In a recent article on Spiked.com, psychologist and leadership coach, Dr Rebekah Wanic, argued that “diversity training does more harm than good”.
She labelled equality, diversity and inclusion training as “virtue signalling” and an expensive waste of time.
Her argument was that such training interventions make “employees aware of ethnic, national or racial stereotypes of which they would otherwise be ignorant”.
It’s important to point out that the author is based in North America. The data and examples she cites as evidence are particular to the US, where the landscape and history of race relations has unique characteristics.
However, the article was written for a British publication and many of the points raised by the author are of a more general nature. The inference being that diversity training of any kind, does not work.
We asked OTD coach, Marie Loney to give us her perspective on the issue.
Marie is a woman of colour and of Trinidadian heritage who lives in London, one of the most diverse cities in the world. She also has experience as an industry associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins, a university renowned for different ways of thinking, making and doing things.
More recently she has worked with Ikenga Organisation on a mentorship programme designed to bring about positive change in the creative industry.
Marie’s video is a little longer than we typically publish but we wanted you to hear her response in full. It really does deserve a few minutes of your time