Diversity and Inclusion Training

Our DEI Training Philosophy

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) development is focused to create positive momentum for leaders, their teams, and their organizations to create a culture of inclusion and belonging. Leaders are challenged to focus on the task and the team and so these development experiences create moments to pause, reflect, and learn. The work of Diversity and Inclusion training is very personal and so our goal is to meet the learners where they are.

Every leader has a different leadership style and their own identity. Our DEI training values the individuality of the learner as well as the uniqueness of the organization. Our goal is to influence leaders through equity and diversity training to recenter on organizational expectations and inclusive leadership best practices that align with their individual values.

All Exude development solutions are built on four core behaviors: be self-aware, be inclusive, be well and be accountable. This creates a common thread through all of DEI development solutions and creates a focused model for your leaders to apply new behaviors.

Our DEI Training Experience

Our training programs are designed to be engaging, meaningful, and relevant. Exude’s solutions are interactive, and they provide learners with knowledge, skills, and confidence. The facilitators focus on practical application. Each DEI Training Program includes tools and resources that participants can immediately use to positively impact their workplace interactions.

All Exude DEI development starts can be delivered in-person or virtual. We have clients that take one module and work through their entire leadership team, and others that take a cohort through a series of modules over time. There are two basic types of training:

  • A training class is an approach with one teacher and <25 learners who participate in a very interactive, hands-on experience that could be an in-person or virtual session. This is delivered using Zoom and includes individual, small, and large group exercises.
  • A town hall presents thought leadership to larger groups of employees and has the option to be recorded. This lecture, led by an Exude facilitator, can have digitally submitted questions, has the option for a panel of your leaders, and is less interactive.

A key to implementation of new behaviors is tied to the role of the learner’s manager. Exude has pre and post communications that will be distributed to both the learners and their managers. This drives transparency and accountability in specific leadership behaviors.

Core Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Courses

The following four core Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training courses complement each other and when completed, drive awareness and behavioral change.

  • Foundational Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

    The Foundational DEI course is designed to introduce participants to the importance of diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and belonging on an individual and organizational level. Participants will have the opportunity to have conversations surrounding their own identity and how it shows up in the workplace through personal examples and through high personalized case studies. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to create a plan of action that will allow them to create tangible next steps in their commitment to increase their cultural competency.

    Learning Objectives:

    • Define key terminology and distinguish between the concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB).
    • Discuss the value of DEI for the organization and for individuals.
    • Explain your organization’s position and approach to DEI.
    • Discover barriers to inclusion and what you can do to overcome them.
    • Prepare a personal action plan for creating a more inclusive workplace.
  • Unconscious Bias

    The Unconscious Bias course presents participants with the opportunity to learn about what unconscious bias is, how it can show up in day-to-day interactions, and the ways in which they can work to mitigate their biases while also addressing the root cause of their biases. This course includes a refresher on key principles introduced in Foundational DEI training and how these key concepts are related to understanding and managing unconscious bias.

    Learning Objectives:

    • Describe implicit, explicit, and unconscious bias.
    • Describe and discuss examples of the ways bias manifest in the workplace in various contexts.
    • Identify ways to notice and address unconscious bias by applying concepts in case studies.
    • Develop an action plan centered around improving one’s cultural competency on both an individual and organizational level.
  • Allyship

    The Allyship course explores the everyday actions inclusive leaders can take to support marginalized groups in the workplace. Through a mix of role play scenarios and other interactive exercises, participants will understand the importance of allyship, learn what it means to practice allyship, and get hands on experience modeling allyship behaviors.

    Learning Objectives:

    • Explore and understand the practice of allyship.
    • Identify behaviors and roles associated with effective allyship.
    • Explain how to avoid harmful behaviors in the practice of allyship.
    • Practice and demonstrate allyship skills through role-play scenarios.
  • Inclusive Leadership

    The Inclusive Leadership course introduces leaders to the core behavior of inclusive leaders: self-awareness. The training prepares them for what, why and how to build inclusive teams. Participants will understand the link between inclusion, engagement, and productivity and how to activate more moments of inclusion. The outcome is each learner will develop a personal action plan tied to their specific team and their business functions. This course can also be accompanied by two optional labs that provide time to design plans for advancing equity, justice, and belonging within the employee experience and the customer experience.

    Learning Objectives:

    • Create moments of self-awareness to drive intentional inclusive practices.
    • Prioritize inclusive moments in the employee and customer experience
    • Identify ways to build a culture of inclusive leadership and accountability.
    • Examine the influence and impact in key inclusive moments.
    • Define measures of success that create momentum for more inclusion.
  • Inclusive Communication

    As the makeup of today’s workforce evolves, understanding how to connect and engage with colleagues, leaders and constituents of varying identity groups and cultural backgrounds is critical to forming an inclusive workforce. Naturally,  this comes with challenges.  Inclusive Communication invites learners to acknowledge cultural differences and effectively communicate across those differences to create a culture of inclusion. Learners will leave the session with strategies that can be immediately applied for staying attune to this ever-changing world we live and work in.

    Learning Objectives:

    • Understand the foundational components of communication and how the history of language is grounded in privilege.
    • Learn the value of cultural competency and recognize key moments that call for a higher level of sensitivity and awareness.
    • Learn strategies and core terms of inclusion that can be incorporated into your everyday communication.
    • Appreciate the need for courage to help others shift and patience for when mistakes are made.

Licensing Exude’s Diversity Training Content

Exude’s approach to licensing training content is very simple and straightforward. For our DEI content, the option to simply buy the training license without a train the trainer (T3) does exist. Having said that, DEI training is very complex, and even the best content design can’t carry a trainer with minimal experience.

The license is a perpetual license that gives you access to unlimited options. Meaning, if you want to use the training as it’s built, that’s fine. If you want to customize it and tie it to your organizational goals or values, that’s fine. If you want to use pieces of our content to embed in other trainings, that’s also fine. The goal with our training license is to empower you with strong content.

Exude is a mission-based organization that is very committed to growing access to training for small businesses and non-profit organizations with limited budgets. To learn more about our Pay It Forward Program that provides scholarships and in-kind training resources to organizations, please ask for more details.

Supplemental Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training Courses

In addition to the four core training courses above, we offer the following additional DEI courses:

  • How to Have the Diversity and Inclusion Conversation

    Key Objectives:

    • Learn how to properly approach difficult topics on diversity, equity and inclusion
    • Understand how to manage the impact of unconscious bias
    • Learn effective methods to move the needle on diversity
  • Salary Negotiations for Women

    Key Objectives:

    • Understand assertiveness and the four communication styles
    • Identify your individual assertiveness style and its effectiveness
    • Plan for the salary conversation
    • Understand how to effectively negotiate salary, benefits, working conditions
    • Frame your approach to salary negotiations and communicate with confidence
    • Develop an action plan to overcome one personal obstacle to assertiveness
  • New Hire Diversity and Inclusion

    Key Objectives:

    • Understand your new organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion
    • Understand expectations of employees and how to get involved
    • Develop awareness around diversity and inclusion and why they matter
    • Discover barriers to inclusion to overcome them
    • Learn what you can do to create an inclusive workplace

Our Consultants

David Elcock

Senior Human Capital Consultant

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Alison DiFlorio

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

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Our Approach

Our approach to Diversity training is to meet our clients where they are in their journey and help them move toward a more inclusive workplace. We know that each organization has its own unique characteristics that need to be considered when thinking through and implementing a strategy so we begin by fully understanding the current culture before making recommendations for solutions.

Learner’s Experience

Exude’s training curriculum is interactive, activity-oriented and provides learners knowledge, skills, confidence and competence. Each session begins with an optional Pre-Session Assessment. This helps level set expectations with the participants and allows them to submit questions ahead of time. The group will then participate in an IceBreaker Activity to help them get acquainted and feel comfortable about sharing their thoughts. Most of the sessions will be facilitator-led content delivery, application and practice aligned to your core values and real-life action planning. All of these activities will provide participants with the resources and tools for application in the workplace.

Interested In D&I Training?

Benefits of Diversity Training

There are several benefits to providing employees with diversity and inclusion training. These benefits include:

  • Attraction and retention of a diverse workforce. Employees with strong diversity and inclusion practices put them at the forefront in the race to find top talent.
  • Improvement of employee and organizational performance. Diverse workplaces outperform non-diverse competitors by 35%. Allowing employees to show up authentically at work helps them perform to the best of their ability and helps organizations increase their bottom line.
  • Increase in innovation and creativity. Individuals from diverse backgrounds are able to provide organizations with innovative ideas and different perspectives.
  • Improvement of brand. More and more organizations are requiring that their business partners and providers are meeting certain levels of diversity. In some instances, in order to grant business to a partner, organizations are requiring that employers have diverse workforces that are trained to be culturally sensitive.
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Alison DiFlorio, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Human Capital Consulting

Working Together For You

Exude’s DEI work helps you create a space where people can be their best self…and their whole self. We meet our clients where they are on their journey and provide the needed support to help them reach their goals.

Interested in learning more about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training?