have not received training within a full program
that is designed and developed with their specific professional
needs in mind.
Anna Lind, an EU Architect
Consider
the fact that in Sweden the more successful diversity
experts were trained as economists and engineers.
This does not mean they are not good at the work that
they do. However, Sweden does not offer formal diversity
trainer or cultural competency development programs.
One reason economists and engineers are attractive
as diversity experts is because corporate leaders
wants to know how investing
in a diversity initiative will pay off. These professionals
offer data-driven initiatives, which make them more “credible”
in the eyes of corporate skeptics. Most of these professionals
have studied in the United States or England.
The
point is that most experts have had to bootstrap cultural
competencies from reading, life experience, and tidbits
of information from here and there. DTUI is designed to
take the trial and error out of becoming an expert.
You
Can Take Advantage of This Professional Opportunity
Few resources exist that offer state-of-the-art programs
to develop your expertise as a diversity officer or
consultant.
Diversity
training skills are not enough. A lot of good trainers
exist in the diversity profession. However, the trend
is towards in-house training that utilizes employee
instructors, rather than outsourcing. Independent
consultants and trainers are still needed for small
jobs and to do large scale training in response to
legal requirements (such as fulfilling the requirements
of a lawsuit settlement), but forward thinking organizations
have a long term strategic diversity initiative. One
way to offset the costs of extensive training is to
train people in-house as trainers. We can argue the
pros and cons of such strategies, but that would be
beside the point because organizations will likely
choose the most cost-effective solutions. Training
in-house training is considered a diversity best practice
at this time. But keep in mind that there is too much
work for one staff member, so they will continue to
seek the support of consultants and trainers.
The
program that will benefit you most will offer you the following
expertise:
-
Organizational development and effectiveness skills
-
-
Training
and facilitation skills
-
An understanding of organizational culture
- Human
capital diversity assessment
- Linking
diversity, human capital, and organizational goals
-
High impact diversity recruitment and retention strategies
- Cultural
competency and customer satisfaction secrets
-
Managing diversity proficiency
We
train people to commit to cultural competency and model
it for others. The profession will grow into a viable
enterprise to the extent that the proper credentialing
and commitment are recognized by the larger professional
community.
Training Model
The program is in two levels. The first requires attending
a 4-day seminar and the second involves a 3-day seminar.
The
format is short lectures, individual and small group
exercises, and discussion. There is plenty of opportunity
for practical challenges individual face in their work
due to the small size, which is no more than 20 people.
We
assume that trainers need cultural competence to provide
high impact diversity training and consultation. DTUI
trains the four components of cultural competency:
(a) awareness, (b) attitudes, (c) knowledge, and (d)
skills. Awareness refers to the insights an individual
has into their emotional, psychological, and behavior
responses to diversity. Research indicates that many
of us, for example, have blind spots concerning our
openness to diversity. Attitude refers to our personal
biases, moral positions, and openness to differences.
Knowledge refers to the concepts, skill requirements,
and ethics associated with diversity training. Skills
refer to the ability to effectively serve as a cultural
competency professional.
Practicing
in the act of learning is central to the DTUI training
philosophy. However, novice trainers have an ethical
responsibility to conduct diversity work under the supervision
of an expert. DTUI assumes that diversity training and
consulting competency requires rigorous training in an
adult learning format. The nice thing about working with
us is that once you become a participant, we are available
to you for questions at any point in time--even after
you complete our program..
 Listen
to experts discuss how higher education and business can work
together in promoting cultural competency. Click
Here.
Click
Here to go to Starting A Diversity Initiative
To
learn more about programs to train cultural competence experts,
please Click
Here.
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