Gateways to Inclusion
Turning Tense Moments into Productive Conversations
The Gateways video shows how painful and disruptive diversity disasters can be, and offers simple tools to help your people turn these uncomfortable situations into productive conversations.
Featuring Sondra Thiederman, one of the nations leading experts on workplace diversity, bias reduction, and cross-cultural business, the Gateways video shows how painful and disruptive diversity disasters can be, and offers simple tools to help your people turn these uncomfortable situations into productive conversations. In today's diverse workplace, tense moments occur. When you hear something offensive, when you've said something wrong, when something you say has been taken out of context... these situations can lead to hurt feelings, embarrassment, anger, resentment, and much more. But these difficult encounters don't have to remain difficult. If handled properly, these uncomfortable situations can be transformed into gateways that lead to better working relationships and increased understanding. Dr. Thiederman explains that opening such a gateway to conversation and holding it open, rather than slamming it shut in fear or anger has immeasurable benefits.
Key Learning Points
- How to manage the emotions that can arise in the face of diversity-related tension
- How to set productive goals for various types of gateway conversations
- Why it is important not to jump to conclusions about intent (and three strategies for assessing intent accurately)
- How to communicate in a way that demonstrates respect and encourages further conversation