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Why Diversity Training Fails—and What to Do About It
Companies have sent employees and managers to diversitytraining for decades. Anti-bias training, harassment-prevention training, anddiversity initiatives beyond training have been tried. Many fail. Dozens ofresearch studies have examined why diversity training fails. While behaviorchange—and shifting corporate culture—takes time, the good news is that there aresome clear lessons about what dooms anti-bias efforts and how to start fixingthe problems.
In That’s What She Said, Joanne Lipman identifiesthree characteristics that the vast majority of anti-bias training shares—and thatalmost guarantees that the training will fail:
- The training is mandatory. When learners haveopted in to training voluntarily, they are more likely to feel good about theirnew awareness and openness; if it’s forced, they feel criticized by the implicationthat they are biased and need to be corrected.
- The training emphasizes legal definitions orcorporate liability for harassing or biased behavior. Implied threats or citingrules is a poor strategy for changing behavior.
- The only people sent to training are managers or“problem” employees or departments. When people feel singled out andcriticized, they are likely to resist the message; the training could evenactivate or worsen their biases.
The often-compulsory harassment-prevention or anti-bias trainingstend to “favor a classic command-and-control approach to diversity” that “boilsexpected behaviors down to dos and don’ts that are easy to understand anddefend. Yet this approach also flies in the face of nearly everything we knowabout how to motivate people to make changes,” Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalevwrote in “Why DiversityPrograms Fail.”
A broad strategy
Offering optional training to all employees is a great firststep toward changing the corporate culture. Another direction to focus a lensis on existing practices. Many stories of harassing or biased behavior thatemerged—across industries—during the #MeToo movement described “highperformers” or celebrities who weathered multiple allegations and complaints.Some companies, such as Twenty-First Century Fox, reached multi-million-dollarsettlements with multiple alleged victims, over long periods of time. Yet thealleged harassers remained on the payroll. When employees see that complaintsare ignored, egregious behavior is tolerated, or that some employees ormanagers get a free pass, they’re unlikely to take training messages to heart.
A clear, unambiguousmessage from the top levels of a company and a broad, strategicapproach to reinforce anti-bias training are needed. Training ismore likely to succeed as part of an initiative that includes long-termbehavior-change interventions, clear targets and goals, and accountabilityamong managers and employees alike. Clear corporate policies regarding behaviorshould be explained to all employees. And decisions on hiring and promotions,rather than subject to the whims (and biases) of an individual should be basedon objective criteria that are applied uniformly to all candidates.
