welcome to this course on leading diverse teams and organizations. I'm excited to join you on this journey to introduce you to the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. And help you accelerate your learning journey in this area wherever you're coming from in your knowledge of preexisting experience with this conversation. In this course, we're going to understand why it's important for everyone no matter your place in the organization to lean into DEI and engage with it. We're going to discuss how to design equitable organizational processes as well as how to promote inclusive environments within our organizations. The first half of this course we'll be focusing on this from an individual learner angle over how do I, as a person, become more anti bias in my own life? What can I do individually to create an equitable environment around me as well as an inclusive environment for others? And then the second half of the course move over to the organizational level. What can organizations do to improve on these topics? I think is really important whenever you're learning on a journey like this to first, look at you on where you are, improve your skill set. And then we can go on to the organizational level of how to fix organizations around us. As we go through this course topics of diversity, equity and inclusion are difficult there's a lot of emotions attached. There's questions of morality, there's questions of fairness, justice, equity and a lot of emotions arise. So especially in this course, I think it's really important to commit to a shared set of values for all of our learners going through this together. Which is first to realize that all of us are on a journey, where each at different places and that's okay. And the goal of this course is to help each of us commit to taking those next steps on each of our own individual journeys and to commit to personal growth. This course is really set up with personal action plans each week to help you find tools. And ideas of how to accelerate your own learning and that of your organization as we go through the course but again it starts with you. The next value on this course is going to be compassion, to have compassion, especially for yourself and especially for others. That all of us have a lot to learn, no matter where you are on the journey, and that is okay and the emotions that arise from it are okay. And it's also important to show this compassion to others as we engage in feedback. On some of the different discussion boards that will have etcetera have compassion because this are difficult topics. Next one is respect, this course is about diversity respecting those differences is going to be critical, as you go through this course. Whether it's differences in knowledge difference in expertise, different backgrounds, different genders, races, etcetera. Show respect in all the ways in which we engage with each other's differences in this course and finally be accountable. None of the knowledge and DEI matters if we don't hold ourselves accountable, so I'll challenge you as you go through this course. So how can you hold yourself accountable to the learning and especially the application to the life that you carry outside of this course? How can you take the learning's and actually make change in your own life and that of your organization? Who's going to be your accountability buddy? Where are you going to track your progress? So as you go through this course really lean into commitment, compassion, respect and accountability. Before we get any further, I wanted to first make sure we all had a shared understanding in our journey. Of what I'm going to mean as we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion in this course. By diversity, I build on the classic definitions within the huge research in management of psychology and diversity. Diversity is any difference that can make a difference, sometimes the differences are more visible, are more attached to structural inequalities. Other differences are less visible, and are more subtle, diversity could be gender and race could also be differences in political views, differences in eye color, or favorite sports teams. In this course we're focusing probably more so on the differences which lean towards structural inequalities and challenges in organizations. That any difference can make a difference and any difference needs to be thought about intentionally and to be respected. Equity is fairness, in structures and systems, so how do we create equal opportunities for everybody? Acknowledging that structural differences exist in society. Inclusion, is this really interesting term because many people have a strong misconception of what it means. Inclusion can sometimes be thought of just, we all feel like we belong. And actually, if you look in the literature on inclusion coming back to the literature on optimal distinctiveness in psychology. Inclusion is yes, in part of that sense of groupiness and belonging. But it's also an equally importantly, a space for individual difference, where people feel safe to express those differences and to share their different identities. And as you're building a more inclusive organization, finding that balance between this groupie sense of belonging. And space for individual difference is a challenge and this course really delve deeply into how do you walk that balancing act? To create organizations that are inconclusive as well as equitable and diverse. When we talk about these topics and where you should be focusing first, I would often say inclusion. Because unless you create that culture where diversity will work, you shouldn't bring in the diversity and the same goes for equity. So in this course will first start with your role as an individual in becoming anti bias. And the steps you could take to be a better ally and to promote equity in your own life. Next, move over to equity at the organizational level and some of the learning goals that we might have as we look at how to design equitable organizations. Will be first to understand why equity is critical for organizational success, and then we'll examine different approaches organizations could take to DEI. In terms of how to structure DEI roles, how to write a policy, how to communicate in DEI? And how to hold yourselves accountable to an approach towards DEI. Then we'll analyze the role of equity within organizational processes such as hiring and interviews, and have bias can be removed. We'll then, reflect to the broader spectrum of equity in the organization and how the different career paths the diverse employees could be best supported. We'll then identify the absolutely critical role that data and data analytics play in supporting any type of DEI initiative. And equitable initiative in organizations such as tracking representation, pay gap analysis, etcetera. Then we'll develop an action plan for you to take back to your organization for the DEI policies, needed for organizations to flourish. We'll then move on to inclusion and the actual behavioral tools that leaders and employees need to have to create environments on a day to day basis, which are safe. And so learning goals here will include, describing the micro behavioral skills around inclusion needed to lead diverse teams. We'll reflect on our own personal toolkit around inclusive behavior and whenever I talk about leadership development, more broadly. I think it's very important to think of leadership as something like reading or math, where anybody can learn the tools within it. And it's important to be aware of the tools you have and don't have. So we'll write down what are the tools of inclusion for leaders, both formal and informal in an organization. And help you take an analysis over which ones you polish, which ones you still need to work on. And then we'll give you actually the chance to practice these new behaviors you'll work on around inclusion in team meetings. So you're probably wondering now, okay, how do I actually get going? How do I launch my own personal DEI journey in combination with this course? So let me walk you through the action plans that we're going to be helping you do each week to bring this course to life in your personal life as well as out of your organization. So as an individual there's one way to think of a DEI learning journey. And the different building blocks still need to go through along this journey as a person seeking to become better at the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. A typical starting point for a DEI journey, is first just understanding identity and the many different identities each of us hold. What those identities mean in society and to others? And becoming comfortable with that and so, what are the different identities you bring to this course? How do they impact the way in which you're going to hear this course or engage with this course? The study to reflect on the different identities of those around you.
