Working with Resistance: Reaching Those Furthest Away from DE&I Efforts
May 7, 2021 @ 9am PST | 12pm EST 90 minutes.
Session Description
Resistance is nothing new for those of us who run diversity, equity and inclusion programs. We anticipate it, we know it comes with the territory, and we learn to work with it instead of against it.
Yet, the resistance facing many of our organizations today feels different. It’s more intense. It’s more blatant. It’s outright.
It does not serve the work of DE&I practitioners to blame the audience or the media for resistant stakeholders or employees, nor does it work to look down on them. One important step, we are discovering, is to unpack our own unconscious bias in how we work and partner with our clients.
Resistance is rooted in deep distrust and politicization of our programs, especially on the heels of political whiplash. It seems the people we most want to reach are furthest away from us. How can we close the gap?
Our ability to build inclusive organizations depends on us creating workplaces where everyone feels they belong, including the insiders who, for whatever reason, feel like outsiders.
In this webinar we’ll discuss:
- How and why is today’s resistance different?
- What practices can we keep?
- What do we need to do drastically differently?
- What are we missing or overlooking?
More about our guests:
Rich Schaeff has spent the bulk of his career facilitating large-scale culture change within the manufacturing, healthcare and conservation industries. He took a break from that career in 2000 to pursue an interest in medicine. After two years of pre-med, he decided to major in biology and head toward teaching high school biology. Life intervened and he helped raise his grandson instead. He re-entered his consulting and facilitating career two years ago, now with the focus of diversity and inclusivity. In his free time, Rich enjoys creating sculptures from bones he finds while hiking in the mountains.
Rianna Moore joined WMFDP in 2018, bringing 40+ years’ experience in providing training, education, program design and facilitation and OD consultation in various sectors. Her work focuses on power dynamics in social systems, with a particular focus on undoing racism, sexism and other systems of oppression. She holds a master’s degree in OD and a PhD in human and organization systems from Fielding Graduate University. She is also a Track Champion with WIN Insights, a 20-year member of NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science and an adjunct faculty at Georgetown University.
Jim Morris has 30 years of experience working and leading in purpose-driven consulting organizations. At WMFDP, he directs and supports our team of consultants and facilitators, as they deliver one-of-a-kind world-class services to WMFDP clients, globally. He’s also responsible for the integrity and excellence of program delivery, curriculum development and innovation, and instructional design of WMFDP’s programs. Jim began his journey with WMFDP in 2000 when he attended his first White Men’s Caucus and began working with WMFDP in addition to leadership development and coaching practice. The Caucus had a profound impact on Jim, and he began looking for ways to blend his work with WMFDP’s experiential approach to engaging white men in developing their own courageous leadership practices.