Course Outcomes
This facilitation skills course for cultural equity team and affinity group facilitators will:
- Outline the value of affinity groups and cultural equity teams and explain the levels at which they can positively affect an organization.
- Suggest potential goals and processes these groups may wish to adopt.
- Recommend questions for groups to consider.
- Offer best practices for facilitating robust discussions.
- Provide strategies for navigating tough conversations and tense topics.
Course Overview
Cultural equity teams and affinity groups can weigh in and guide the experience employees and customers have with an organization. That said, it’s one thing to form a team or group and entirely something else to engage it in a meaningful way. This course introduces the fundamental facilitation skills people need to navigate significant conversations on topics related to workplace equity, opportunity, and brand decisions.
Program Objectives
At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Describe the typical conditions that exist when cultural equity teams and affinity groups perform at their best.
- Discuss the maturity continuum most cultural equity teams and affinity groups move through.
- Define a group’s purpose and goals.
- Explain the importance of data and measurement.
- Identify areas for exploration, discussion, and action.
- Structure questions.
- Practice deliberate listening.
- Balance conversations.
- Build trust and reduce risk.
- Acknowledge different points of view.
Program Modules
- Defining Voice: What Affinity Groups Can and Can’t Do
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Identifying Measurements
- Asking with Purpose: Questions for Groups to Consider
- Listening with Purpose: Confirming, Validating, and Probing
- Tense Talks: Facilitating Skills for Tough Times
By the end of this training workshop, participants should have the basic facilitation skills they need to begin leading discussions with affinity groups and cultural equity teams.
