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Beyond DEI basics: uncovering social identities to foster inclusive and safe environments

In this facilitated DEI workshop, you will uncover specific dimensions of diversity that may have been overlooked in your DEI work to date that have an impact on decision making, trust-building, and forming psychologically safe environments. In doing so, you will gain an awareness of your own social identity as well as organizational group social identities that shape inclusive organizational culture.

Why Start with Social Identity a Foundational Component to DEI Initiatives?

Building awareness around our individual and group social identities help determine ways in which we can form psychologically safe spaces for people to feel included and valued beyond the surface level acknowledgments of bias and inequity in the workplace, and reveal exactly how and where we might let our bias seep into our organizations.

Whether we’re seeking to build more inclusive spaces or break down barriers that prevent members of marginalized groups from professional advancement, we have to first examine the ways we show up and see the world around us and how that lens influences our behavior and our thinking. Social identities aren’t just limited to individuals; as members of workgroups, leadership teams, or departments, our collective lens also plays a role in how we treat people and who we deem as members of the in-group versus the out-group.

During this workshop, we will:

• Increase awareness of own social identity and how individual identities impact decision making
• Identify Team Social Identities and implications for in-groups/out-groups
• Introduce Psychological Safety as a way to form more inclusive environments
  

After the workshop, you will:

• Identify one focus area within their organization to apply their learnings
• Design your own Social Identity Map (which each participant would create during one of the activities in the session)
• Define the characteristics of Psychological Safety for your organization