The Challenge
This organization deals with thousands of customers day-on-day with an overriding objective to provide an exceptional dining experience. This isn’t just about the food, but about the personal service given to every diner at each of their different restaurant brands. This means creating an authentically inclusive and comfortable environment for both employees and the customers they serve.
When problems do occur they are escalated to senior managers who are trusted to take the right course of action to fairly resolve an issue. Making these judgement calls is challenging in itself, but when they concern issues of potential discrimination and micro-aggressions against staff or customers then an extra layer of complexity is added and a more detailed understanding is required.
To help address this, the business wanted to provide practical training to senior managers so inclusive thinking could be embedded across the group from the top down and the risks presented to the brand by ill-informed decision-making on issues around diversity and inclusion mitigated.
The business believed that face-to-face training would have the most impact, but were also aware that some participants wouldn’t be able to attend in person.
The Solutions
We were aware from our consultation, that the business had seen an increasing number of cases of microaggressions being escalated by both consumers and staff for resolution. It was therefore important that we addressed this specific issue within the framework of a wider workshop on inclusive leadership.
We therefore created a tailored version of our Leading In An Inclusive World training with a discussion on microaggressions and how to recognize and address them. This training was run as an interactive workshop so managers could bring their own experiences and real-world examples into the session. By creating a safe space for discussion, participants felt comfortable in talking about their challenges allowing us to provide learning which was directly applicable to day-to-day decision making within the business.
With such a focus on discussion, we advised against a hybrid session with both in-person and remote participants and instead held two dedicated sessions: one face-to-face and one virtual. This ensured all participants would have the best possible experience and equal opportunity to actively question, share, and engage in this important conversation.
