Leading Diverse Teams & Organizations
University of Michigan via Coursera
Overview
Class Central Tips
In this new course, you'll gain evidence-based knowledge and practical tools to help you design and lead diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) teams and organizations. Whatever your background, and wherever in the world you may be, you’ll gain tools to accelerate your personal journey to lead diverse teams and organizations. This program is specifically designed to accommodate learners from different backgrounds (gender, race, country of origin, etc) as well as different starting knowledge points (new to the topic or social justice warriors). In the course, you’ll learn to better understand yourself and your personal identity in the workplace and gain new skills to identify privilege, implicit bias, and microaggressions in your organization and to take action as an active ally and change advocate. After hearing from experts representing a diverse array of real-world perspectives, you’ll understand best practices for equitable organizational processes and norms and inclusive behavioral practices in teams. Finally, you'll learn about best practices for organizational DEI strategy, including the role of metrics in DEI work and how DEI work can be integrated into the heart of an organization. At the end of the course, you’ll create a DEI action plan which you can apply to your own life and workplace.
Throughout the course, you'll:
- Describe the organizational benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Identify the conditions under which diversity is most likely to benefit teams and organizations.
- Deepen your understanding of different demographic differences and how identity, implicit bias, and structural inequalities impact workplace dynamics.
- Identify best practices for equitable organizational processes and norms.
- Incorporate important considerations for how to lead inclusive teams, including conflict management skills, group decision making best practices, and emotion regulation.
- Gain tools for the implementation of DEI strategies in organizations, including the architecture of DEI groups, the role of data and metrics, and tools to integrate DEI into the very heart of an organization.
Throughout the course, you'll:
- Describe the organizational benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Identify the conditions under which diversity is most likely to benefit teams and organizations.
- Deepen your understanding of different demographic differences and how identity, implicit bias, and structural inequalities impact workplace dynamics.
- Identify best practices for equitable organizational processes and norms.
- Incorporate important considerations for how to lead inclusive teams, including conflict management skills, group decision making best practices, and emotion regulation.
- Gain tools for the implementation of DEI strategies in organizations, including the architecture of DEI groups, the role of data and metrics, and tools to integrate DEI into the very heart of an organization.
Syllabus
- Week 1 Diversity and Our Mindset
- In the first week of this MOOC on DEI, you will get an introduction to DEI, including definitions of the terms and a first understanding of the mindsets we have around these topics. To fully process the learning of this week, it’s important to have a growth mindset on these topics and be open to really looking at yourself and your own behavior. Bias is something all of us struggle with, and something all of us can and should work on every day! Without developing a growth mindset around our own biases, it’s hard to convincingly make changes in broader organizational policies and practices on DEI.
- Week 2 Personal Diversity Challenges
- In the second week of this MOOC on DEI, we will do a deep dive into why checking and correcting our own biases matters - why it’s important to be anti-bias in our daily lives. Namely, we’ll explore the structural inequalities that exist because of daily small, and often unintentional behaviors, that propagate certain stereotypes and lead to the systemic discrimination of some groups compared to others. We’ll then explore the first steps you can take to be ‘anti-bias’ in your personal life, including how to have conversations with close others about these topics. Once we’ve helped you get the tools to grow your own mindset around DEI, in the second half of this course we’ll then explore the strategies you can take to help your organization improve on these topics.
To fully process the learning of this week on diversity mindsets, it’s important to have a growth mindset on these topics and be open to really looking at yourself and your own behavior. Bias is something all of us struggle with, and something all of us can and should work on every day! Again, without developing a growth mindset around our own biases, it’s hard to convincingly make changes in broader organizational policies and practices on DEI! - Week 3 Organizational Equity
- In the third week of this MOOC on DEI, we will gain insight into organizational practices and policies which can create equity. Namely, we’ll explore how equity is created in diversity policies, ideologies, and statements. We’ll then get very practical in how equity can be created in personnel decisions, such as hiring and job ads, and we will then look at how DEI can be systematically built into all structures of organizations in ways in which accountability and impact will be more likely.
- Week 4 Team Inclusion
- In the fourth and final week of this MOOC on DEI, we will explore the meaning of inclusion and how to create it in our workplaces. Namely, we’ll explore the science behind inclusion, and get really clear by what is (and isn’t meant) by inclusion. We’ll then explore the first steps you can take to be a more inclusive leader and lead more inclusive teams.
As always, to fully process the learning of this week, it’s important to have a growth mindset on these topics and be open to really looking at yourself and your own behavior. Inclusion starts with our own behavior, and is something all of us can and should work on every day. Again, without showing inclusive behaviors ourselves, it’s hard to convincingly make changes in broader organizational policies and practices on DEI!
Taught by
Lindred Greer
Never Stop Learning!
