Example of supporting your gender diversity plan

Your organization would like to take steps towards increasing gender diversity, just like ING, Philips Lighting and Ernst & Young (EY).

Direction is committed to coordinating and linking all related activities into one single strategy that contributes to the outcomes. All of the programs developed by Direction for training and supporting your diversity action plan will always be tailored and adapted to the profiles and challenges of the target audience / participants.

We would like to suggest that for all of the workshops and training sessions that include ‘Mindbugs’ that the ‘Implicit Association test Gender & leadership’ available through Direction (the Mindbugs test) is used. This test is done on the internet (time investment is two lots of 8 minutes) and measures personal bias in the contexts of Gender & Leadership. Group results are fed back during a meeting and afterwards, all participants also receive their own Report by digital mail. This contains their individual scores with insights into how strong their unconscious associations are. The extensive report which is provided with their scores, allows participants to check out and reflect on their scores more than once. They can also use handy hints provided so they can start to take action.

1) Workshop on Ambition

At meetings, we can provide an interactive workshop on ambition.
We highlight the following questions: what is ambition? How clear are you about what you want? Why is it important to know what drives you and what you want? Why does ambition for women work differently to that of men?

This is followed by a guest speaker at the invitation of the Executive. She will talk about her own challenges around ambition and we will facilitate the conversation and questions from participants.
The aim of this workshop is to give women a taste of Female Leadership training, which they can attend afterwards. The most important questions related to participation in Female Leadership training will be asked to see if this is actually the appropriate time for them.

2) Workshop Awareness

During a Management and Board meeting Esther Mollema will run a workshop on diversity awareness on the basis of two topics, namely: Mindbugs and the Pitfalls for women. Pre training the related on-line questionnaires on Mindbugs are completed by participants. The resultant data are used as reference to highlight the Mindbugs during the workshop presentation.

Mindbugs

Diversity within organizations can bring powerful competitive advantages. Diverse teams are more successful and get better results than homogenous teams. But why does it take organizations so much effort to achieve diversity in leadership? Surely we choose the best people for all of our teams! The answer is surprising. No, we don’t. Our Mindbugs see to it that we don’t initially choose the best people, but that we have an unconscious preference for people who appear to be like us or like current stereotypes.

Why do we unconsciously look for similar matches and make others less visible in the process? We examine how our brain works and why both men and women have unconscious biases and make choices based on those. By watching short film clips and doing interactive exercises you will actually be able to experience this for yourself.

Pitfalls for woman

Men differ more among each other and women differ more among each other, then men and women differ from each other. And yet it is much more difficult for women to move up in organizations. How can this be? We highlight the 9 pitfalls that are just that little bit more relevant to women than to men within the working environment.

3) Workshop Awareness for HR

HR departments come together for similar awareness workshops. The same topics are covered. Participants complete the short Mindbugs test before attending.

The workshop provides an insight into signaling the possible barriers that stand in the way of diversity, such as: transparency in appointments, insight into job vacancies and influence of direct supervisors. We translate theory to the daily practice of HR. What can we improve ourselves straight away and how do we facilitate the organization processes for optimum success of diversity?

4) Workshop Mindbugs for the Executive and MT-members

Esther Mollema provides a dynamic 2 hour presentation about Mindbugs for MTs and Executives. Participants complete the short on-line Mindbugs test before attending. They will discover that we are not logically able to choose the best people, but that we have an unconscious preference for people who appear to be like us or like current stereotypes. We look at how our brain works and why both men and women have unconscious biases and make choices based on those.

The workshop consists of a presentation and dialogue / discussion session during which own personal biases are investigated. During the workshop the Executive team will actually experience the functioning of Mindbugs by means of short film images and interactive exercises.
Then we make the transition into the daily practice of the Executive team. What are the best practices; what works well in practice and what does not? What role should we play to create a more inclusive culture in which diversity can be used to maximize opportunities?

5) Training – Female Leadership

This two-day training course focuses on managing your career.
This training addresses the nine pitfalls in the careers of women. Depending on developmental levels of attendants, training content is adapted by using different examples and adjusting the pace of training. For over 8 years now, this has been big impact training. Of course our training is constantly being adapted to reflect current realities. One of the side effects of this training has been that women themselves form a strong network that actively encourages and helps each other.
This training program covers the following topics:

• What is ambition? (builds up on the January workshop)
• What is your ambition and what is the importance of speaking up about ambitions, especially for women?
• What are your strengths and how can you make the best use of these?
• What are the written and unwritten rules of success in your Organization?
• How can you become more visible in your work outcomes as well as personally?
• What perceptions exist about women in the workforce?
• How do you build up a useful and supportive network?
• How do you deal with setbacks and how can you change this?
• How do you achieve a healthy work / life balance?
• To finalize the sessions, on the afternoon of the second day, participants invite their own direct Line-Manager and one additional guest for a combined Mindbugs session.

For more information about all our Diversity and Inclusion programs contact Esther Mollema!