Inclusion and diversity in learning: lessons from a tennis court
Call her Coco Champion. Coco Gauff is a grand slam winner and a teenager breaking barriers, triumphing in the elitist world of tennis. The corporate world is no different. So, indulge us, we have applied tennis metaphors to share what we at Archetypical have learned in five years of developing inclusive learning programmes.
Learning, like tennis, is a game of back and forth. So let's break it down, game-set-match style!
1. Serve and Return: Flexibility is your main weapon
Inclusivity starts with a powerful serve, just like a tennis match. As learning professionals, our "serve" is our flexibility. We launch the game by recognizing that every learner is unique, just as every tennis opponent has their style. We serve up various learning options allowing each participant to return the ball their way – be it visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically. Introverts? Extroverts? We cater to them all.
2. Game of Advantage: Check Your Privilege
In this inclusive game, privilege is a bit like the advantage point in tennis. So, before the game begins, take a moment to "check your privilege." Just like a player inspects their racket, analyze your own background and biases. By doing this, you level the playing field and prevent any unfair advantages.
3. Surprises and Gentle Backhands: Challenging the Status Quo
Tennis matches can be full of surprises, be ready for them. It's like delivering a gentle backhand shot, challenging the status quo. Shake things up by introducing diverse perspectives and content. Just as a tennis match evolves with every shot, your classroom should evolve with each challenging idea anyone brings to the fore. Allow yourself to be surprised and stay curious and be ready for the unexpected.
4. Rally and Evolution: Adapting Your Program
Inclusivity isn't a static state; it's a dynamic rally. Keep that ball (or lesson plan) moving. Listen to feedback, switch up strategies, and make adjustments. This rally is the heart of inclusive teaching, keeping everyone engaged and involved in the game.
5. Match Point: Calling In and Calling Out
The climax of a tennis match is match point – a crucial moment. Similarly, in inclusivity, there are moments when you must decide whether to "call in" or "call out." "Calling in" is like a friendly, one-on-one chat with a participant who needs guidance. "Calling out," on the other hand, is like challenging a questionable line call. When signalling behaviour that fails to include others you turn exclusion into a teaching moment. Use both tactics wisely to maintain a fair and respectful game.
Inclusivity demands checkpoints. Regularly check-in with your learners, just as the score is checked in a tennis match. Seek feedback to ensure everyone's on the same page. Then, like a post-match analysis, check-out, reflecting on what worked and what can be improved.
In this grand game of corporate learning, creating an inclusive environment is like a thrilling tennis match, complete with serves, returns, rallies, and match points. By being flexible, checking your privilege, introducing surprises, evolving with your programme, and knowing when to call in or out, you'll create a match-winning experience for all learners.
We develop fun learning experiences for our clients, to talk to us if you would like to know more.
Leaders gain precious insight from play
In this guest blog, Monika Lancucki, reflects on the value of play for strategic thinking.
Based in Melbourne, Australia, Monika advises her clients on governance, corporate affairs and strategic planning. She can be reached on mon.l@hotmail.com
Late last year I took a contract opportunity to lead an external communications team in a large and reputable Australian federal government agency. Whilst I had worked with many public sector clients and held in-house leadership in various types of organisations, I had not worked in-house in the public sector. So, when the opportunity to take part in Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders tailored for the Public Sector came up – I jumped at the chance.
While it may be tempting to dismiss game-based play and simulation workshops as aimed at early career professionals, I would caution against being too hasty to do so.
I had participated in a corporate version of Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders at a global conference several years ago so knew this was a chance to test my strategic thinking in a new operating context.
Given it is a team-based workshop, I also knew it would provide the opportunity to better understand how those who work in the public service reason, think, and discern the best, most strategic way forward.
I was not disappointed.
Simulation-based play provides an opportunity to test strategic thinking and decision-making in a safe and fun way, and not just for early career professionals. It offers leaders and experienced practitioners precious insight into the assumptions, motivators and thinking of people in different markets, organisations, or stages of their career.
Whilst there is a lot of rhetoric about “fail fast and iterate”, many organisations are still unforgiving of failure. For those who might be branching out into a different operating environment, from corporate into public sector or vice versa, this is a way to test out their understanding of the complexities of the sector in a safe sandbox.
Decision-making is not so much about choosing between “right” and “wrong” but about discerning the best of several “right” answers
Unlike a test or exam, there is no single “right” answer in Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders. The game places players in teams and then the teams deal with a series of hypothetical scenarios with possible decision options. These options come with impacts on stakeholder relationships, professional integrity, and substantive implications. The choice isn’t so much between right and wrong, but rather based on ethics, best practice, commercial and practical considerations, which is the best of several possible choices. And it is in the opportunity to hear your team members’ reasoning as to why they would make a particular choice that the true value lies.
Win or lose – don’t lose the insights
Of course, Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders is a game and in games “winners are grinners”. But for leaders and experienced practitioners, the benefit of the exercise is less about proving how clever you are by leading your team to victory, and more about gaining insight into how your colleagues think and reason. Why does the team choose a particular way forward? What factors did they consider? What did they miss? Did they take in different perspectives to find creative and innovative ways to navigate these challenges?
In a real-life work context, we have deadlines and a bias to execution, and a focus on decisions and recommendations rather than reasoning is often the priority. Too often you don’t have the time to delve into why team members take the approach they do.
As a leader, you may find the insights from Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders help you identify potential development ideas for your team, and test your own assumptions as to the motivators, drivers and understanding of colleagues.
Acquire a deeper understanding of stakeholder organisations
Hearing from other practitioners also provides the opportunity to discern how individuals from other organisations – of the kind with which your organisation may have dependencies – approach scenarios, again providing valuable insights to take back to the workplace. You can test your own assumptions and offer ideas about other ways to tackle complex challenges.
There is a saying that “win or lose, don’t lose the lesson”. When it comes to Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders, particularly for more experienced practitioners, you might rightly add “don’t lose the insights”.
Who knows, you may also have a bit of fun along the way.
Monika participated in a half-day Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders post-conference workshop delivered virtually by Australia delivery partner, Zora Artis GAICD SCMP and Canada delivery partner Sharon Hunter SCMP. Tailored public sector or corporate sector workshops are available for in-house teams, events or conferences for communication, engagement and HR professionals.
It's time to bring the joy back
The last two years have tested our resilience and imagination. I fear that we are not out of the woods yet, particularly as we enter the winter in the northern hemisphere. However, optimism is on the rise!
In the UK – where we have our headquarters – it seems that we are finding a way to live with this pandemic. Our life is becoming almost normal.
Around London, we see offices are reopening and those who can are rejoining the activities that give them joy. For us that also means doing what we love best, creating memorable learning experiences for our clients. I must confess we have missed seeing them. We have missed meeting new colleagues and connecting with those that have always supported us face to face. In real life.
Since that horrid March 2020, we have successfully pivoted to provide our lovely clients with an online or a hybrid learning experience, and we have loved every minute of it! The challenge of bringing our fun neuroscience-based approach to the virtual meeting room has been exhilarating and full of learnings in itself. We have learned the optimal time for sessions to keep them engaged; tested with different collaborative platforms; mastered the mute and unmute buttons.
But now, it’s time. We need to see you.
We have all been looking at each other through a screen for too long and our brains are hungry for joyous chemicals.
Stephen and I put our heads together and concluded that since our business thrives because we bring new energy into clients’ work through play, why not hold a session for them and other friends? Why not invite our courageous innovators to celebrate Christmas with us? We can’t travel just yet, but at least we can bring our London folk together.
So this is the chance. November 24.
We will have a short gaming session (it wouldn’t be our party without it!) and then we will all get a chance to chink REAL glasses, look each other in the eye and smile.
We are bringing back the joy and we cannot wait.
