You might have made up your mind about D&I training – but what about C3?

Here are 6 reasons for choosing C3 as your supplier.

1. Flexible and tailored training for your organization

We guarantee that your needs will never be boxed into a one-size-fits-all concept.

Perhaps you need a short speech about psychological safety and inclusion at your next leadership seminar to kick-start your D&I work.

Maybe you’ve worked with D&I for several years and now need help to reap the full benefits of diversity and spread the D&I initiatives throughout your global organization.

No matter where you are on your D&I journey, we’ll meet your organization and each individual manager and employee exactly where you are. We design all training in close dialogue with you and, in the case of lengthier collaborations, we can weave your corporate culture into the training too.

And we deliver the training so that it best matches your setup – both in terms of learning and in practical terms. For example, the training can be delivered on-site, virtually or as blended learning, and we have extensive experience in designing training solutions that work across national borders and time zones.

2. Common tools and a common language to talk about diversity and inclusion across the organization

Diversity is about differences.

There are the (partially) visible differences such as gender, ethnicity, race and age. There are the less obvious differences such as national background, social background, sexual and value orientation. There are differences in our professional backgrounds and roles in the company. And as people, we have different starting points and challenges physically and mentally – and each of us has a unique personality.

Research shows that diverse teams are more innovative, have higher productivity and make better decisions compared to homogeneous teams.

But it doesn’t happen by itself.

It requires a high level of psychological safety in the team, so that all team members are courageous enough to bring their different perspectives into play and feel heard – in other words, that everyone feels included. Without inclusion, teams with high diversity will typically perform worse than more homogeneous teams.

Inclusion is therefore the foundation of you being able to use the differences in your organization to create strong results. It’s also the foundation for creating an organization where you can retain your employees and attract new talent. And this is a red thread that runs through all the D&I training we do together with you.

In addition, you get a number of effective tools during the training that you can use to deal with the challenges that differences can create, and to see differences as a strength and bring them actively into play.

With C3 responsible for your D&I training, you get common tools and a common language that makes it easier to talk about diversity and inclusion in your organization – across locations, departments, functions and levels.

3. Focus on concrete action and behavior

Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Belonging. Maybe you’ve already incorporated words like these into your strategy.

But how do you translate these fine words and declarations of intent into concrete action?

What can you, as a manager or employee, do differently on an everyday basis to create an inclusive culture where there truly are equal opportunities for everyone and where everyone feels heard?

That’s what we put a razor-sharp focus on when we deliver D&I training for you!

It could be that you:

• have become aware that your management team needs to include more perspectives in order to make better decisions;
• would like to be a good ally for a colleague who you feel is excluded from the group, but are unsure how to approach it;
• want to minimize bias in your recruitment process;
• are the leader of a virtual, global team where you want to create a more psychologically safe environment so that all voices are heard;
• would like to become better at retaining younger employees in your company; or
• yourself have a background in Danish work culture and are now the leader of a team where most team members have an international background – and are unsure how you can best be an inclusive leader for everyone in the team.

The above are just examples.

During the training we’ll take the tasks and challenges facing your organization and you as managers and employees as our starting point. And you’ll work on what your next steps will be in terms of breaking old habits and creating a more inclusive culture.

4. D&I initiatives that make sense in your local subsidiaries too

At C3, we work with many companies that are headquartered in Denmark and have activities worldwide.

A classic challenge is that the global strategies are determined at the Danish headquarters and often based on Danish values and typical Danish work culture – without the management team being aware that this is the case.

When the strategies then need to be implemented in the subsidiaries in, for example, the USA, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and India, problems arise because they don’t match the local reality. And this applies to the D&I area too.

First of all, there can be large differences in the countries’ formal framework for D&I work. Are there legal requirements for the representation of selected social groups? What demographic data are you allowed to register – for example in relation to race and ethnicity?

Besides that, there’s great variation in how the D&I debate plays out in different societies around the world. For example, issues of race are high on the agenda in the USA, while women in management and on boards are more present in the debate in Denmark.

And then it’s essential to be aware of our own work culture as well as that of our global colleagues. Otherwise, we could easily misunderstand each other's intentions. A gesture that is an expression of respect in one work culture can be interpreted as a microaggression in another...

At C3, we have trainers who are based in and have knowledge of regions, countries and work cultures worldwide.

When doing D&I training for you, we help you explore which D&I initiatives need to be adapted so that they make sense in your local subsidiaries too. And we give you practical advice on how you can approach the required adaptation.

5. Training design and methods based on the latest research

When designing your D&I training, we draw on the latest research, and are always on the lookout for knowledge and methods to increase your learning. For example, we work a lot with perspective-taking, which you can read more about here.

Our methods are based on neuroscience, because insights into the mechanisms of the brain strengthen your D&I initiatives.

Here are a few examples:

• We all have bias. These are ‘shortcuts’ that the brain uses to save energy. By becoming aware of our biases, we can minimize them so that we can make better decisions and include colleagues whom we have – often without wanting to – previously excluded.
   
• The amygdala is also called the ‘brain’s fear center’. When you feel threatened, regardless of whether it is real or perceived, your amygdala is activated and absorbs energy from other parts of the brain – for example, the parts you use to reflect and show empathy. If the amygdala is constantly triggered in your employees, it will be an uphill battle to create an inclusive culture!

The brain is ‘plastic’, and the cultural contexts we’ve been part of throughout our lives have also left their mark on our brains. For example, very different things can trigger the amygdala in your employees if they have a background in different work cultures.

Therefore, when you work with diversity and inclusion, you need to have knowledge about how the brain works as well as cultural knowledge in your toolkit.

And that’s precisely what you’ll learn about at our D&I training, where we’ve included both brain knowledge and cultural knowledge as part of the training design.

6. D&I training that is inclusive by nature

D&I training must be designed so that it avoids becoming noninclusive.

Here are some examples of how training conducted with the best of intentions can have the opposite effect of what you want to achieve:

• In trying to include some groups, you may end up excluding others.
• ’Blaming and shaming’ can create resistance and reinforce an ’us-versus-them-mentality’ between different employee groups.
• Focusing on differences can, if treated in an unnuanced way, risk locking us into stereotypical perceptions of each other.

When we deliver D&I training for you, we’re extremely attentive to designing the training so that it is inclusive in its approach.

We create psychologically safe learning spaces where everyone has the opportunity to ask questions and contribute – no matter their cultural or personal preferences.

And you get tools to help you tackle the difficult conversations that can come up in the D&I area in a respectful and empathetic way, so that the conversations do not create polarization.

Where to go from here

Can we help you to strengthen diversity and inclusion in your organization?

• Read about our D&I training solutions.
• Contact us for a chat about how we can cater to your needs in the D&I area.

Read our blog posts:

• 7 tips for good collaboration across generations.
• 'Equality' vs. 'Equity': What is the difference?
• How to help your brain collaborate better with people who are different to you.
• Use perspective-taking to strengthen inclusion and cultural intelligence.
• What snow clearing in a Swedish provincial town can teach you about making good decisions.
• 5 questions for Anders Endahl Mielnicki on Tryg’s LGBT+ Network.

Do you want more inspiration for your D&I work?

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