Top Ten Reasons Diversity Training fails!

by Mauricio Velásquez
President, The Diversity Training Group

Here are some things to avoid when trying to implement diversity training into your company or organization's agenda. These top ten reasons for failure happen all the time, and prevent many organizations from creating a culture that is all inclusive!
On Wednesday the "Top Ten Reasons Diversity Training Succeeds" will be post, make sure you compare and contrast the two with you organizational check list.

1. Diversity training is coming out of the Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Office.. Diversity training must come from the whole organization through a diversity steering committee made up of employees from a representative cross-section of the organization. Don't give the EEO/AA backlash camp ammunition for their resistance.

2. Diversity training is being done because it is the "right" thing or "moral" thing to do. The organization does not understand the connection between diversity and the bottom line. These are good and valid reasons but in corporate America, make the business case for diversity training first. (This welfare approach to diversity training plays into the hands of those arguing the EEO/AA argument - backlash).

3. Training is all the organization is doing. The organization is not reviewing or scrutinizing their hiring, promotion, leadership development, and business practices. Do you have a formal, inclusive mentoring program in place? Are you a homogenous company (senior and upper management) marketing and selling to a heterogeneous or diverse marketplace? Or, will a heterogeneous company (your competitor) understand and anticipate the needs of your heterogeneous or diverse marketplace more effectively than you and your homogeneous company?

4. The diversity training has management's support (they will provide the resources) but not their commitment (management or senior management in particular, does not attend training, does not "walk the talk", i.e. Texaco). Management's lack of participation is all the evidence the rest of the organization needs to resist the training and consider it the next fad - They will wait and it will pass.

5. The training being conducted is "off-the-shelf" and not custom designed to meet the unique needs of the particular organization. Participants in the generic workshop are overheard asking themselves, "What does this have to do with me?" The training fails because participants were not engaged, not interested, and did not find the training practical, pertinent and compelling.

6. Training is being developed and lead solely by external diversity consultants and trainers. The training is thus the consultant's program and not a program developed by the employees of the organization, for the organization. No ownership or buy-in is solicited and thus none is secured and the program eventually perishes and the external diversity trainer is the "fall guy."

7. Diversity training was designed and developed without a formal needs analysis or diagnosis of the organization. Who in the ivory tower developed this program? Your program was probably developed by someone who doesn't even work at your company. What did they know?

8. Your diversity training program is awareness-based but provides no skills, no practical, "hands-on", everyday tools (what I call a diversity "skill/tool kit" has not been developed). People are heard saying, "This was great but now what? What am I supposed to do now? I go back to my workplace tomorrow."

9. Internal resources are not formed, developed, and encouraged, i.e., internal diversity change agents, facilitators, and an internal resource center and/or office. You haven't formed an internal diversity steering committee and haven't trained and developed internal change agents to "keep the fires burning." You have not continued the work once the external diversity trainer has moved on.

10. Your diversity training had no formal follow-up. Many of the action items had no owners and no one revisited the training. Training alone is not the cure-all panacea. You need to have internally driven initiatives supported by senior management commitment as well as ongoing attention and training from internal as well as external subject matter experts.

What are your thoughts?