Gateways to Inclusion

Gateways to Inclusion: Turning Tense Moments into Productive Conversations is a diversity and inclusion training program featuring Dr. Sondra Thiederman, one of the nation’s leading experts on workplace diversity, bias reduction, and cross-cultural business. The video shows how painful and disruptive some "diversity disasters" can be, and offers simple tools to help your people turn these uncomfortable situations into productive conversations.

In today's diverse workplace, tense moments occur. People might speak without thinking first. When you hear something offensive, when you’ve said something wrong, when something you say has been taken out of context... these situations can lead to hurt feelings, embarrassment, anger, resentment. But these difficult encounters don’t have to remain difficult. If handled properly, they can be transformed into “gateways” that lead to better working relationships and increased understanding. 

The workshop takes viewers through a series of vignettes through which your team will learn:

• How to manage the emotions that can arise in the face of diversity-related tension
• How to set productive goals for various types of gateway conversations
• Why it is important not to jump to conclusions about intent (and for assessing intent accurately)
• How to communicate in a way that demonstrates respect and encourages further conversation

Gateways to Inclusion is a flexible package that can be used in short or long training sessions. The program can stand alone, or it can be integrated into your existing diversity and inclusion curriculum. In addition to the main workshop, the package includes a refresher to solidify the program's skills and provide more opportunity for practice. It also includes a bonus video scenario for discussion.

The DVD with the 17-minute Main Video and 3 important Extra Features:

• Main Video
• Extra Feature 1: Frequently Asked Questions
• Extra Feature 2: Video Quiz
• Extra Feature 3: Video Case Study

The DVD is fully chaptered and includes subtitles in English, Spanish and French Canadian.

The Gateways CD-ROM has the comprehensive training materials in PDF format:

1. Leader’s Guide
2. Participant Handouts
3. Quiz Guide Sheets
4. Note-taking Guides
5. Identifying Respectful Phrases Handout
6. Post-Test Handout
7. PowerPoint presentation

Program length: 17:00