How to Talk About Race - American Negotiation Institute

Diversity and Inclusion

Featured Training: How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race

Why Is This Necessary?

Conversations about race are difficult and challenging because they are deeply emotional and trigger strongly held beliefs about identity and fairness.

There is great risk in failing to have these conversations in a respectful way because they can have profound consequences throughout the workplace, leading to issues with morale, group cohesion, and, in serious cases, employee retention.

One of our previous clients said it best, “if we don’t get this right, it could pose an existential threat to the firm.”

How can we talk about this sensitive topic without hostility and offense?

How can we turn our passion into persuasion and make positive changes in our workplace and community?

We recently held a Virtual Townhall on this topic and over 1,000 professionals from around the world joined us.

Hosting a training of this magnitude and doing over three hours of Q&A, gave us an unparalleled insight into the challenges and opportunities presented by these difficult conversations.

Our unique approach blends high-level negotiation and conflict resolution techniques with an understanding of civil rights and was featured in CNBC, Forbes, and USA Today within a 2-week span.

Program Options

Click here for a full outline of our trainings with learning objectives as well as information about our assessments.

Custom Training Program

All of our training programs are customized to the specific needs of your organization.

After the training, your leaders will be able to do the following:

Understand the complex racial history that explains our present circumstances.
Have conversations about race without the risk of damaging relationships.
Know what to say and what not to say during these difficult conversations.
Understand how to overcome psychological challenges to creating connections between people of different backgrounds.
Communicate confidently, respectfully, and persuasively as it relates to making internal decisions that create a more inclusive environment.

Cultural and Pay Equity Assessments

Pay Equity: Employers are subject to increasing legislative, political, and public pressure to remedy the equity pay gap and achieve pay equity. The momentum has been fueled in part by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements’ and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The first step in addressing financial inequities and unequal access to opportunity is to conduct a pay equity audit.

An audit can help you to determine whether:

Any pay disparities exist.
The pay disparities are limited to a specific portion or portions of the employee population, for example, a single office, department, or pay band.
The disparities can be explained by legitimate business justifications other than sex, race (or another protected class characteristic).

Cultural Assessment: This robust, qualitative assessment is designed to give you insight into the atmosphere within your organization. The goal is to shed light on the gap between your ideal environment and your current environment. Our team will gather and analyze the data and then present the report to your leadership along with action planning.

My law firm has engaged Kwame to lead us in a multi-session conversation about race with the goals of learning how to have meaningful dialogue, determining how our firm can work to become more diverse and learning how we can position ourselves as leaders.

We are in the middle of the process and I can wholeheartedly endorse Kwame as the right person to be leading this conversation.

We have two sessions to go, but Kwame has already put us in a position to have difficult conversations about race and has given us several actionable items to work towards increased diversity and steps to help break down systemic racism.

Geoff Kunkler
Partner, Attorney, at Carlile Patchen & Murphy LLP

Kwame not only has in-depth negotiation knowledge but a prodigious talent of teaching and sharing it, empowering and energizing everyone who comes in contact with his work.

Highly aware of current pressing issues, he extended an open invitation to have a conversation about race and justice on June 5, 2020 – which was welcomed and embraced by hundreds of people around the globe. People need, want, and are ready to engage in these difficult conversations more than ever.

Wise people with hands-on strategic advice and visionary creativity moderating them is exactly what the world needs now.

Sue Mathys
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson at Compass

What impresses me about Kwame: his ability to take emotionally charged topics like negotiation and conflict and make them approachable and maybe even fun! He offers valuable information in a relaxed, good-natured manner that made learning easy.

I appreciated how he engaged the audience and made them active participants in the conversation. His sense of humor and smarts combine to make every interaction a pleasure. And his enthusiasm for negotiation and persuasion is contagious! Highly recommend him as a speaker.

Beth Buelow, PCC
Mediator, Leadership Expert, and Author of The Introvert Entrepreneur

Kwame is an engaging speaker at a difficult time in our country’s history with regard to racial tensions and divisiveness. He presented to large law firm stakeholders, law school career advisors, and other professionals on the topic of having difficult conversations around race in the law school and law firm setting.

It is so important for all of us in the legal profession to have the skills to be active bystanders and to have the tools to call out racism and to prevent it in our institutions.

Kwame’s expertise is bolstered by his approachable but no BS style. He is relatable and his trainings are immediately useful. Highly recommend him for your organization!

Cybele Smith

About Your Presenter

Bestselling author and speaker Kwame Christian Esq., M.A. is the Director of the American Negotiation Institute and a subject matter expert in the field of negotiation and conflict resolution. Kwame has conducted workshops throughout North America and abroad and is a highly sought after national keynote speaker.

The host of the world’s most popular negotiation podcast, Negotiate Anything, Kwame is dedicated to empowering others through the art and science of negotiation and persuasion. The show features leading experts in the field to deliver the best-in-class content. Now downloaded more than 1,500,000 times, Negotiate Anything has a dedicated and growing following with listeners in more than 180 countries around the world.

Kwame’s TEDx Dayton talk, Finding Confidence in Conflict, was the most popular TEDx Talk on the topic of conflict in 2017, and has been viewed over 120,000 times. His book, Nobody Will Play With Me: Finding Confidence in Conflict, is an Amazon Best-Seller and has helped countless individuals overcome the fear, anxiety, and emotion often associated with difficult conversations through a branded framework called Compassionate Curiosity.

As an attorney and mediator with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, and a Juris Doctorate (Law Degree), Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to making difficult conversations easier. He also serves as an adjunct professor for Otterbein University’s MBA program, as well as The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law in the top-ranked dispute resolution program in the country.

Prior to practicing business law and founding ANI, Kwame did civil rights work at the Kirwan Institute, an interdisciplinary engaged research institute that seeks to create a just and inclusive society where all people and communities have the opportunity to succeed. While at Kirwan, Kwame focused on criminal justice and health equity.

Diversity and Inclusion

Featured Training: How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race

Why Is This Necessary?

Program Options

About Your Presenter

Free Resources

Free Guide: How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race