The Black Lives Matter movement has forced more organizations to take diversity and inclusion seriously. And while diversity and inclusion (D&I) are mentioned in the same breath, there’s a massive difference between giving a marginalized group of people a room to be in, giving them the space to be themselves, and including them in important conversations.
In the simplest explanation of the difference between diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice, author Dafina-Lazarus Stewart says in her essayOpens a new window titled Language of Appeasement, “Diversity asks, ‘Who’s in the room?’†“Inclusion asks, ‘Has everyone’s ideas been heard?’â€
The answer, as found by a McKinsey studyOpens a new window published in May 2020 is no. The study mentions research by Glassdoor and MIT Sloan in partnership with McKinsey Digital Consumer Insights, which ran sentiment analysis over employee reviews of their employers on job-posting websites to gauge their sentiment about diversity and inclusion. Here’s what they found: “While overall sentiment on diversity was 52 percent positive and 31 percent negative, sentiment on inclusion was markedly worse at only 29 percent positive and 61 percent negative—which encapsulates the challenge that even the more diverse companies still face in tackling inclusion.â€
It is worth repeating then, that diversity does not naturally equate with inclusion, and so, the two should probably not be clubbed together.
Inclusion comprises fairness and access to equal opportunity. It comprises a sense of belonging to an institution – in this case, an organization in which an individual works. McKinsey’s survey found that “Negative sentiment around equality ranged from 63 to 80 percent across the industries analyzed. Openness of the working environment, which encompasses bias and discrimination, was also of significant concern, with negative sentiment across industries ranging from 38 to 56 percent.†The industries analyzed were healthcare, finance, and technology.
And while classroom-led D&I training can fulfill yet another training metric, how can it elicit empathy in an organization to make it exclusive? Virtual reality (VR) may be a possible solution.
Virtual Reality-Led Inclusion Training as a Possible Solution
The D&I tech industry is growing, with its overall market size pegged atOpens a new window approximately $100 million, according to RedThread Research in 2019. Virtual reality as a method of training specifically for inclusion is also making inroads in this space.
If walking a mile in one’s shoes is the goal of empathy-training, then VR demonstrates the potential to help employees do just that. VR offers an immersive experience: you’re right there, practically living through a simulation that presents an individual as a victim of everyday bias, microaggressions, and racist behavior.
Why is it important?
- For employees or candidates who care, how an organization practices inclusion after promoting diversity is essential to them.
- Leaders need to be able to empathize to take real measures and provide an inclusive workplaceOpens a new window .
- The training helps to elicit empathy and forces participants to introspect on their approach toward inclusive behavior in a safe space.
- It gives marginalized participants and their experiences validation and realizes them.
- It also spares them the necessity to narrate triggering personal stories of non-inclusion.
DDIOpens a new window , a leadership development and assessment provider, also provides a VR training program for inclusion called Inclusion: Build Empathy. For employers willing to gain some insight on how a VR-led training works, Sage KrombolzOpens a new window , product manager for inclusion and diversity and immersive learning solutions at DDI, shares her insights.
In a short 8-minute simulation with a two-hour long training session, employees and leaders are made to experience what it is like to be marginalized, undervalued, and excluded at work. The script used for the simulation and the acts of exclusion it portrays are based on individuals’ lived experience, says Kromboz. “The acts of exclusion and microaggressions in the simulation were informed by conversations with leaders from a range of identities, backgrounds, and organizations as well as quantitative data from industry reports put out by the likes of McKinsey, Deloitte, and other firms, as well as industry articles from several renowned publications and research institutions, including TalentInnovation.org, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, Catalyst.org, the Stanford Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of Washington.â€
Tech Readiness to Use Virtual Reality for Inclusion
While most inclusion programs begin and end with hiring a provider of the program, an organization’s own tech readiness may be a factor in how a VR-led program is delivered. For instance, DDI tells us that the company offers the option to provide the program itself or upskill facilitators to deliver the program. Not all organizations may want to purchase VR headsets yet, so DDI may provide them or the simulation can be delivered on the desktop.
A desktop simulation may not provide as immersive an experience as a VR headset that puts people in the situation. For large-scale inclusive culture change, partnering with the training provider may be the best option. DDI provides support on which headsets to buy, which platforms to use, and how to upskill internal technical experts on managing and supporting the equipment. Purchasing their own headsets may also help in delivering training to remote employees, followed by discussions in a virtual classroom.
The Impact of VR-led Inclusion Training
The goal of training is to elicit a specific outcome. The simulation everyone is part of is the same – an 8-minute session that highlights microaggressions and acts of exclusion. But as with all training, the takeaways of each session can be different. In some, it may elicit empathy. In others, it may elicit action. And because a learner-driven discussion follows each simulation, it can take the conversation where the group needs it.
“We recommend that clients curate cohorts intentionally to ensure a variety of perspectives are reflected,†says Krombolz, suggesting that an average group size of 16 is most effective in facilitating meaningful conversations. “Oftentimes, two completely separate sessions within the same organization will spend time talking about the same cultural trends and challenges, even without the facilitator prompting them to go there. This makes the takeaways all the more powerful because those consistent themes can come out organically.â€
VR as a training medium may be better than virtual or in-person classroom trainings because of its immersive experience, but its role in changing employee behaviors is far from established. There is also little evidence to confirm its superiority over other D&I training modes. Still, its potential in addressing the issue of inclusion is promising, allowing employees to unlearn and relearn their biases.
Slowly, research and data are also emerging, increasingly affirming that learning through VR may be more effective than classroom-led training. PwC’s studyOpens a new window published in June 2020 on the effectiveness of virtual reality in soft skills training found that VR-trained learners were 4.5 times more focused than their e-learning peers. It also states that “Three-quarters of learners surveyed said that during the VR course on diversity and inclusion, they had a wake-up-call moment and realized that they were not as inclusive as they thought they were.â€
How Are Organizations Approaching VR as a Method to Improve Inclusion?
Krombolz mentions the challenges they experience in deploying training. “For many client organizations, it’s difficult to imagine a ‘simulated experience of exclusion,’ or a ‘challenging coaching conversation with a tough team member.’ Clients ask all the time, what does that look like? Can it really increase personal connection this drastically? You mean to tell me this 8-minute experience in VR can make my level-headed CEO so mad he wants to flip a table? For those who haven’t experienced the simulation, it’s challenging to really understand the power.â€
Not only does the VR program require some tech readiness, it requires openness and leadership buy-in. “We spend a lot of time demoing, doing pilots, getting stakeholders to see and feel it before they’re on board,†says Krombolz.
Another challenge she mentions is organizations’ risk of being the early adopter of a new technology. “For some organizations, it’s nerve-wracking to try something new, to take a leap of faith, without the confidence and assuredness that comes with the knowledge that ‘everyone else is already doing it.’â€
“While the use case for VR training has been well documented in the hard skills space, there’s far less data to show the effects in a leadership development context,†says Krombolz.
The Potential of an Inclusive Workplace Culture
Creating an inclusive work culture is the first step to creating a sense of belonging in an organization. And the real success of a VR-led inclusion training, according to Krombolz, can be measured in terms of behavior change, engagement in the learning program, and the time spent in formal training. Instituting organization-wide change and consciously hiring candidates who demonstrate inclusion as a soft skill will take time, but it is a change worth putting effort into.
Several other players have made themselves known in the VR for inclusion space, such Red Fern Consulting and BCTOpens a new window , who partnered in 2019 to deliver virtual reality training to eliminate unconscious bias and transform diversity training programs. Live in Their WorldOpens a new window , launched earlier this month, offers research-backed training through a remote learning program using virtual reality for companies to address bias and incivility toward certain employee groups.
In 2016, the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University in collaboration with Columbia University, released a short VR filmOpens a new window on racial injustice faced by men of color to drive home the issue of discrimination.
People are looking to the corporate world to balance the inequalities and bias that marginalized groups experience. Change in organizational culture has the potential to trickle down into change in society, and VR-led inclusion training can be a starting point for this.
Have you tried virtual reality-led inclusion trainings? What changes have you seen it bring about? Let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .