How to Up Your D&I Knowledge Game?
Learning about diversity and inclusion can seem like wading through murky waters. There are multiple approaches to education, a lot of content to cover, and multiple formats to learn in. Whether you’re trying to up your game for personal knowledge, to become a supportive ally, or to build a more inclusive workplace at your company, there’s a lot you can do.
We’ve collected some of the top ways to learn more about workplace diversity and inclusion, categorizing them by delivery method:
Online courses you can take right now
Events and other in-person learning opportunities
Educational technology products
Consultants and other private forms of education
Online courses you can take right now
Learning to make the business case for greater diversity and inclusion at a large organization shouldn’t require a course in data science. Diversity and inclusion training will help your team at least get at the human side of D&I, find a shared vocabulary, and understand and unblock unconscious biases and other barriers to inclusion and productivity.
When you’re searching for online courses, pay attention to the credibility of the instructor or institution, the delivery method (on-demand versus scheduled), and what kinds of outcomes the course offers.
Leadership and Inclusion
Offered through Centennial College in Toronto, in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI), this course will help business and people leaders understand the nuances of inclusive leadership.
Unconscious Bias training
All humans have unconscious biases which help us navigate the world. The problem is these biases can make us treat people differently based on factors like their background, ethnicity, or identity. Offered free by Microsoft, this unconscious bias training is a free on-demand course to help everyone understand the basics of unconscious bias.
D&I Certificate
Offered by Cornell University in Ithaca, USA, the D&I certificate program is available digitally and on-campus. This course is targeted towards employee leaders, helping them understand employee engagement, inclusive management, and building inclusive workplaces.
Conferences and other in-person educational events
Some people learn best when surrounded by others and listening to someone speak. For those people, conferences and other in-person learning environments may be the right move.
If you’re looking at conferences and events, pay attention to the speakers’ resumes, the history of the organizing committee, and any testimonials that may be available.
Venture Out
Venture Out is Canada’s largest nonprofit organization forwarding LGBTQ+ inclusion in tech and entrepreneurship. The organization hosts an annual summit in Toronto and other workshops and events throughout the year.
#movethedial
#movethedial is a global movement to advance all women in tech. The organization hosts Stories events throughout the year around the world, culminating each year in a global summit featuring speakers from around the world in tech.
Black People in Tech Network
The Black People in Tech Network (BPTN) is a community for all black people who work in the tech industry or are interested in joining. Their inaugural BFUTR summit is coming up in late 2019.
Forward Summit
The Forward Summit is an annual conference geared towards community building in the Indigenous Canadian community and advocating for Indigenous professional development in tech.
Meetups and workshops
Wherever you are in the country, there are likely meetups and workshops happening. Most often, these will be listed on Meetup, a social network to find in-real-life (“IRL”) social networks and events.
Toronto Bridge Builders Meetup
This meetup focuses on discussions around harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Each meetup features an educational talk and break-out groups to talk specifics.
Toronto Talks Inclusion Meetup
Toronto Talks Inclusion is a meetup and video series where people from all walks of life can share their authentic stories. The goal is to showcase the diversity that exists in humanity and build an intersectional, diverse community of storytellers.
Technology products that can help your company with inclusion
Sometimes, online courses provide a fantastic base but may not help with ongoing tidbits of knowledge. In other cases, you need access to the cutting edge of knowledge when it happens or you need specific knowledge that’s tailored to your organization That’s where technology products come in.
Textio
Textio is an ‘augmented writing’ platform that helps writers and editors be more inclusive and up their business storytelling game. It looks for gendered language, exclusionary language, and other phrases or comments that may not resonate with broad audiences.
Atipica
Atipica is an AI-based recruiting platform that helps companies track diversity in their candidate pool. It offers snapshots, analytics, and the opportunity to reconnect with candidates from underrepresented backgrounds through the platform.
Applied
Applied is an applicant tracking system (ATS) that looks at objective psychometric data to predict better hiring outcomes. Looking specifically at how bias comes into the recruiting process, Applied uses data analysis to remove bias and dig towards more foundational elements about whether a candidate will fit in a job or not.
Crescendo
Crescendo is a diversity education platform that helps people build more empathetic workplaces. Its Slack integration delivers on-demand, real-time knowledge about diversity and inclusion that meets the individual at their learning level. The platform then helps people learn more over time, going at their pace.
Consultants and private education opportunities
Sometimes you have a very specific learning need or something more confidential that may not show up in an online course or at a conference. In that case, you may want the individual touch that comes with consulting.
Bright+Early
Bright+Early is a modern HR consultancy that provides startups with part-time HR leaders, diversity and inclusion consulting, and employee coaching.
DiversiPro
DiversiPro is a D&I consulting firm that focuses on inclusion as a driver of productivity. The company helps with inclusive leadership, cultural competency, and more.
Feminuity
Feminuity is an organizational culture consultancy that helps companies build sustainable, inclusive work environments.
KDPM Consulting
Run by coach and consultant Karlyn Parcil, KDPM Consulting helps leaders understand the data behind emotions, leading to more inclusive and successful decision making.
InclusionVentures
InclusionVentures is an organizational culture consulting firm that helps companies build inclusive work cultures. They offer services around workforce planning, culture development, and more.
Awaken
Awaken is a consulting firm focused solely on diversity and inclusion. Their unique approach is through interactive workshops, helping to facilitate ‘uncomfortable conversations’ about inclusion.
Women’s Work Institute
The Women’s Work Institute is a strategy firm that leverages different methods of education to talk about diversity and inclusion. The company has consulting, hosts hackathons, and has a content platform all geared towards education about inclusion.
Learning on your terms
No matter how you learn or what your style is, there’s a way to learn more about diversity and inclusion. As you continue on your learning journey, you may want to add other skills to your roster and look for project management courses, UX training or coding courses. Like any of these skills, diversity and inclusion is a valuable tool in a leader’s toolbox.
Research powered by CourseCompare, Canada’s marketplace for education.
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Crescendo is the diversity & inclusion education app for Slack and we’re on a mission to help companies create more inclusive workplaces. You can learn more here!
