A healthcare industry leader needed their culture to be more aware and invested in Diversity and Inclusion. Luckily, their production company knew On-Cue. Beyond achieving the desired outcome, the end client had two priorities:

• Create a space where all voices can be heard, so the concept of inclusion could stretch wider than involving traditionally marginalized groups
• Incorporate the personal experience of executives so they could lead by example
• The program needed the flexibility to address specific departmental issues while also reinforcing company-wide initiatives.

On-Cue’s Discovery Process identified:

• The most common D&I related conflicts in the client’s office environment arose from subtle, unintended assumptions and reactions by otherwise well-meaning co-workers
• Employees, while acknowledging the importance of D&I in theory, seemed to be unaware of many instances where problematic behavior had occurred

In response to these findings, On-Cue drew from elements of Business Theater and Transformative Learning to catalyze personal reflection and healthy dialogue. The program centered on three elements:

• Coaching executives to identify, develop, and share their personal D&I stories in a way that helped participants to understand that implicit bias is not only real, but prevalent in their organization
• Creating compelling vignettes true to the experience of marginalized groups, and to bring these to life using professional actors to be used as the basis for a rich, honest dialogue.

The organization’s executives were thrilled with the overwhelming attendee feedback and the resulting program was performed several more times.

The enduring strength of the design proved to be its modularity, where new vignettes and executive stories were substituted as participant feedback uncovered new examples of unconscious bias.

Post-event participant feedback reported to us through our production partner identified that several participants:

• Identified with stories presented and respected that their voices were being heard
• Appreciated the safety of the ensuing dialogue, and that they could learn better behaviors without feeling “attacked” for not knowing how to be better before