Elephants in the Room: Diversity & SBCC

Summary

As the global presence of our work, business and relationships keep growing, optimizing the diversity in our teams, workplaces and clients is foundational to our success and growth mandates. We will explore strategies to be proactive, remove barriers and how to build and encourage diversity in our teams. The talk will demonstrate through fun & quick audience exercises/ enagagement how to quickly refresh active listening, employ effective questioning techniques and appropriate action and communication with stories that may make you smile or reflect deeply. Walk away with perhapa a boradened of what and *who* are the elephants

Background/Objectives

Understanding diversity modern context and intercultural themes and what/ who are the elephants Understanding stereotypes: And differentiating against biases Dissolving barriers & being proactive: Understand personal approach, encourage changes, recognize needs Communication: Active listening, power of respectful questions, nuance of language & tone across cultures Managing combative devil's advocate type questions. Making recognition, not cynicism, contagious Non-verbal alerts: Body language, understanding signals we send and receive, what and how of our message Being a part of the solution, not the problem: Lessons learned, diversity for problem-solving

Description Of The Big Idea/experience/innovation And Its Importance To The SBCC Field:

Without acknowledging, respecting, appreciating and fully optimizing the diversity in thought, gender, culture, socioeconomic backgrounds, the impact of our work will become slower, instead of accelerating as we grow. Its not a "big idea" but one that needs very careful application and thoughtful embracing.

Discussion/Implications For The Field

Globally we need more diversity in leadership roles - from the Board level, to middle management, to specialits and scientists. Leadership within SBCC is no exception. While short, like an effective bullet that hits its mark, this talk can have far-reaching effects on how we lead, select leaders and plan for successors who will continue our legacy while remaining diverse in their thinking and inclusive in their ways of collaboration and partnerhsip

Abstract submitted by:

Naveen Balkhi

Khadeeja Balkhi