ADDITIONAL TOPICS

Approach: In our bias workshops, we begin with defining the types of bias (explicit and implicit) and explore the ways in which bias leads to microaggressions and how they both show up in the workplace/team in various contexts, impacting our working relationships, our decision and policy making, our efficiency, production and processes. 

Components: We tailor our exploration of how bias operates in the workplace to the other areas the organization is focusing on, including recruitment/hiring procedures, policies, organizational structures such as governing bodies or committees, program structure, workplace/team culture, etc.

What to Expect:

• Understand and name personal bias, where it comes from and the various ways it operates

• Understand and name institutional bias and its socio-historical context

• Define types of bias, types of microaggressions, and the relationship between bias and microaggressions

• Identify bias in organizational practices and procedures, as well as institutional structures and policies

Approach: In our intersectionality workshop, we will begin by developing a more comprehensive understanding around why it is important to consider intersectionality in various contexts within the workplace or team environment. Then, we will tailor our discussion to relevant areas of focus depending on organizational goals and desired outcomes.

Components: Intersectionality is a framework developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw that works to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in society. Intersectionality considers that various forms of social stratification, such as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, religion, and disability, do not exist separately from each other but are woven together. 

What to Expect: 

• Define intersectionality

• Name individual (personal) intersectional identities and situate them within our socio-historical context and our workplace cultures

• Understand why it is important to consider intersectionality in the workplace, how it operates, and how it impacts workplace cultures and organizational processes and procedures (i.e. group decision making)

• Identify the relationship between positional power and intersectionality

Note: While the theory began as an acknowledgment of the multidimensional experience that Black women hold, as well as an exploration of the oppression of Black women within society, today the analysis is potentially applied to all social categories, including social identities usually seen as dominant when considered independently.

Approach: We begin our workshops on racism by defining racism and understanding its socio-historical context and how it shapes our society and thus workplace/team cultures. We then tailor the workshops to issues that are coming up and relevant for the organization's needs and goals.

Components: Systemic racism, institutional racism, interpersonal/individual racism, race+power, and (racial) cognitive dissonance

What to Expect:

• Understand and name the difference between the various types of racism and their socio-historical context

• Recognize and name how the various types of racism function in the workplace and shape workplace/team cultures

• Understand the relationship between race, racism and power

• Define cognitive dissonance and how it operates with respect to race and racism