How to teach diversity using professional actors
The Stanford MBA Diversity Lab impressed me today. The experience rose head and shoulders above the patronizing hear-this-so-we-don’t-get-sued corporate training I took in the past.
Above: Stanford MBAs en route to Diversity Lab discussions.
First, a short talk to set context, then half a dozen sharply dressed actors flown in from New York play out a scene at global investment bank. They’re black, white, Japanese, South Asian, Latino, gay, single, married, women and men. Each moment acted out seemed both common place and yet sizzling with undertones. The friend next to me, 8 weeks new to the US, asked what a “pride event” was and I explained briefly.
Three hundred MBA students formed groups to discuss what they saw. A classmate got cold called to share her group’s opinion. Half way through her statement an actor on stage suddenly interrupted. Like manikins come to life, the performers began engaging us and each other in heartfelt debate while still in character. The next two and half hours blazed with dialogue cutting across every facet of diversity: stereotypes, subtext, prejudices, politics, paradoxes, legal issues—in the end people sat enlightened, confused, frustrated and ever shade in between. The experience ignited a conversation on diversity to last the rest of our time at Stanford and most likely far beyond.
Here’s what I picked up:
- When defusing someone displaying intolerance root the discussion in the context of “respect”. It’s a readily accepted concept acknowledging differences and it helps people bridge.
- When you’re dumbfounded by the thinking of others ask yourself: “Based on how I’ve been socialized what in this conversation am I missing?”
- When you’re struggling to tolerate people very different from you imagine they are a client worth $100M. In this context, what hang-up can you not surmount?
- Best tip: Just because you have to work ten times harder than someone else to move the same distance doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work hard
The key takeaway for me was how important it was for MBAs to think deeply about diversity issues given their future roles. To paraphrase Connie Wong, the facilitator from CSW Global who ran the session: Policies fail, diplomacy fails, governments fail. It’s global business leaders who are the peacemakers of the world, and they don’t even know it.
