For the last couple of months I’ve been having interesting and often challening discussions in training rooms, online and offline.

DEI is not an easy topic.

Unfortunately, it's become polarizing and triggering for some.

How as DEI trainers should we respond to resistance to #dei in training spaces?

Here is some learning sharing and advise from me and fellow DEI trainers on how to navigate through discussion with participants, who might be hesitant:

🔹  Know your pain points as a #facilitator and learn how does it feel like when they might be touched.

 Do your personal work before you enter the training room. 

Recognize your areas of triggers e.g. connected to your own identity and learn how to mitigate situations when your pain points get touched.

 It’s your role as a trainer to recognize your own emotions and their influence on your choice of how you manage challenging responses. 

 

🔹  Find an interest of the participant that can be their point of entry for DEI

People may be hesitant toward the DEI or had bad experiences with it.

But they may, for example, be interested to advance as good #managers.

Find the dots that connect their personal goals with DEI goals by showing them benefits of learning about DEI in order to be a achieve what is important to them.

 

🔹 Explore how much they are willing to get outside  of their comfort zone

 

Ask them if they are willing to, for the time of the workshop, be open to grow outside of what is comfortable for them and if they are open to co-create this space, being where they are at.

It’s important to keep in mind that 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙖𝙛𝙚.

It needs a collaborative process to agree on how discomfort can exist in the space of safety and how would that look like for them.

 

🔹Make peace with the fact that you can only reach people to a certain degree

 As much as you would like to, you cannot reach people who are too removed from willing to get engaged. Sometimes it’s better to withdraw and trust the group process for emerge with solution. 

 

🔹 Debrief your experience of facilitation

 

Check in with yourself after the workshop, if possible with a fellow trainer or co-facilitator. 

It's ok to get angry, it's ok to get triggered and it's ok to express it as a facilitator in the right way.

Every practitioner has a different context and a personal path and needs to find their own response to resistance.

That’s why, for me, the big part of my work as a trainer is the internal work I do related to DEI.

 

How else do you think we can engage with resistance to DEI in training rooms? Share your practice in the comments.

 

🔹🔹🔹

 

This reflection is a part of learning sharing from the Global Inclusion Dialogue meeting in Norway. Thank you, the whole group, for great discussions and Susan Gore, Nene Molefi, Natalie Lutz, Monika F. de Waal, Patricia Malidor-Coleman and Bjørn Z. Ekelund for contributions from your DEI practice. 

 

#różnorodność