Diversity Training

I sat in a conference meeting room for four hours today, in a mandatory workshop on diversity. As we entered the conference room Regina Allen, one of the diversity trainers, proudly played Tina Turners “Better Then All the Rest” over a pair of iPod speakers. Enidio Magel, the other workshop facilitator, kicked off the workshop which he preferred to call “A journey.” He began by asking the group to attempt to explain the difference between diversity and inclusion. Most of the give and take went a little like this:

“Who can explain how diversity is different from inclusion?”

“Diversity is different people, and inclusion is including people.”

“Ah ha! Exactly, so class, as this volunteer has clearly stated, diversity is the a heterogenous sample of people where inclusion is the process of including various people of a potentially diverse background, thank you very much for that great answer.”

Luckily there was free bottled water and M&Ms. I munched away while I anxiously played with my Fidget toy I got from Cracker Barrel.  The class was entirely worthless.  My manager confessed privately to me that the class was federally mandated.