The Shamming of Diversity

The Shamming of Diversity™

Have you experienced stalling points in your diversity efforts? Is “inclusion” still more of an aspiration than a reality in your work environment?

What is Shamming?

The late Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., in his last published work, described the Shamming of Diversity as the process of leaders, diversity practitioners, and organizations continuing affirmative action policies under the banner of diversity. (Diversity becomes a “semantic cover for affirmative action.”) This leads to false starts, re-work, disillusionment, disbelief, and disengagement.

The term ‘shamming,’ is generally used to suggest that someone is deliberately pretending to do or be something that they are not. In the context of the program described below, it is used to alert participants to how and why their organization’s efforts are often perceived as “warmed-over” affirmative action, and helps them identify ways to amend their process.

The Workshop

This three-part interactive, facilitator-led discussion, will enable participants to recognize and change the elements of their efforts that lead to this impression and the resulting disappointing outcomes.

Participants will:

Examine three primary factors that keep organizations stuck in the “spinning wheels” cycle that leads to a ‘shamming’ assessment.
Gain a broader understanding of the depth and breadth of a robust diversity management process by examining their personal diversity paradigms and the organizational supports and barriers that impact diversity management efforts.
Identify the factors and actions that could shift the status quo of their current diversity efforts to a more credible, effective process with a goal of achieving business-driven outcomes.

This is an in-depth conversation for those ready to thoroughly examine their own understanding and change/influence their organization’s diversity and inclusion goals and results.