largefont smallfont contrastfont normalfont

Traditional Diversity Training - versus Celebrating Humanity Workplace Diversity Interventions©

At the level of respect, all people are equal Brian and Arthie Moore - 2002

It is our firm belief and experience, at Celebrating Humanity International©, that “traditional diversity training”, by it’s very definition, can be boring and divisive.

  • In our understanding, the word “diversity” begins with the same three letters as “divide.” This implies a separateness of people.
  • A simple definition of “training”: “Teach people what you want them to know and then test them to see if they got it.” Training, by this definition, is prescriptive and based in the perceptions of the person/s delivering the “messages.”

A simple definition for traditional diversity training = “Making people understand about human differences - as groups and individuals.” Thus further dividing and separating them from the innate humanness which defines our very existence.

Our founders have spent the better part of 2 decades developing a highly successful, enjoyable and exciting series of programmes and methodologies, to build respect, understanding, communication and unity amongst people in teams, companies, organizations and general society.

Many years of experience in sharing human uniqueness, has led us to create the Celebrating Humanity series of Transformational Team Building programmes. Celebrating Humanity programmes deal with Workplace Diversity Management, Diversity sensitisation, Cross-cultural sensitisation and Team Conflict Resolution.

A Comparison

In this article we look at the various types of so-called diversity training, as compared to Celebrating Humanity.

Unite, or divide?

Traditional Diversity training is often divisive and can be misleading. It can be seen as a boring, time-wasting “punishment.” Often, and not surprisingly, team members run for cover when they hear that they are going on a "diversity training" course.

One can understand why people are so scared!

So many of us have been programmed to be wary of difference, in others. We have been separated from other human beings, through our daily lives, the media, our friends and family.

Whilst watching the Dr Phil show - I saw a 50 year old man coming to terms with his "programme." His daughter had married a person from another background, and he could not, or would not associate with his daughter and her husband, nor see his "bi-cultural" grandchild. He was begging Doctor Phil for help!

Corporate and government teams, and even members of the public are lining up to get onto our Celebrating Humanity© programmes.

The exhilarating learning methodology, content and facilitators celebrate individuals and their uniqueness, thus uniting people and their teams. Whilst at the same time developing a practical, experiential knowledge of diversity and opening up communication and further learning.

Types Of Diversity Training

Celebrating Humanity

A programme of fun, participation, communication, skills development, problems solving resulting in respectful, co-operative teams.

Team members teach each other through team work, competition and celebration.

After a few sessions, other team members ask, beg or demand to attend. Respect, teamwork and Communication opens up in the workplace and in the family lives of delegates.

Traditional Diversity Training

Programmes of facilitated knowledge sharing, traditionally in a lecture environment - though sometimes through controlled board games.

Facilitator shares - delegates “learn.”

Staff are instructed to attend, and often do as much as possible to avoid the training.

Celebrating Humanity

A series of sustainable and effective programmes, with a unique exhilarating methodology, that extend from understanding people, removing team conflict and building powerfully united teams and companies.

Create the environment - create the results

Richard Branson, in his book, Business Stripped Bare, says:-

Put people together in a way that will have them bouncing ideas off each other, befriending each other, and taking care of each other, and suddenly they are coming to you, not with gripes and problems, but with solutions and great ideas.

It is critical for companies and organisations, that wish to reach their full potential, to have the right diversity within their teams and to have their teams on board at the deepest possible level. This has the effect of:-

  • Reducing management stress by putting the control of interpersonal/ diversity challenges into the hands of your team.
  • Removing conflict, gossiping, and backstabbing from the workplace
  • Expanding markets, increasing their profits and ensuring that you all enjoy the journey!

Step back from control and get involved!

I am really sick and tired of this in-fighting! Don’t these people understand anything about the cultures and traditions of their team mates. I spend more time playing mommy and daddy - to my team, than I do performing my work function. You have to come and DO some diversity training!” So started a conversation with Sheila - the manager of a diverse, under-performing and conflicted team.

Sheila felt that, “they” did not understand each other and it was time to “force-feed” them with some cross-cultural understanding. “Then they will have no excuses for their behaviour!”

We spoke to Sheila about the potential to celebrate the diversity of her team - with them. It is simple to build unity within a team, when they are empowered, open, respectful, responsible and accountable. When they own their lives and their actions, and they are NOT “controlled” by a manager - but managed by themselves.

The Celebrating Humanity© programme is not only about who we are, in terms of background, history, religion, culture and traditions. It is also about the uniqueness of individuals and how we can all make adjustments in our actions, to ensure that we get better results - together.

Without personal ownership and whole team involvement - no amount of “diversity training” is going to transform workplace conflict and individual behaviour. The management and team stress will eventually raise their ugly heads again.

Matters of diversity can be obviously be learnt in a traditional diversity training course by individuals, who are looking for intellectual tools, or even weapons, to manage and control teams. These isolated soldiers for harmony, will carry out their task bravely. Their abilities to “manage diversity” will grow as time goes on, but they will be swimming against the stream.

Sheila took the powerful step, of letting go of her responsibility to “shepherd” her staff and “parent” them. Her team now works well and achieves far more through their diversity, with their diversity and their new responsibilities. This has proven that the best way to manage diversity in the workplace, is to get your entire team involved in the process, by getting them communicating and managing their own workplace relationships - through peer-created and managed agreements.

Basic Principles of Celebrating Humanity© Programmes

Principle 1. “At the level of respect, all people are equal.” Brian and Arthie Moore - 2002.

Of course we are different and we are all wonderfully unique. Yet if we can develop a respect for the core human being, we will resolve many issues of confusion and conflict caused by prejudice.

By respecting individual, we respect their humanness and their ability to be good, do good, create, love, care, think, change and to add value to us and the World.

When we separate a person’s actions from their humanness - we see a huge difference between the person and the things that they do. Based upon our understanding we may not respect certain actions of individuals. A growth in awareness and understanding may, or may not change these perceptions.

Principle 2: “There is only one race and that is the Human race.” Brian and Arthie Moore.

Human beings have been given so many "titles", such as:-

African American, Japanese American, French Canadian, French Belgian, Caucasians, Whites, Blacks, Coloureds, Indians, Muslims, American, South African, Italian, Christians, Communists, old people, men, women, gay, straight, fat, thin, rich, successful, bankrupt, lawyer, doctor, manager, worker, labourer, judge, plumber, maid, poor, fit or sick. Some words, that are used, are far less formal, or complimentary.

And each classification allows our logical brains to judge each other, as separate and different “things.” These words disempower us to be ageist, sexist, racist, paternalistic, judgemental, inferior, superior and marginalised! It is as if we are not all simply and wonderfully, "human beings."

Principle 3: “We add to each other.” Brian and Arthie Moore.

Difference is a huge plus!

When we recognise the fact that we are not in opposition to each other, our uniqueness, or diversity and commonalities, bring us incredible human power. We do not take from each other - we actually add to each other.

And it is that very difference, that can make average teams powerful and multi-diverse teams explosively successful. The knowledge and understanding of these wondrous differences will grow ourselves, our children and the future.

And first step towards personal and business success is an excellent workplace diversity training/ managing diversity and teambuilding programme - such as Celebrating Humanity©.

Principle 4: We are all perfect as we are. Life rewards our actions.

Whatever their perceptions of themselves, or outside perceptions of them, all human beings were created perfectly. Far too much time is focused on our “imperfections and inabilities.” We are fortunate to be unique, as it is these very differences that challenge us to grow.

By our errors and mistakes, we learn the lessons that guide us to understand what we can do differently. Understanding our innate “perfection” alone will not suffice.

This is the point where our action, brings about personal growth, understanding and results - or negativity and unhappiness. As perfect humans we can choose the actions that we take.

Principle 5: We all deserve a place in the society of our choice.

We all want to belong! Nobody wants to be marginalised by perception.

If we continue to live in our, well-defined, and often prejudiced, little bubbles we will never fully experience life, or the world. We will go to our end without having taken every opportunity to experience the wonders of humanity.

Isolation is a normally a self-created and perpetuated state. When we are isolated we never fulfill our full potential. The people around us add to us as we add to them. Particularly those whom we most resist!

In order to be a part of the greater World, indeed to belong, we need to seek out others. We need to create the acceptance that “strangers” cry out for. Thus growing our knowledge through the wonderfully unique people, who surround us.

Principle 6: We are here to build each other.

When we remove negativity from our relationships, and look for the good in others, we transform ourselves, them and our relationships. This change builds respect and team work, at home, at school, socially and in the workplace.

In order to do this we have to develop our eye for the positive and gratitude, and remove sarcasm, meanness and prejudice from our lives.

The results of these changes have been phenomenal:-

  • Diverse Workplace Teams that came to us in absolute conflict, report back months and even years later, that they are united, successful and stress free. And it naturally flows that stress-free teams are a pleasure to work with! Their customers love to work with them and their focus is on success!
  • A once conflicted Namibian Diamond Mining workshop mining team, by changing their attitudes and actions, took their productivity from a very low 38% to 65%, within a month.
  • Members of the public, who attended a public Celebrating Humanity session, talk of a fresh feeling of "belonging," and a new awareness of themselves and of the people around them.

Principle 7: Make it Fun!

Celebrating Humanity programmes © adopt a fun, participative, competition based methodology. This ensures that people from differing, or even “opposing” backgrounds form knowledge sharing teams that compete with each other, in a very safe, enjoyable and inclusive space.

The methodology is such that there is no time for negative domination of the programme by any person/s with their own agenda/s. Teams operate and function from their uniqueness, their united value and their sense of fun.

Time disappears in a wonderful and warm learning experience.

Traditional Diversity Training

Traditional diversity training can be described as a programme of developing understanding of “others”, through lectures, or game-based training - with the sole intention of developing a new intellectual understanding of “others.”

These lessons are often based in the understanding of the “lecturer”, or the books that are used in the development of the training.

This traditional "diversity training”, can add to our separations and is made more scary by a multitude of internet-based reports which list delegate complaints of "mind programming" or of people being "forced " to learn about other cultures.

There is seldom any desire to attend such courses.

Management Training

Often managers attend diversity training so that they can learn more about their people. This can have wonderful effects, on their understanding of their team members. It can also create a prejudiced “Them and us” effect.

“They” behave like this and “we” behave like that. Therefore I must do “this” when dealing with “them.”

These managers may have learnt far more by simply interacting and communicating directly with their team members, thereby developing wonderful, practical understanding of diversity through their team.

“Offender” training.

When things go pear-shaped in the workplace, when there is conflict at work or with a client - the “offenders” are sent for traditional diversity training. They are seen to have offended and brought the company/ organisation into “disrepute.”

This is almost seen as a rehabilitation of the people concerned. They will often perceive it as a punishment, and that they have failed to fit in.

They will be condemned by their action, and no amount of diversity training, or behavior change, will remove the labels attached to them.

International Diversity Training.

Prior to dealing with clients, or colleagues in other countries - a few of the wiser travelers / business people will go and learn about the cultures in those countries.

It is important to note that there are many different groups, languages, cultures, traditions and behaviours in these countries. For example, the official language in the People’s Republic of China is Mandarin Chinese - yet the number of individual languages listed for China is 293, on http://www.ethnologue.com!

With each of these languages will come a variety of differing cultures, religions, traditions, body language and personalities.

A UK-based report on doing business in South Africa - tells UK business people to maintain direct eye contact. And that is wonderful advice, when dealing with Afrikaans and English speaking communities - yet it could be highly offensive, and even seen to be aggressive - amongst most South Africans of African descent.

It is your choice.

Go the traditional way and have your managers to lead the actions and behaviour of your teams - with lessons learnt from their “diversity training.” When this does not work and tension erupts, isolate the offenders, hope the rest of the team gets a shock and transforms. Your team and client relationships will limp along, as normal.

Or, celebrate and unite your people, and your teams - whilst building a new workplace environment and business ethic - through a Celebrating Humanity programme©.

Either way, may we wish you the greatest success - because your greatest wealth lives in the diversity of your people.

Brian V Moore,
October 12, 2009