THE CHALLENGE
An Ad agency was concerned about unconscious bias at the Partner level limiting opportunities for younger staff and hindering efforts to attract and retain diverse talent.
THE SOLUTION
We rolled-out a customized 3-part series of Unconscious Bias trainings. The program built increased bias intelligence within the Agency. It drove employees to discover what they felt about their own sense of belonging within the agency.
Session #1 Awareness Building; Through understanding that we all have and display unconscious biases. We built awareness of our own biases and how the displays of micro aggressions impact others.
Session #2 Using the awareness we built deeper understanding of how to embrace diversity through our own learning about others and the interpersonal interactions we have with them. We simulated navigating team meetings and projects with an awareness mindset. We also explored areas in the agency where biases lurked and impacted the success of the company’s people and teams.
Session #3 We connected the learning by testing out different tools and techniques and discussed the organization processes which could be altered to build in the new awareness, understanding and tools to remove identified biases.
THE RESULTS
A post training survey demonstrated employees felt opportunities granted to younger staff increased, and feedback showed they felt the agency was clearly evolving into an ‘even greater place to work’.
This training program propelled the agency on its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) journey. Their next step was to conduct surveys, focus groups and develop a DEI strategy and approach to create a sustainable foundation for culture change and organization growth.