Some specific delegate comments:
“Pitched at a good adult level.”
“Use of actors added a very good angle on what can be a contentious issue.”
“Actors were excellent – perhaps they have a future in investment banking?”
“Having the actors really does make a difference and enables more to be achieved in such a short time.”
Learning:
Rachel summarises: “I was only a few months in and had to know that I’d got the temperature of the organisation right. I’m confident we did and I’ve found the actors to be very sensitive to the differences within teams. An added bonus for me has been that by working with Jenny and Bi-Jingo I’ve become more able and confident in designing and delivering training.”
Rachel Says:
”We are now working on designing guides for line managers and we will be doing more work specifically around culture. Most importantly we are looking at how we embed diversity and inclusion in all other skills training we do. Bi-Jingo are currently delivering a half day Masterclass in Interviewing Skills as a follow-on.”
Three things to pass on:
Get senior level buy-in – and leverage it.
Do your research – what would your audience find useful?
Be demanding. Don’t be afraid to ask the business to spend a whole day on such an important issue. Good leadership should, and does, include managing diversity after all.
at Standard Bank
Standard Bank is a leading African banking group focused on emerging markets globally. It has been a mainstay of South Africa’s financial system for over 145 years and operates in 16 countries outside Africa including Brazil, Argentina and China.
Rachel Osikoya joined in September 2008 in a brand new role - Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Corporate Responsibility.
“I was interviewed by the CEO, David Duffy, so I knew that senior management were totally supportive of Diversity and Inclusion.”
“There were some challenges though. The bank’s heritage meant that, for some managers, Diversity was associated with Transformation and necessarily meant quotas. This initiative needed to be positioned as something very different.”
As Rachel explains: “It had to be relevant to all managers. I also knew that it had to be engaging and to make an impact in as short a period of time as possible.”
Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix work.
There were two aims to the training. One was to build awareness and help managers manage risk. This meant refreshing knowledge on current legislation and connecting it to everyday working practice.
The other was to emphasise the key role which leaders play in creating the culture. This meant skills-based training so they could begin to understand and leverage the existing diversity in their teams by flexing their management style.
Rachel describes her approach: “I knew I wanted to use actors – it’s a great way to get buy-in and engagement.
“What I liked about Bi-Jingo however was that they specialised in Leadership Development. This gave them added credibility with this audience which was vital.
“I also wanted a genuinely bespoke event and to put my stamp on it. By partnering with Bi-Jingo I could see an exciting opportunity to blend our respective expertise and skills.”
Implementation
The first event was for the Executive Committee. Jenny Lynch, Client Director at Bi- Jingo describes: “The session started with actors performing ‘vox pops’ - adapted from observations gathered from within the bank and from other external work experiences which we knew would strike a chord. Our audience loved it. When three people volunteered to put together a diversity mission statement, we knew we’d made a great start.”
The design of the event
The HR Business Partners helped us shape the scenarios for the training with their vast wealth of experience. We designed a scenario about a team member who feels they are being unfairly matched with clients and another one about a ‘style clash’ in a cross-functional project.
Jenny Lynch states, “We resisted the urge to create villains and heroes. Our aim was to create complex situations where there was always more than one way of looking at it. Managers were asked to speak to characters on both sides; to explore it fully and to challenge each other on the assumptions and judgements they were making”.
Managers then practised the skills needed for critical conversations – ones which would develop solutions and mend relationships. These included challenging a peer on their management style and speaking to a team member about inappropriate office banter.
Jenny says, “What we wanted to avoid was managers seeing the legislation as a straightjacket and being too afraid to discuss sensitive issues.
“Leading diverse teams is a real test of a leader’s communication skills and thinking ability. They need to be able to consider and balance different perspectives, to facilitate thinking across teams and to role model a high level of self awareness and interpersonal sensitivity. The good news is that all of these skills are learnable.”
Feedback and Next Steps
A day on Diversity and Inclusion does not always come top of an investment banker’s wish list. However the response has been excellent. 95% rated the course excellent or very good, and 98% said it provided them with useful guidance.
Where we delivered training to an intact team, they took away specific action plans on ways to make to their regular team meetings more inclusive, with the HR business partners supporting them in this.
For more information, contact Jenny Lynch..