Leading Edge HR – Inclusive Leadership – Diverse Perspectives
Steps has a long standing relationship with the CIPD at both National and Regional level, and on Tuesday 8 April 2014, we joined the CIPD West London Branch – adding an experiential edge to an evening seminar as part of their events programme.
The project was carefully researched, developed and rehearsed over a 6 week period, allowing us to create scenarios that were resonant and relevant for the target audience of HR Professionals from multiple sectors, as well as keeping content current. We spoke to key stakeholders in order to better understand the issues and gain insight into what our potential delegates would be looking for from the event. The result was a 90 minute session, entitled ‘Leading Edge HR – Inclusive Leadership – Diverse perspectives’.
The Programme
The programme tackled a topic which is highly relevant to all HR and L&D professionals in today’s diverse workplaces. Managing diversity and inclusion successfully is essential to good people management because everyone is different. Different views, perspectives, experiences and ideas challenge ‘group think’, stimulate creativity and innovation and contribute to better business performance. What contribution can we make as HR professionals in supporting this agenda? How can we raise awareness of the impact of unconscious bias in our workplaces and the risks it poses for fair promotion, development, innovation, decision-making and opportunity for all? What do we mean by Inclusive Leadership and how do we role model more inclusive behaviours and encourage this in others?
Outcome
The evening event explored the subtle behaviours that challenge an inclusive culture and can impede performance. The experiential nature of the session gave delegates a chance to get to the heart of the issues, putting diversity and unconscious bias firmly back on the HR agenda as we all work towards creating more inclusive working cultures. Delegates explored their own behaviours, as well as those of their peers – through live drama and engaging debate, resulting in a shared dialogue and an individual commitment to action.
