Diversity Week

DAY 1: The new style boss

We were able to think about the new management style (Ikubosu) that will be necessary to deal with the evolving diversification of human talent, as well as how we can imagine the next generation of management who will grow with the organization and strengthen team work.

 An Ikubosu is not a boss in the midst of childcare, but a professional (management and managers, women and men alike) who is able to enjoy a good balance in his or her own private life and work while advancing the company’s results through supporting and thinking of subordinate staff’s work life balance.

During the second half of the workshop ‘You are an Ikubosu!’ we were able to discuss about and come up with practical behavior based on the theory of what an Ikubosu should look like. 

DAY 2: Working with colleagues with disabilities

The first half of the workshop introduced the work and concept of Tohmatsu Challenged and the various types of staff they employ. We were able to learn about the variety of work the Tohmatsu Challenged staff and their support staff do; although we share the same workplace a lot of this information was new.

The second half of the workshop helped us visualize actually working with colleagues with a disability, and we had a lively discussion on a concrete case by answering the question ‘is your work environment ready for professionals with disabilities?

Professionals with disabilities have the wish and will to contribute to our organization; this workshop gave us the information and tools to understand and think about how we need to change our organization in order to give them that opportunity.

DAY 3: Thinking about long-term care and work-life balance

As Japan is the country with the world’s fastest aging population, anyone with a family will potentially have to face a long-term care situation in the future. It is vital to recognize that fact and to be prepared for it, which will be a great support when a long-term care situation arises.

During this workshop we were able to get an overview of the long-term care services and institutions available to us. We also learned how important it is to support people who are in long-term care situations in the workplace, as a co-worker or as their boss, even if we are not facing this situation ourselves.

DAY 4: What's LGBT?

LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. According to a 2015 Dentsu survey of 7000 people, 7.6% identified themselves as LGBT. This means that in a group of 30 people on average 2 will identify as LGBT. 

Many people choose not to come out as LGBT because they are afraid of discrimination or prejudice, which is why it may seem that there are no LGBT around. They feel unable to speak about their life in the workplace, their performance goes down and there are cases where people quit their job.

Discrimination and prejudice are born from a lack of information. It’s very important to broaden the understanding about LGBT, rather than assume that there are none among us. That is exactly why our firm chose to organize workshops with LGBT representatives who can speak from their own experience. Hearing their stories was a real eye-opener, and it enabled the participants to think about their own prejudice.

The Q&A session was very enlightening and gave us tools to better interact with not only people from the LGBT community but with all our co-workers. 

DAY 5: Recognizing unconscious bias

On the last day of Diversity Week we were able to re-learn the benefits of diversity management as well as learn about the unconscious biases that we all possess. We were given tools to recognize our own unconscious biases, and explained the appropriate action we should take.

Having unconscious biases doesn’t only influence our own and the other person’s speech and conduct but also our own performance. If allowed to happen, it pulls down the performance of the entire company.

In this workshop we were able to recognize our own unconscious biases and learned that countering unconscious bias leads to building an organization that welcomes Diversity & Inclusion.