6 Principles for
Getting the Most
Out of DEI Training
By Human Resources Research Team
6 Principles for Getting the Most Out of DEI Training
Organizations often struggle to see a return on their investments in
DEI training solutions. Diversity and inclusion leaders can use this
resource to learn about six principles to improve outcomes from
DEI training.
For 82% of organizations, training is a cornerstone practice for driving diversity, equity and
inclusion (DEI) goals. 1 Yet many aren’t getting the results they hope to achieve. Most
organizations see little to no increase in inclusive behavior as a result of training. 2 And
even worse, some experience setbacks or backlash as a result of poorly conceived and/or
executed training programs. To get a return on their training investments, diversity and
inclusion (D&I) leaders should heed the following guidance (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: 6 Principles to Get the Most From DEI Training
Source: Gartner
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Principle 1. Prioritize Behavior Change Rather Than Attitude Change
Many organizations hope to mitigate bias and cultivate a more inclusive culture via
unconscious bias training alone. However, too often this strategy falls short. While this
sort of training can increase employees’ conceptual knowledge of bias, in practice, it is
less effective at enabling them to avoid bias and behave inclusively.
There are several reasons why unconscious bias training fails to deliver. First, it’s hard for
employees to curb biases of which they are unaware. Employees’ ability to control and
interrupt their own biases is limited by their lack of awareness of them. Second, despite
good intentions, unconscious bias training may exacerbate certain exclusionary
behaviors. Specifically, after training, some employees may become so concerned about
bias that they avoid interactions with colleagues to whom they feel at risk of unwittingly
expressing bias. Other employees may react negatively, exhibiting more bias in response
to training, because they view the training as an attempt to shift long-held political views
and/or beliefs about themselves (e.g, not being a biased person). 3
Rather than trying to change employees’ unconscious biases or attitudes, organizations
should focus on training and tools that can help employees change their actual behaviors.
For example, HR leaders can engage employees in experiential learning programs to
define the behaviors that help cultivate an inclusive climate. In addition to such
programming, HR leaders can formulate employee-driven guidance about the specific
norms, work practices and routines that employees can enact to enhance team DEI
outcomes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation took this approach to developing do’s and
don’ts for cultivating inclusive team climates.
Case in Point: Team-Defined Culture Do’s and Don’ts
(Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation empowers teams to translate core values into
specific behaviors. Using a simple do’s and don’ts tool, teams throughout the
organization customize behavior expectations to guide employees during the highstakes moments most likely to test their cultural alignment. The foundation
formulated four culture pillars (show respect, offer trust, be transparent and create
energy) and provided practical actionable guidance for employees to change
behaviors pertaining to each pillar. To ensure relevancy, HR turned the central list of
dos and don’ts in each column into a scalable and customizable tool for teams to
define behavior expectations in the moments that matter most in their day to day. This
business-driven approach promotes firmwide culture alignment while helping teams
articulate the right behavioral expectations specific to their goals (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2: Organization-Wide Do’s and Don’ts
Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Principle 2. Be Selective, Not Inclusive
DEI training is costly. To effectively manage budget constraints, HR leaders should
identify which employee groups would benefit most from training and prioritize these
groups for training. To identify employee groups to prioritize or deprioritize, D&I leaders
should work with L&D and ask several key questions (see Table 1).
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Table 1: Sample Questions L&D Leaders Can Ask to Identify and Prioritize Groups
Sample Questions
Considerations For Training
Which employee groups will advance
business goals the most by taking DEI
training?
Some groups that organizations consider
when they make these training decisions
include executive D&I council members, ERG
leaders, DEI initiative sponsors, people
managers and recruiters.
Which business units have received DEIrelated complaints?
D&I leaders can partner with all business unit
leaders and HR to gather information on DEIrelated complaints to gauge which business
units need DEI training prioritization and
focus resources on those specific groups,
tailoring training to their needs and
processes.
Among which employee segments will DEI
training most likely produce pushback or
backlash?
If employees push back or resist DEI training,
then another tactic might better help
advance DEI understanding and allyship
among these groups. Consider:
Focusing on implementing one-on-one
■
DEI conversations to address
pushback and to alleviate further
tension.
■
Enabling managers to root-cause and
understand employees’ concerns and
help them feel heard.
Source: Gartner
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Principle 3. Customize, Don’t Standardize
Off-the-shelf DEI training solutions are often too broad or generic to offer the type of
behavioral guidance relevant to all employee groups and work contexts. When employees
feel the training program content is not relevant to their roles, they will discount it. That’s
why DEI training should be role-specific and tailored to the behavioral outcomes the
organization is looking to achieve. D&I leaders should partner with the L&D function to
assess the specific DEI training needs of key employee segments while considering their
prior knowledge and DEI expertise, as well as their specific roles in driving the DEI strategy.
For instance, considering their roles in driving the DEI strategy, employee resource group
(ERG) leaders and recruiters may have very different diversity training needs. In this
example, recruiters will need to learn specific tactics to mitigate individual manager
biases, while ERG leaders might benefit more from training focused on managing culture
change efforts.
Principle 4. Implement Continuous, Not Episodic Learning
Organizations that rollout DEI training programs a few times a year will not see the same
benefits as those offering continuous learning opportunities year-round. The effects of
episodic, single format, DEI training programs tend to fade over time.
One way to offer continuous learning is to create mechanisms for peer-to-peer learning.
For example, D&I leaders can establish psychologically safe forums, such as communities
of practice where leaders can meet regularly to share and learn from each others’
successes and challenges in developing inclusive leadership skills.
Social Amplification of Learning
Social connections empower people to help each other learn. Skills and confidence
spread quickly via learning communities. With learning culture, the knowledge one
person gains can be shared and amplified via network effects. Community
compounds learning.
People learn more and create more value when they learn and teach within a group rather
than alone. Novartis uses the power of peer-to-peer social connections to amplify learning
and keep leaders’ skills from fading over time.
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Case in Point: Amplification Across Leaders (Novartis)
Novartis realized that to shift its culture, its leaders needed to transform their
leadership approach and would need help prioritizing the behaviors to change. Rather
than focusing on leaders’ largest gaps, HR leaders at Novartis ask leaders to identify
one behavior change at a time that would most improve their alignment with the new
culture and affect their team’s performance. Novartis’ HR team guides leaders to
discuss what their team needs from them, and the team votes to identify the behavior.
The team meets regularly to provide feedback and hold the leader accountable.
Novartis identified three solutions to amplify leadership development:
■
Safe Team Dialogue on Leadership Needs — Leaders turn to their team for input
on the behaviors that affect the group’s ability to reach business goals, ensuring
employees feel safe to share honest feedback.
■
Team Voting to Identify Highest-Impact Behavior Change — The team selects the
leader behavior change that will have the highest impact on business results
through a structured voting process.
■
Employee Accountability and Feedback Loop on Leader Progress — The team
has checkpoints every 100 days to give the leader feedback on the behavior
change (see Figure 3).
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Figure 3: Many Potential Starting Points for Leader behavior Change
Principle 5. Make Learning Embedded, Not Additive
Some organizations may find employees resist DEI training solutions because of the
perception that DEI efforts will only add responsibilities to their already busy roles. To
overcome this barrier, D&I leaders should partner with the L&D function, HRBPs and
managers to identify and build learning opportunities into daily workflows or existing
training, making it easier for employees to apply their DEI knowledge and skills on the job.
To reinforce DEI learning and skills, work processes should be designed to prompt
inclusive behaviors and actions. These might take the form of process design inclusion
nudges to change how employees conduct meetings. For example, to ensure peers
consider each others’ perspectives in group decision making, teams might adopt a
process by which each person gathers and reports on the perspective of someone else. By
changing the way employees conduct day-to-day tasks, organizations can help employees
apply inclusion skills like perspective-taking more consistently and in so doing become
more proficient at them.
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Principle 6. Drive Accountability, Not Just Participation
Without accountability mechanisms in place, organizations are less likely to see positive
outcomes from DEI training. Too often, organizations measure success based on training
participation rates and participants’ self-reported satisfaction. Instead, organizations
should survey training participants pre- and post-training to review and assess learning
outcomes and concrete behaviors. Further, organizations should reward application of DEI
learning through recognition programs and performance management processes. Holding
leaders accountable is particularly critical. By linking leader progression to inclusive
behavior, organizations can increase leader motivation and effectiveness in applying DEI
learning. Altria accomplishes this feat by linking leader progression and accountability
directly to DEI progress.
Case in Point: Operationalize Accountability (Altria)
HR leaders recognize that without clear repercussions,
leaders may deprioritize DEI. To confront this challenge,
Altria redesigned its approach to leader accountability by
linking leader progression with DEI progress. The organization created multiple
accountability measures:
■
DEI Aiming Points Co-creation — HR and stakeholders co-create aiming points to
build mutual understanding and commitment to DEI as a strategic priority.
■
Individual Leaders’ Scorecards — HR creates leader scorecards to fortify
individual contributions to broader organizational targets.
■
Peer-to-Peer Goals Transparency — HR encourages senior leaders to share DEI
plans and scorecards, empowering them to motivate one another and deliver
against aiming points.
■
Leader Advocacy and Progression — Through its DEI ratings, HR formally
assesses and captures leader allyship and advocacy. The ratings are integrated
into performance evaluations to make clear that the inability to lead inclusively is
a barrier to the highest levels of performance and advancement (see Figure 4).
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Figure 4: Altria’s Leader DEI Plan and Scorecard Sharing
Source: Adapted From Altria
Conclusion
DEI training can be effective in driving change, but only when scoped and executed
properly. To optimize their return on DEI training, organizations must target behavior
change and adopt customized training strategies that embed DEI learning in day-to-day
workflows.
Endnotes
1
2021 Gartner DEI Effectiveness Survey
2
Why Diversity Programs Fail, Harvard Business Review.
3
Why Doesn’t Diversity Training Work? Anthropology Now.
The organizations profiled in this research are provided for illustrative purposes only, and
do not constitute an exhaustive list of examples in this field nor an endorsement by Gartner
of their organizations or their offerings.
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