USA 
United Kingdom
Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) training slides on DE&I were recently leaked, including a diagram of a 'gender unicorn.’
While some supporters praised the training for including ‘good information’ on topics such as LGBTQIA+ allyship and the use of pronouns, it also provided useful ammunition for critics who deemed it “absurd mandated annual training that deviates so widely from agencies' actual mission set.”
This training presentation is, therefore, a ready-made case study of issues DE&I training exercises experience in organizations across the U.S. - well-meaning work that provides vital information about workplace inclusion, but due to ineffective delivery, invites criticism and alienates those who are already skeptical about the need for DE&I.
“If we consider a broader worldview, we all know that everything is not for everybody. The same holds with DE&I or any kind of training particularly training that you may encounter in the workplace,” says Kimberley Shariff, EVP, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Penguin Random House.
Examples like DSAC’s slide therefore prompt us to consider how employers can create training on any topic – DE&I or otherwise – that engages, rather than alienates – employees.
With that in mind, let’s dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly of DSAC’s slides and what they can teach us about effective DE&I training.
DSAC DE&I training: The good
The slides include plenty of examples of what should be included in DE&I training. Firstly, it includes support from organization leaders linking DE&I to The DCSA’s mission. A quote from the Office of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on one slide says “Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are the cornerstone of our mission… The IC’s ability to leverage the talent and perspectives of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints is critical in a rapidly changing global threat environment."
Haines’ quote continues, highlighting the role DE&I plays in “ensuring that we have an IC workforce who thinks differently, sees problems differently, and overcomes challenges differently is imperative. Their creativity ensures that our nation is secure against the array of adversaries and the foreign threats we face.”
The guidance on pronoun usage, for example, is uncomplicated and impactful. The slide clearly articulates why inclusion is important, describing it as critical to ‘building strong teams and relationships.’
DE&I training is effective when demonstrates to all employees, including skeptics, how concepts such as diversity or inclusion could help them achieve goals relevant to them and their team.
“Not everyone has to agree with the organization’s notion of optimal corporate culture, but if employees think about the purpose of these upskilling opportunities as inputs into corporate culture and not attempts to change employee’s belief systems, I believe the potential for alienation wanes,” Shariff notes.
DSAC DE&I training: The bad
Unfortunately, not all the slides are as helpful. Keeping DE&I training relevant and contextual is difficult, and the DSAC slides arguably err into territory that whilst informative, isn’t necessary to create an inclusive and more effective workplace.
One slide, for example, dives into the history of the Pride Flag, explaining how it has evolved “to include both new colors and a new shape." Yes, this context is important to LGBTQIA+ history, but perhaps dilutes the practical advice included elsewhere in the slides. It is tricky to imagine how a manager will use the information to inform their approach to navigating team dynamics, and if not relevant to the individual's day-to-day work will result in a drop-off in attention.
“When training is positioned as a moral imperative it can make it difficult for some people to connect to, especially before they have had a chance to experience exactly what is being relayed,” explains Shariff. “Positioning these exercises as a company’s attempt to shape the way employees interact with one another instead of an attempt to change an employee’s value system makes the notion of engaging with DE&I content more palatable for most people.”
In this case, it would be more useful to direct those who are interested in exploring such history to other sources of information, reserving the slides for “mission-critical” advice or requirements, such as DSAC’s slides on how to display allyship and sample scenarios on conversations about pronouns.
Highly contextual and practical content can improve mandatory training engagement, suggests Shariff. “Situations and examples that are specific, realistic and relatable to as many employees as possible when illustrating the concepts you are trying to relay helps increase engagement tremendously.
Shariff also suggests that creating contextual training scenarios can integrate DE&I concepts into the fabric of an organization, reinforcing that “much of what DE&I efforts embody is simply the infusion of good business practice into the systems, processes, and culture of a company.” This can make DE&I concepts more accessible even to those employees who are staunchly opposed to the topic.
DSAC DE&I training: The ugly
Onto perhaps the most controversial slide of them all, which features ‘The Gender Unicorn.’ It’s a shame the information contained within the graphic – which succinctly and informatively breaks down gender identity, gender expression, sex at birth, sexual attraction, and romantic attraction – would most likely go to waste on someone skeptical of DE&I.
It’s not hard to imagine someone switching off at the mere mention of a mythical creature when they are already looking to deal with the reality of their day-to-day employee experience. Attempting to engage critical, time-poor, and frustrated adults with this type of imagery is unhelpful and will only alienate them further. There is, of course, a time and a place for fun and unique training content, but DE&I programs often miss the mark by failing to understand their audience.
As with any learning course, keeping the design, display, and format of the content as engaging as possible for the audience is crucial to engagement and positive feedback. DE&I and HR leaders must remember that poorly framed training programs will lose their impact if the content isn’t engaging to the individual.
Workers are fed up with seminars, courses, and sessions that patronize rather than drive meaningful behavioral change, and ‘The Gender Unicorn’ unfortunately falls firmly in the former camp.
To be sure that training hits the mark, Shariff recommends levying a genuine request for feedback, engaging in authentic discussion of the feedback received and, to the extent it is beneficial and appropriate, acting in response to the feedback. “I have made appeals to those that I know are critical of or disengaged from DE&I to tell me what it is that they do not like, object to, or don’t understand,” she explains. “Nine times out of ten, this leads to perspective sharing, greater empathy, and the ability to bridge gaps that existed primarily due to lack of visibility into lived experiences that are not one’s own.”
As stated, DSAC’s DE&I training slides aren’t all bad. But, particularly as DE&I comes under greater scrutiny than ever, if HR teams wish to get buy-in from all corners on the benefits of inclusion, they must strip back content that dilutes or divides and instead focus on highly contextual training that solves real-world problems and offers demonstrable benefits to the individual.
