Cultural awareness
As President Ana Marie Cauce stated in her April 2015 speech launching the Race & Equity Initiative, “We cannot just escape our history and biases by pretending they don’t exist.”
Few of us endeavor to discriminate or act in a biased manner, yet discrimination and bias exist—and many of us are blind to our own preconceptions and prejudices. This can create an inequitable and ineffective work environment. Individual employees may feel silenced, misrepresented, or even mistreated; on an organizational level, there may be an inordinately homogeneous culture in which a variety of voices go unheard.
Diversity consultation
Race, gender, ethnicity, culture, age, education levels, sexual orientation, and work experience are a few of the many ways in which team members can be different. How these differences are managed affects how your team functions and how well it accomplishes its objectives.
If managed well, the same variables that challenge us can also inspire us to discover and build on common ground and increase the synergy of our teams.
Consultants can provide:
- Customized training modules and workshops to build team member skills for working with a diverse group
- Leadership coaching
- Assistance planning for diversity management
- Assessment of diversity issues that may be impacting the functioning of the team
- Problem-solving for managing diversity issues
Through its University Consulting Alliance, POD has access to a number of internal and external consultants who have experience with both higher ed and with issues of race, diversity, and cultural competence.
Training
Additional resources
- Learn about the UW’s Race & Equity Initiative.
- Project Implicit: Test your biases.