As Stacy Gordon points out in Unbias, companies go through four phases to achieve a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

Awareness: Understanding the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and identifying opportunities for improvement

Alignment: Creating a strategy and educating colleagues on the importance of DEI

Action: Reviewing and revising of policies and procedures to promote DEI

Advocacy: At this highest phase, the entire organization has internalized DEI principles and practices them consistently

According to Gordon, one of the main mistakes organizations make is to rush through the process, skipping the awareness and alignment phases and jumping straight into action. For this week's assignment, you will create a role play, in the form of a written dialogue between you and a colleague of a fictional company of your choosing.

The basic situation is this. You have a new, very enthusiastic supervisor who wants to take strong and decisive action to make the workplace more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. The problem is, this supervisor doesn't have a very good understanding of the organization's current state (awareness) and also hasn't worked together with colleagues to create a comprehensive strategy (alignment).

In this assignment, you will have a conversation with your new supervisor. In it, you will show why it is important to follow the four-stage process to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

Structure

1. Introduction: In one-well developed paragraph, set the scene by answering these questions.

What is the name of your company, and what does it do?

What is your role in the company, and what is your supervisor's name and job title? Explain the context of this conversation. Is this a formal, scheduled meeting, or is it a spontaneous conversation?

Where is it taking placethe supervisor's office, your office, a break room, or someplace else?

How is it taking placein person, over the phone, via videoconference, or some other way?

2. The Dialogue

Format it like a play, using the person's name, a colon, and then the lines of dialogue.

Use stage directions as needed to describe nonverbal elements such as facial expressions, movements, and tone of voice. Place these directions in parenthesis.

3. Conclusion

Explain what you learned from this exercise. Did the dialogue turn out the way you thought it would? Were there any surprises?