In July—as social justice protests persisted across the US and the terms diversity, equity, and inclusion emerged as calls to action both inside and outside of workplaces—I made a vow to TD readers to publish content focused on helping talent development professionals do their part regarding DEI in their organizations.
Part of that effort involved developing a dedicated DEI theme for this month's issue, which includes two feature-length articles that examine the topic. The cover story, written by Pamela Fuller, FranklinCovey's thought leader on inclusion and bias, delves into the four mindsets to take on to address bias in your company: Bias is affecting organizations' performance, you can make progress on bias, the talent life cycle is everyone's responsibility, and equitable and inclusive leadership is a requirement.
"Helping leaders understand the connection between their biases and their behavior is critical through training, coaching, and building opportunities for real assessment and feedback specific to bias," Fuller writes.
While she focuses on DEI as it pertains to leadership, talent management, and culture, the authors of "Consider All Learners" concentrate on the instructional design and training delivery aspects of DEI. They discuss the elements that instructional designers and facilitators should keep in mind to ensure their training courses are inclusive. The authors accurately point out that diversity and inclusion go beyond race—among the other factors to also take into account are gender, age, religion, socioeconomic status, body type, sexual orientation, and physical ability.
"We should reflect diversity in our content," the authors write. "The world comprises a beautiful sea of diversity, and it is important to learners that they see themselves represented in the courses we develop."
As I noted in this space in July, DEI isn't a quick fix, so this edition of the magazine isn't the only time you'll see articles on the topic. Just as TD articles regularly explore topics such as learning technologies, instructional design, evaluating impact, and a variety of others, so too will DEI be included in the mix of content in future issues.
