Case Study - Diversity & Equality at the East of England Development Agency
The Project
The East of England Development Agency commissioned Impact Universal Ltd to research, develop and deliver Diversity and Equality training workshops to all EEDA staff members.
The delivery was sectioned into two parts:
- Internal relationships
Here we looked at internal relationships within the organisation. Through focus group work with a cross section of EEDA staff we scripted seven scenes and three workshops depicting the diversity and equality issues they face within their organisation.
- External relationships
Here we looked at relationships between EEDA and their external customers and funding applicants. Through exploring the mechanics of EEDA’s external procedures, we were able to develop a further four scenes and workshops concentrating on both detecting and managing any external diversity and equality issues.
The Delivery
The workshops were run in two parts, each three hours in duration. The first part was presented in July 2004. Here we delivered ten workshops ‘back to back’ across five days. With 25 delegates per session we processed all 450 members of staff within a working week. Using the same timetable, we delivered the second part of the training after a two-week break.
Part one.
Through consultation meetings and focus groups we detailed three objectives for part one.
Objective 1 – Raise awareness and have respect.
Here we scripted seven scenes depicting issues EEDA face within their own environment. The issues we covered were; (dis)ability, sexual orientation, racism/cultural awareness, bullying, harassment, sexual discrimination and ageism.
These provocative scenes, coupled with the enthusiasm and emotion generated by character interaction allowed us to challenge the delegates, learning and exploring both the understanding and respect that we should all have for everybody’s diversity.
Objective 2 – If it happens what can we do?
As a catalyst to this exercise we saw a short scene showing our character Jack being bullied by his colleague. The bullying is ‘soft’ and his manager can’t see it happening. What does Jack do?
In line with EEDA’s bullying and harassment policy, we had the delegates create a plan of what Jack’s options are. We then brought Jack out to speak to the delegates. Could they convince him that he is not in the wrong? Could they convince him that he is not putting his job at risk by reporting the problem?
Here, by ‘selling’ them to Jack, the delegates both understood and embraced the policies and procedures.
Objective 3 – How can we make a difference – individual responsibility?
Using the sex discrimination seen as a catalyst, here we look at the fundamental fact that we all have a responsibility to challenge prejudice. We concentrated on the scenes third character, the onlooker to the prejudice. Using this character, and putting us all in his place, we re-run the scene stopping it every time we felt uncomfortable with what was happening. Once stopped, we spoke to the onlooker character. By challenging and changing his behaviour we were able to discover how we can all make a difference and confront any prejudice.
Part two.
Through consultation meetings and focus groups we detailed one objective for part two.
Objective – How do we both detect and challenge any prejudice within our relationships with external customers, partners and funding applicants?
Here we scripted three scenes and subsequent workshop exercises, each looking at a particular external body and the specific issues EEDA face. Again we allowed the delegates to interact with the scene. We froze it and spoke with the character playing the EEDA employee exploring, challenging and subsequently changing their behaviour. This facilitated the delegates to safely experiment with differing methods of challenging inappropriate behaviour. The forum also explored EEDA policies and discussed best practice within each scenario.
The Outcome
In the words of the Senior Development Manager at EEDA and head of the project:
"Feedback from staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Particularly strong support has been fed back on the dynamic and innovative approaches taken to delivering key messages, which EEDA staff found to be a great way of generating discussion and bringing to the fore key issues for debate. ‘Excellent’ and ‘enjoyable’ were comments that summed up the way staff felt about the training.
Crucially the training has also highlighted key issues for the organisation as a whole, identified by staff in the course of the sessions that we need to look at in more detail. This has been hugely valuable in helping us to set priorities for action over the next year. The training has therefore made a significant contribution to EEDA’s positive approach to implementing equality and diversity policies and practise in our roles as employer, programme deliverer and regional influencer”.
