Why is there so much resistance to D&I targets at work? How can we respond to push-back from colleagues? How do we respond to the criticism that D&I targets aren’t meritocratic? How can we help someone see things differently?

These are common questions we hear from our clients as they struggle with push-back from teams and middle managers to the introduction of D&I targets and initiatives. Objections such as:

• To hit this target, white men can kiss their promotion potential goodbye in the foreseeable future
• We will need to lower the bar significantly to promote more diverse candidates and that will put the success of our business at peril
• It’s really hard to find diverse talent with the right skills which makes the target totally unrealistic
• We don’t look at gender, race, religion, sexuality; we just hire the right person for the job.

These objections stand in the way of getting buy-in from team leaders and teams and, ultimately, they get in the way of embedding Diversity and Inclusion into the fabric of our company culture.

The truth is, most objections like this are based on unhelpful and inaccurate assumptions. Being able to confidently uncover these assumptions and address the underlying biases is the difference between the success and failure of your D&I ambitions.

This session will give you tools for handling common objections to D&I targets/initiatives. In doing so, they will be better equipped to win over sceptics. Introducing targets will provide greater diversity, and greater diversity will allow teams to value differences for the benefit of the team.

Join us for this session and hear Voice At The Table Founder & CEO Rina Goldenberg Lynch, in conversation with Sofia Malik-Eve, address some of these most common objections to D&I targets and share how some of our clients have managed to address them successfully. You will have your chance to ask questions about objections that you have encountered and get LIVE advice on how to address them.

Watch the short video below by John Blumberg leadership coach for a brief explanation of the importance of Personal Values to our work.