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.

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.

Free Resources