Diversity and Inclusion: Why it Matters?

To reinforce the importance of Diversity and Inclusion in our lives and workplaces, PMIWDC executed a D&I awareness and training program with the help of its D&I partner MindSpring.

A total of 69 participants (including the PMIWDC board members) over 6 introductory Understanding Diversity and Inclusion and Why It Matters development sessions of 2-hours each with 2 Leadership PDUs.

Participants are now invited to attend a follow up 1-hour group coaching session to support retention and application of the D&I content in July.
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Source: Leader Cultural Intelligence in Context: Testing the Moderating Effects of Team Cultural Diversity on Leader and Team Performance. Ann-Feyerherm, Researchgate

Orchestrated by Denise Minor and Stacey McGuirk Rodriguez, MindSpring's approach was anchored around the belief that one must first look internally to find their personal "why" and look closely at their personal attitudes and behaviors about diversity and inclusion. This internal work becomes the foundation of their commitment to embracing diversity and inclusion while interacting with others in the community. The participants were led to examine the impact of their Judgment, Belief, Opinion, and Perception (JBOPs) and stereotypes on diversity and inclusion and how they generate exclusion. Participants were invited to create a three-action step commitment for creating increased D&I in the workplace.

‘Working with Mindspring was a delight, they were very efficient, had great follow up, and were responsive to all our inquiries. The training itself was great. They insisted on small groups to make it interactive, and it was worth it. The time spent I spent in breakout rooms with my team members, was some of the best conversations I ever had. My only regret was that it was only two hours! The time flew buy and at the end, I just didn’t want it to be over.’
Liana Underwood, President/CEO PMIWDC Board

"Working with PMIWDC was inspiring on many levels. It was clear that several of the participants had prior D&I related training and we were pleased to hear that MindSpring's development approach was well-received for its uniqueness and depth. There was a high-level of authentic engagement and exchange of ideas. To support long-term application and retention of the session's content, we look forward to seeing the participants at one of the one-hour group coaching sessions to be held in July."

Denise Minor, JD, CPCC, CNTC President, Mindspring.

Certificate of Attendence: Participants were presented with Certificate of Attendence.

Testimonials from the PMIWDC team members:

1	Glen Wiggins	<to be added>
2	Christopher H. Biggs	The facilitated D&I session was top-notch. The two facilitators kept the pace lively and interactive. Starting with standard definitions (JBOP) and contextual examples help to put our relatively large group into sync. There still needs to be reinforcement for camera usage during dialogue, and my opinion is that taking time to answer the questions as pre-work for the group dialogue helped me sub-facilitate the small team break-out sessions (that were highly effective). To return to the D&I perspective with personal reflection time is particularly effective in enabling personal growth and reinforcement. Kudos to MindSpring!
3	Ventrese Stanford	There is always something valuable though learn in D&I training that can make a difference in leadership.
4	Tikajit Rai	MindSpring did a great job in the training. Beyond the narrow lens of race, gender, and cultural background, my take-aways from the Diversity and Inclusion training was that how we tend to focus mostly on the three, therefore, there is an urgent need to broaden our empathy-lens also to prevent negative manifestations of Judgements, Beliefs, Opinions, and Perceptions (JboP) on people's life-styles, personal needs and choices, and abilities/disabilities. Super!