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What is diversity?
What happens when worlds collide?
Its not a black and white issue
Challenges with diversity
What is diversity?
Believing in Jesus over Mohammed?
Enjoying small talk or deep meaningful conversations?
Being late or punctual?
Asking for detail or the big picture?
Taking responsibility or looking to others to sort things out?
Learning through pictures, learning through doing?
Confident or shy?
Thongs or veils in public?
To work well with diversity, at all levels, we need to create environments where:
 It’s safe to ask questions, to be curious about ourselves and others
It’s safe to acknowledge prejudices, preferences and outdated beliefs
People are encouraged to challenge discrimination, in themselves and others and to strive to learn and develop in all areas of their lives
This leads to more people being at their best more of the time.
What happens when worlds collide?
When you’re working at your best, you’re like what? What helps you to work well? What gets in the way? How does your work allow you to work at your best? Should you fit into work or should work accommodate you?
When you’re learning at your best, you’re like what? What environments help you to learn? How do you like being taught? Should you fit into your teacher’s style or should they change to suit you?
Are you in the minority or the majority in different areas of your life? Who has the most influence over how things are run?
This programme explores these questions. Finding out what you’re like, what others are like, how to develop the flexibility to understand and communicate more effectively with others, what’s important to you and, essentially: to create the conditions so that more of us can be at our best more of the time.
Its not a black and white issue
“How far are you willing to go to? Would you compromise your own values? Are you an example of what you want other people to do for you? What does it mean to be working ‘with diversity’?”
Most people wish for a more tolerant society, and it’s also often the case that they want a society that’s tolerant of what’s important to them, not that they themselves should be more tolerant of things they don’t like or don’t understand or that are at odds with their own values.
Diversity is becoming more of a high profile issue and legislation increasingly provides a framework of good practice and compliance. European Union Directives require member states to further develop anti-discriminatory legislation in the areas of race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and age.
Sometimes the solutions to diversity issues have the opposite effect to the one intended.
People so afraid of offending others just don’t talk to them any more
People who get promoted wonder whether they are there on their own merits or to fill a quota
Teachers trying to accommodate individual learning styles are then unable to teach effectively.
We are overloaded with rules and strategies to prevent discrimination. The more ‘Politically Correct’ we become, the more we isolate ourselves from one another. The more positive discrimination we employ, the greater the backlash. We’re interested in all forms of Diversity, how they impact at work, home, school and in government. We believe that being able to work within Diversity makes the world a safer more exciting place for all of us.
Challenges with diversity
Being in a ‘very diverse’ group can be time consuming and clumsy as people try to feel their way towards common understanding or negotiate across customs and style. It can lead to a loss of creativity and learning as people retreat into ‘cliques’ or groups.
Homogenous groups can seem to be efficient in terms of shared understanding but can lead to stuckness, lack of learning, insensitivity to the needs of diverse customers and clients. Group members might not recognize their individual and shared prejudices as they aren’t called upon to challenge their views through contact with others. Such groups can be isolated from the wider community.
We are each, as individuals, challenged by the fact that we are similar and different to all other humans. How we approach these differences, negotiate agreements, share understanding, and make meaning of what and who we meet makes all the difference to whether diversity is a spark for creativity, learning, joy and love or whether it is something to be demeaned, feared, marginalised and eradicated.
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COURSE DATES
2nd & 3rd June