Have you thought about what specific behavior changes you want to see related to DEI? For example, if your organization is currently struggling with equity in recruitment, then focus on those desired behaviors.
If you're looking at something more general, something like bystander training or "what to say" training could work too.
The trick with branching scenarios is often to drill down to focus on a really specific behavior. If you're struggling to come up with scenarios, you're probably looking at something too broad. Pick one aspect of DEI and think about a scenario for that particular issue.
I've already read through your blog - it's a wonderful resource.
However, my SME's have already identified that this needs to be a mix of best practices and specific scenarios - and that's where I am really struggling because I haven't received a very clear direction of how this needs to be structured.
What I think our problem is we're trying to accomplish too much in little time, also some of the scenarios don't fit in with our organization because we've already responded to those through various initiatives.
I'm basically looking for scenario for use of inclusive language, recognizing an unconscious bias and situations where a person can become an ally to an under-represented group.
Inclusive language should be doable as a scenario. It might be a series of short (or even one-decision) scenarios where you choose what to say. You don't need to offer really offensive options as choices, but you could differentiate between truly inclusive language and "well meaning but unintentionally offensive" language.
For example, you could do something like this:
You accidentally use the wrong pronoun and call George a she. What do you say next?
A. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I know you're a man and use he/his pronouns. I'm really working so hard on getting it right, and I didn't mean to misgender you."
B. "Oops, he said..."
C. "I'm sorry, I meant to say "he." It's so tricky to remember the right pronoun, isn't it?"
If people haven't done a fair amount of DEI work already, it may not be obvious that B is the right answer there.
You wouldn't even necessarily need to continue the scenario on the same path or with the same conversation after that choice. You could just change the scene and jump to a new conversation with a new issue to respond to.
If time is tight, Christy's idea to use several very short scenarios seems like an excellent option. You still get the benefits of an engaging story and critical thinking activities, but because they're shorter they're easier for you to develop than a long scenario and take up less training time for your learners.
As for what specific stories to use in these scenarios, could your SME tell you more about the particular aspects of inclusive language, unconscious bias, and allyship that your learners are currently struggling with? Those are rather broad topics, so if you can find out more about the specific challenges your audience is currently having with them—particularly in the case of topics you mentioned were already covered in previous initiatives—that can help you craft targeted scenarios that make a bigger impact in less time.
That conversation may also give you an opportunity to gently explore if you really need to repeat content that was covered previously. If you ask what aspects of that topic employees are still struggling with even after the previous initiative and your SME doesn't have any evidence the previous initiative wasn't effective, that's a good opening for discussing if it's the best use of learner time to repeat the content in your project.
That's the thing - there's nothing specific that we've dealt with or are dealing with in terms of employee inclusion. Happy to say that our organisation is very focused on inclusion and inclusive language already - so the course is more about establishing best practices as opposed to responding to any specific challenges that employees are facing.
Since we've just started using Articulate and they want to have a baseline course created on rise or storyline. The idea that there has to be something before it is improved and built on. But they also want to make it specific t the organisation so.. too many things in one.
Anyway, this is a long term project and I anticipate change of direction once this one is built. I'm new to the organisation so can't push too much but I will try :)
Thanks for much for the advice, Bianca! I really appreciate it.
A related thought—since you need to cover general best practices, have you tried looking at the real content lessons and courses included in Rise 360? There's a bunch of great DEI content there that you can use as-is or completely alter for your needs. For instance, the "How to Be an Ally for Diversity and Inclusion" and "How to Recognize and Overcome Bias" courses sound like they touch on a lot of what you need to cover.
Many of those courses and lessons include scenarios, so it could be worth checking them out for inspiration. But you may also be able to use those courses as a jumping-off point and just tweak them as needed for your organization. That could be a great way to quickly get the content you need out to learners fast.
7 Replies
Have you thought about what specific behavior changes you want to see related to DEI? For example, if your organization is currently struggling with equity in recruitment, then focus on those desired behaviors.
If you're looking at something more general, something like bystander training or "what to say" training could work too.
The trick with branching scenarios is often to drill down to focus on a really specific behavior. If you're struggling to come up with scenarios, you're probably looking at something too broad. Pick one aspect of DEI and think about a scenario for that particular issue.
I wrote a blog post about this topic and some of the research on what works and doesn't work in DEI training, if you're looking for more. https://www.christytuckerlearning.com/dei-training-and-branching-scenarios/
Hi Christy! Thank you so much for responding.
I've already read through your blog - it's a wonderful resource.
However, my SME's have already identified that this needs to be a mix of best practices and specific scenarios - and that's where I am really struggling because I haven't received a very clear direction of how this needs to be structured.
What I think our problem is we're trying to accomplish too much in little time, also some of the scenarios don't fit in with our organization because we've already responded to those through various initiatives.
I'm basically looking for scenario for use of inclusive language, recognizing an unconscious bias and situations where a person can become an ally to an under-represented group.
Inclusive language should be doable as a scenario. It might be a series of short (or even one-decision) scenarios where you choose what to say. You don't need to offer really offensive options as choices, but you could differentiate between truly inclusive language and "well meaning but unintentionally offensive" language.
For example, you could do something like this:
You accidentally use the wrong pronoun and call George a she. What do you say next?
A. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I know you're a man and use he/his pronouns. I'm really working so hard on getting it right, and I didn't mean to misgender you."
B. "Oops, he said..."
C. "I'm sorry, I meant to say "he." It's so tricky to remember the right pronoun, isn't it?"
If people haven't done a fair amount of DEI work already, it may not be obvious that B is the right answer there.
You wouldn't even necessarily need to continue the scenario on the same path or with the same conversation after that choice. You could just change the scene and jump to a new conversation with a new issue to respond to.
Does that help?
Hi Sonam and welcome to the community!
If time is tight, Christy's idea to use several very short scenarios seems like an excellent option. You still get the benefits of an engaging story and critical thinking activities, but because they're shorter they're easier for you to develop than a long scenario and take up less training time for your learners.
As for what specific stories to use in these scenarios, could your SME tell you more about the particular aspects of inclusive language, unconscious bias, and allyship that your learners are currently struggling with? Those are rather broad topics, so if you can find out more about the specific challenges your audience is currently having with them—particularly in the case of topics you mentioned were already covered in previous initiatives—that can help you craft targeted scenarios that make a bigger impact in less time.
That conversation may also give you an opportunity to gently explore if you really need to repeat content that was covered previously. If you ask what aspects of that topic employees are still struggling with even after the previous initiative and your SME doesn't have any evidence the previous initiative wasn't effective, that's a good opening for discussing if it's the best use of learner time to repeat the content in your project.
Hi Christy,
Thanks a lot for the suggestion.
I like the idea of developing multiple, one decision scenarios. I'll work on that.
Thanks a lot for your ideas and suggestions :)
That's the thing - there's nothing specific that we've dealt with or are dealing with in terms of employee inclusion. Happy to say that our organisation is very focused on inclusion and inclusive language already - so the course is more about establishing best practices as opposed to responding to any specific challenges that employees are facing.
Since we've just started using Articulate and they want to have a baseline course created on rise or storyline. The idea that there has to be something before it is improved and built on. But they also want to make it specific t the organisation so.. too many things in one.
Anyway, this is a long term project and I anticipate change of direction once this one is built. I'm new to the organisation so can't push too much but I will try :)
Thanks for much for the advice, Bianca! I really appreciate it.
Best,
Sonam
A related thought—since you need to cover general best practices, have you tried looking at the real content lessons and courses included in Rise 360? There's a bunch of great DEI content there that you can use as-is or completely alter for your needs. For instance, the "How to Be an Ally for Diversity and Inclusion" and "How to Recognize and Overcome Bias" courses sound like they touch on a lot of what you need to cover.
Many of those courses and lessons include scenarios, so it could be worth checking them out for inspiration. But you may also be able to use those courses as a jumping-off point and just tweak them as needed for your organization. That could be a great way to quickly get the content you need out to learners fast.