Have you ever been told by someone that you made them feel left out, or less than welcome?
Most of us have, and for most of us it’s something that’s happened by accident. Whether it’s through existing strong connections with people that take your focus, being driven by the task and not thinking about how you’re working with others, or through the emotional leakage that people pick up through our behaviours and body language, it’s easy to create distance between ourselves and our colleagues.
This practical virtual workshop encourages participants to increase their self-awareness and create a strategy that ensures they work towards a culture of conscious inclusion.
Learning objectives
- Have increased awareness of alienating behaviours
- Identify situations where people may be more likely to be excluded
- Know how to use body language and behaviour to include others
- Develop an open communication style
- Have an action plan for how to consciously include others in the workplace
Webinar outline
Designed as a highly interactive 90-minute webinar.
1. Welcome, agenda, reflection of own unconscious biases
- Welcome, introduction to the system
- Story that highlights the personal experience of being excluded
- Agenda and personal objectives using chat
2. Social pain
- Dr Matthew Lieberman’s book Social explores the neuroscience of social pain and how it is experienced in the same way as physical pain, with the same impact on us as human beings
- Without knowing it, we all inflict social pain on others
- Group discussion
3. Alienating behaviours
- Exploration of how our behaviours can distance others
- How body language can create an impression of resistance, coldness or distance
- The way we respond to introductions, spend time with our ‘clique’ or focus on the task rather than the person
- Participants assess which areas they need to work on
4. Developing openness
- Techniques for being open and appearing open
- How to start conversations with new connections and bring them into a group
- Identifying those you have a weaker connection with and creating a plan to bridge it
5. Creating a culture of conscious inclusion
- The key to being successful at keeping people from feeling excluded is by making a conscious effort to create inclusion
- Developing a strategy to identify situations where people are at risk and to become increasingly aware of your impression on others around you by checking in periodically
6. Action plans and next steps
- Participants reflect on their next steps and how they will implement their learning in the workplace, participants each make a commitment for what they will do differently in a group whiteboard which can be circulated to participants following the session as a reminder of their actions
