Employee DEI Training: How to Create Lasting Change

Employee DEI training is crucial for modern workplaces, but why do so many programs miss the mark? In this article, Lyndon Friesen, Lead Skill Development and Team Dynamics Trainer at Outback Team Building at Training, weighs in on the common pitfalls and how you can create meaningful change in your organization.

Written by Lyndon Friesen, Lead Skill Development and Team Dynamics Trainer at Outback Team Building at Training

At Outback Team Building and Training, we believe in the power of effective DEI training.

Employee DEI training is crucial for modern workplaces, but why do so many programs miss the mark? The answer is simple: they focus on defining DEI instead of taking steps to create real, transformative change.

In this article, we’ll explore why many employee DEI training sessions fall flat and what needs to be done to create meaningful, long-lasting change within your organization.

Table Of Contents

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The Pitfalls of Typical Employee DEI Training
Doing the Pre-Work: Preparing for Employee DEI Training
Hosting a Successful Employee DEI Training Session

The Pitfalls of Typical Employee DEI Training

Employee Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training—often referred to as DEI—is incredibly important for modern organizations that want to foster innovation and creativity, build trust, and empower collaboration.

But traditional corporate approaches have long left something to be desired.

All too often, when organizations delve into employee DEI training, the process, while generally well-intentioned, is treated more as simply checking a box.

Standard employee DEI training involves an intellectual exposé on the topic by going through endless definitions.

Organizations devise bias catchphrases they believe their employees should live by, document those statements, circulate those documents, and cross their fingers in hopes their people will live out these values.

All too often, organizations state that ‘isms of all kinds, such as racism, sexism, and ageism, are not tolerated. They make declarations that everyone should have equal opportunity to grow and succeed.

But the problem is that the training typically ends there: defining unconscious biases doesn’t mean you know how to uncover them in your people, let alone address them to create change.

True employee DEI training is challenging work that involves uncovering individual biases, understanding their root causes, and creating an action plan to untangle them. This work is best done through conversations with others.

This is why most employee DEI training fails. It’s also where an organization’s real opportunities lie.

The truth about employee DEI training is that it poses an element of risk for organizations. Most team leads and executives lack an understanding of how to help people have real DEI conversations.

And that’s where experienced employee DEI training facilitators come into play. They know how to help people have the conversations that truly need to be had to break down walls and produce the behavioral change we desire.

When you enlist a professional facilitator for your employee DEI training, this is the work they do:

Preparing you and your team for the conversations that need to be had
Creating an environment where employees feel safe in doing so
Guiding the discussions to support meaningful change and positive outcomes

In the following sections, I’ll discuss how to make employee DEI training impactful and transformative rather than transactional.

Doing the Pre-Work: Preparing for Employee DEI Training

When you work with a facilitator, you can expect some “pre-work.”

Typically, when we work with an organization, we will send them a deck outlining and defining the key terms and topics to cover:

Diversity
Inclusion
Privilege
Implicit bias

While most organizations stop their employee DEI training here, a professional facilitator will start here. This step lays the foundation for the work to be done during your guided session.

This pre-work is essential as it allows you to utilize your in-person time to dive deeper into employee DEI training elements where the rubber really meets the road.

Hosting a Successful Employee DEI Training Session

While “employee DEI training” is the buzzword most people are familiar with, it’s essential that DEI be preempted by defining and addressing our biases. Without understanding our biases and being willing to look inward at our own, employee DEI training can’t be successful.

The goal of a DEI training facilitator is to create a safe environment where employees might discuss their biases openly.

This can be incredibly challenging, but science shows that keeping bias inside gives it a lifeline to continue.

It’s important for everyone to recognize that not all biases are bad, but some can be harmful to ourselves and others.

The key is to create open dialogue without the risk of anyone being labeled for their biases.

For instance, people may have a racial bias but are not racist. They may have a sexist bias without being sexist. But they need to be able to express it.

There’s no two ways around it: this is incredibly challenging work for the participants. But without it, meaningful progress can’t be made.

But when this happens, it’s the catalyst that begins to change their biases, ultimately enabling them to become better teammates and employees for the organization they’re part of.

Looking for employee skills training programs? Browse our full selection here.