Diversity and Inclusion Workshop

Diversity can be the strengths of a society and cultural barriers the weakness. Diversity without taking care of inclusion will be only an effort. Organisations that are able to focus on both diversity and inclusion practices, will experience the best outcomes and greatest alignment with business objectives. 

Although good progress has been observed recently, a stark gap persists. Part of the problem is that “diversity” and “inclusion” are so often lumped together assuming that they’re the same thing. But that’s not the case. At the workplace, diversity equals representation. However, without inclusion, the crucial connections that attract diverse talent, encourage their participation, foster innovation, and lead to business growth, will not happen. 

This workshop will create the bases for a reflection on best practices to increase diversity, promote inclusion and to instigate the concept of belonging.
To build a culture of belonging, a strong inclusion programme is fundamental, for a healthier company, unleashing the very real value of a diverse workforce, and achieving diversity of thought at all levels.

Organisations clearly acknowledge the need to enhance workforce diversity and foster an inclusive work environment. It seems like the appropriate thing to do and everyone is onboard with the idea as the general belief is that it will somehow lead to good. However, unless we clearly recognise and relate the business imperatives that get directly impacted by a diverse and inclusive culture, it will remain a continuous challenge to drive change.

Therefore, it is important to understand the need behind the need for diversity and inclusion at the workplace. This session explores the specific impact of a diverse and inclusive culture on an organisation's overall financial performance, creativity, innovation, and productivity.

Furthermore, we operate in an interrelated global environment so the need to be inclusive is not limited to business entities only. This session will explore the impact of inclusion on our society at-large from a macro perspective.

Have you ever heard of diversity quotas in the workplace? What about unconscious bias training programmes? Or retention programmes with a focus on minorities? Whose responsibility is it to ensure an inclusive culture: should it be top management’s (with a top-down approach) or should it be everyone’s (with a bottom-up approach)?

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace can encompass a number of different initiatives driven by different stakeholders and targeting different goals. In this session, we will explore what types of measures companies and organisations are fostering in their environment and what their lessons learned are in order to keep such real-use cases alive over time.

Diversity and inclusion are very critical in the workplace in all industries as it enables a creative and productive environment for all employees to reach their full potential through engagement and wider set of skills. This session is intended to serve as a soundboard to the needs of future young professionals to share their thoughts—what and where companies need to focus to achieve the right culture awareness.  

If they are given the role of chief diversity and inclusion officer, what are the 2 or 3 things they will change or implement on the spot? 

The methodologies will be evaluated by the judges and they will announce the chief diversity and inclusion officer of the day at the end of the session.  

Leadership styles are plentiful and continue to emerge. Depending on the reference material, one will find as few as three or as many as twelve and each leader can find themselves in one of these styles. No particular style is right or wrong, but all successful leaders have one trait in common—inclusion. Inclusive leadership spans across all styles, attainable by all leaders. Inclusive leadership is personal. Inclusive leadership is exploratory. Inclusive leadership is genuine. 

In this session, leaders will bring forward personal stories of their inclusive leadership, sharing challenges they have faced and opportunities that have unfolded due to their courage and commitment to move past the facts of diversity and embrace the behaviors of inclusion.