Day 1: Professional Development Institutes
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Morning Session -- 8:30am - 12:00pm

PDI-A: Techniques for Recruiting a Diverse Workforce

PDI-B: Diversity's Burning Platform - The Business Case

PDI-C: Advancing Talent of Color into Leadership

PDI-D: Let's Talk About Homophobia

PDI-E: The Art of Diversity Training

Afternoon Sessions -- 1:00pm - 4:30pm

PDI-F: Do You See What I See?: A Diversity Tale for Retaining People of Color

PDI-G: Tools of Engagement for Managers

PDI-H: Make Mentoring Work: Put Together the Right Mentoring Partnerships for Your Organization

PDI-I: Why We Need to Keep Talking About Race

PDI-J: Understanding and Resolving Cross-Cultural Conflict

For definitions of level of difficulty click here

Concurrent Professional Development Institutes - Morning Sessions

February 20, 2008 8:30am - 12:00pm 
The Morning Professional Development Institutes are provided with support from US Bank.

PDI - A: Techniques for Recruiting a Diverse Workforce

Speaker: Edward Hubbard, Hubbard & Hubbard, Inc., Petaluma California; Panel

Level of Difficulty: Introductory to Intermediate

Diversity, like change is here to stay. Successfully building a high-performing organization will require all employees working together to achieve the organization's strategic business goals. Recruiting a diverse workforce starts before the first interview is conducted. It includes the entire hiring experience from your brand image and reputation on the street, to the cultural sensitivity of your hiring representatives, to the complexion of the organization, as well as what is done after the hiring process to retain, develop, promote, and utilize the talents of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic workforce.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn techniques to enhance your diverse workforce recruitment strategies
• Review suggestions and approaches to expand your cross-cultural networks
• Build on-campus strategies to attract a wide range of applicants
• Learn techniques to interview in culturally sensitive ways
• Build a checklist of questions that diverse workforce candidates will ask you about your organization

PDI - B: Diversity's Burning Platform - The Business Case

Speaker: William Wells, W. Wells & Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Panel: Ben Elkin, Target Corporation; Audrey Hines, Dillard Hines & Associations; Ken Morris, Apercu Group Inc., Andrew Sherman, Dickstein Shapiro LLP

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate to Advanced

The challenge of effectively advancing diversity in the workplace continues to raise serious questions as the how best to make it happen. As with any other key organizational change or development initiative, at the very core lays the critical issue around leadership commitment and engagement. Ironically, in many organizations today senior leadership intellectually understands the value of diversity, yet there remains a challenge with insuring accountability, measurement and follow-through.
 
This Institute will explore ways to effectively address the critical elements for how best to strategically advance diversity within a variety of industries/sectors. It will also provide information and tools for diversity practitioners to use in their respective organizations, whether in human resources or other parts of the organization.

Learning Objectives:

• Link Diversity to the Bottom Line —Understanding the convergence of diversity plans with business plans
• Make Diversity a Top-Down Initiative—Provide a framework for engaging executive leadership and visioning in the creation of strategic diversity plans
• Understand the Impact of Changing Demographics—Determine how demographic shifts are impacting the future available workforce, customer base and new and emerging markets
• Determine the Route to Success—Identify the process and components for building a successful diversity roadmap for your organization
• Building an Employment Brand—Understand what it takes to become recognized as a Great Place to Work and Employer of Choice

PDI-C: Advancing Talent of Color into Leadership

Speaker: Tom McKinnon, Novations Group, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts; Panel: Alonzo Weems, Eli Lilly and Company; Jeffrey Smith, Procter & Gamble

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate

Recruiting, retaining, and developing leaders of color continues to be a challenging issue in corporate America. While many organizations tend to focus on diversity recruitment in order to increase "the numbers," successful recruiting does not necessarily lead to the inclusion of people of color in valued career roles. As a result, their turnover is often disproportionately high. Indeed, some have referred to the situation as similar to a "revolving door." This session will focus on how to create and implement strategies that not only retain people of color, but also position them to contribute at high levels of leadership.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the role of leaders in advancing talent of color
• Explore the challenges and obstacles that people of color face, that if not managed, can disrupt career mobility
• Develop a strategic plan of action to engage individuals, systems, and processes to ensure that talent of color is supported and developed into leadership positions

This Professional Development Institute is provided with support from Novations Group.

PDI-D: Let's Talk About Homophobia

Speaker: Scott Fearing, The Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, Rochester, New York; Panel: Monica Bryand, Headwaters Foundation for Justice; Monica Meyer, Outfront Minnesota

Level of Difficulty: Introductory to Intermediate

This session will present a personal and professional interactive exploration of what is often thought to be the most difficult diversity topic to tackle: gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) issues and specifically the anti-gay bias known as “homophobia.” Most forms of bias and bigotry have few, if any, social and political institutions that support their continuation, yet anti-GLBT bias, homophobia and heterosexism have plenty. It seems that law and policy conflict with each other as regularly as we feel conflicted. These conflicts play out in our workplaces affecting interpersonal relationships, productivity, violence, recruitment and retention. Even among HR and diversity staff there may be discomfort. This session will challenge participants to reflect on their own feelings to understand homophobia in a new way.

Learning Objectives:

• Define and explain homophobia and heterosexism as systems of oppression.
• Comprehend homophobia as both a personal and societal system to enforce silence about GLBT issues.
• Identify the three root components of homophobia.
• Explain how personal, internalized, homophobia affects the workplace.
• Provide resources and techniques for addressing homophobia

PDI-E: The Art of Diversity Training
Speaker: Amy Loges, ProGroup, a division of Novations Group, Minneapolis, MN

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate

Diversity and inclusion training work takes more than good platform skills. It is in a class of its own, requiring a blend of traditional facilitation skills with intense patience and understanding—and the courage to take risks. Diversity and inclusion trainers need a high degree of self-confidence, self-awareness, and must be comfortable with their own viewpoints concerning diversity issues.

Learning Objectives:

• The Four Factors for Success
• How to assess their training strengths and challenges
• A process for audience analysis
• Diversity and inclusion learning styles
• Tips for creating the right classroom environment
• The facilitation/training process

As a result, participants will increase their comfort level and effectiveness as a diversity and inclusion facilitator/trainer.

Concurrent Professional Development Institutes - Afternoon Sessions

February 20, 2008 1:00pm - 4:30pm 

PDI-F: Do You See What I See?: A Diversity Tale for Retaining People of Color
Speaker: Janice Fenn, Founder & President, Professional Resources Organization, Inc. Lisle, IL
Chandra Irvin, Founder & Principal, Irvin, Goforth & Irvin, LLC, Lewisville, NC

Level of Difficulty: Advanced

Many organizations make recruiting people of color (POC) a priority, yet they fail to retain this talent.  Why?  It is because of the enormous gap that exists between the way POC view the organization in which they work and the way managers and leaders view these same organizations.  In this highly interactive and imaginative session a mirror comes to life and offers insights that will help executives and managers understand what it takes to retain talented POC in a highly competitive marketplace.  A Model for Retention, practical tools, and solutions for attracting and retaining the brightest POC are presented.  To order copies of the book, please go to barnesandnoble.com, borders.com or amazon.com.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand that POC often have different experiences in the organization, and thus different views from leaders and managers.
• Look beyond the obvious blunders to the behavioral subtleties and nuances that impact retention among POC.
• Practice identifying and addressing the real issues that prompt POC to leave organizations.
• Learn about critical "valuing" behaviors that establish the foundation upon which organizations can build to attract and keep the brightest and best POC.

PDI-G: Tools of Engagement for Managers

Speaker: Ron Adderley, ProGroup, a division of Novations Group, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate

Today's managers find themselves interacting with employees from widely varying backgrounds, each with his or her own unique perspective. One of the key elements of a manager's job is the ability to hold conversations with these employees' conversations to build trusting relationships, coaching and developmental conversations, career conversations, and sometimes, courageous conversations. With the increasing competition to attract and then retain the "best and the brightest," these conversations take on new importance requiring a new set of skills for managers. We call these skills the Tools of Engagement.
 
Program Goal: Managers and team leaders will explore their own attitudes toward differences and recognize how these attitudes result in behaviors that may set up some employees to succeed and others to fail. Participants will learn and practice skills to increase their ability to conduct conversations that fully engage all employees and help them reach their full potential.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the impact diversity has on a manager's ability to successfully do his or her job
• Understand how a manager's personal attitude toward differences may result in behaviors that set up employees for either success or failure
• Connect the behaviors of inclusion with individual employee and overall team performance
• Apply a skill set to daily interactions with employees entitled Tools of Engagement
• Practice conducting two-way dialogues that make a difference in the success of individuals and the company
• Support and maintain an inclusive environment where all employees feel valued for their skills, talents and abilities and are working to their full potential

This Professional Development Institute is provided with support from ProGroup, a division of Novations Group.

PDI-H:Make Mentoring Work: Put Together the Right Mentoring Partnerships for Your Organization
Speakers: Kimberly Vappie, Menttium Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sue Stanek, PhD, Menttium Corporation, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Level of Difficulty: Introductory to Intermediate

Mentoring is everywhere.  A company that lacks opportunities for mentoring is no longer competitive in today’s corporate landscape.  While initiating a mentoring program seems simple enough, organizations are discovering layers of complexity associated with creating a successful and sustainable mentoring culture.  Research indicates that mentoring is a key tool for preparing and developing leaders.  Yet, women and minorities often cite a lack of mentoring as an obstacle to their career success.  This session will explore the key components of a successful mentoring initiative, including how to incorporate inclusivity into mentoring initiatives.  Consideration of how formal mentoring programs can support women, minorities and a globally dispersed workforce will also be covered.  This session will incorporate best practices and proven methodologies along with real-world case studies of how organizations have successfully implemented mentoring.

Learning Objectives:

• Create a common frame of reference for mentoring

• Identify organizational drivers for mentoring

• How to identify target populations for mentoring, including diverse employees

• Identify and explore the components of a mentoring initiative that make it successful in the corporate environment

• Review the unique nuances of mentoring initiatives targeted for diverse employees and a globally dispersed workforce

• Evaluating a mentoring program
  

PDI-I: Why We Need to Keep Talking About Race

Speakers: Jeffrey Cookson, Employers Association, Inc., St. Paul, Minnesota
Rebecca Robinson, RBC Dain Rauscher, Minneapolis, MN
Sara Taylor, Sentient Consultants, Woodbury, MN

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate to Advanced

This institute is designed for individuals interested in fostering productive discussions about race in the workplace.  Attendance is suitable whether or not you participated in last year's program, Let's Keep Talking About Race.  Emphasis is placed on structuring dialogues that are helpful for the amelioration of racism.

Using a variety of tools and methods, the facilitators directly address the intersection of race and the workplace, paying particular attention to impacts on team dynamics, customer relations, public image, employee development and recruitment and retention.

This institute works best for individuals possessing a solid understanding of racial concerns in the workplace.  Come prepared to engage in discussion that is frank, honest and respectful of the ways in which concepts surrounding race interact with the contemporary workplace

Learning Objectives:

• Improve leaders' ability to foster authentic dialogue and inspire employee engagement
• Promote vision of creating inclusive and high-performing organizations
• Create Individual plans for the next actions to take in our own workplaces

PDI-J: Understanding and Resolving Cross-Cultural Conflict

Speaker: Mitchell Hammer, PhD, Hammer Consulting, LLC

Level of Difficulty: Intermediate to Advanced

This workshop offers participants some of the latest knowledge in the emerging fields of cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution, giving participants a tool that can be used for personal, professional and organizational skill-building in addressing and resolving cross-cultural conflict with culturally diverse employees and clients. In this workshop participants will take the Intercultural Conflict Style Assessment Inventory (ICS). This relatively new instrument, developed by Dr. Hammer, an international expert on cross-cultural communication and conflict, helps participants understand their own personal conflict approach, how their conflict style differs from those found in other cultures around the world and profound insights into interracial conflict styles here in the United States.

Finally, there will be discussion on how the ICS can be used to resolve intercultural conflict in the workplace. Participants will learn about the most common causes of intercultural conflict, how to diagnose the predominant cultural conflict style in their organization, and how to resolve conflict across each of the four major international conflict styles. The tool can also be used in diversity-related team-building exercise.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand your personal intercultural conflict style using the Intercultural Conflict Style Assessment Inventory (ICS)
• To compare and contrast each of the four predominant intercultural conflict styles found throughout the world
• To provide participants with the knowledge, awareness and skills to effectively resolve conflict across styles