In our experience, many give lip service to learning by doing, but when it comes to what’s on offer come Pride month, it’s far more common to see training modules that are heavier on exposition (videos titled, ‘What is bisexuality?’ or clickable ‘History of the Pride movement’ timelines) and too light on putting the learner experience front and centre.
And… action! Setting the scene with E=MC5
One way to shift the spotlight to learn by doing is to consider what scenario-based learning can really look like in this field. Here we take our cue from Dr Gregg Collins’ groundbreaking approach to creating engaging, fun and, above all, really effective learning – what he calls E=MC5.
In this approach, the heart of the learning experience is the learning scenario. In E=MC5 terms, a scenario is comprised of challenge, choice and consequence:
Experience = Mission + Context + Challenge + Choice + Consequence + Coaching
Here, setting the scene means more than providing relevant context; it means creating scenarios where learners have to make choices, experience the consequences of those choices and receive meaningful feedback in the moment about how and why they may want to do things differently next time.
Giving learners a narrative-based mission opens up a lot of possibilities that are well suited to the higher level interpersonal skills needed for inclusion and belonging in particular.
It also helps ground decision making in messy reality-based situations that go beyond snippets with an obvious, socially desired answer. Let’s look at a few.
By providing multiple, realistic opportunities to decide what to do and say, we can ensure learners are highly engaged – and see their real-world contexts reflected in their learning
High stakes missions reflect real life context
Instead of merely clicking ‘play’ and watching passively, now imagine your learners dropped into an overarching story-based mission like ‘advance at your company while fostering belonging for your diverse team’ – tailored to the challenges you are currently facing.
In E=MC5 scenario-based learning, the learner will be offered multiple challenges in this context.
Maybe they need to decide how to approach a difficult conversation, or decide who to bring into a negotiation with clients across cultural contexts where their colleagues’ sexuality and gender identity are not protected.
How will the learner balance inclusive practices with other realistic commercial objectives?
By providing multiple, realistic opportunities to decide what to do and say, we can ensure learners are highly engaged – and see their real-world contexts reflected in their learning.
The stakes are high every day for people with protected identities, and it’s time learning reflected that as well.
Psychologically safe practice to minimise harm
One key benefit to this approach to DEI training is that it offers psychologically safe practice – your learners will not hurt anyone around them if they fail to make the optimal choice for inclusion at each turn.
They can fail safely and fill in the blanks in their understanding and stretch their comfort zone without fear of judgement as they move through the different parts of the experience.
And, just as importantly, they’ll see consequences in a safe practice environment, and receive feedback along the way.
This type of learning can also be designed so that learners may play out the scenarios repeatedly, to further practice until they fully understand optimal choices for inclusion and belonging in their everyday work lives.
As we noted in an earlier instalment, this puts the emphasis on curiosity instead of shame, which is the foundation for growth through learning.
Learners may play out the scenarios repeatedly, to further practice until they fully understand optimal choices for inclusion and belonging in their everyday work lives
Stepping into another’s shoes and the ‘virtual empathy machine’
When discussing this approach in a design workshop recently, a DEI officer remarked: “You know, you don’t hear much about innovation in this kind of training. Why can’t we have something that makes someone say, oh you have to check this out!”.
Like, a ‘virtual empathy machine’, as some have famously called it.
But we’d posit that it doesn’t have to necessarily mean the highest end virtual reality solution (though that can be cool too!).
Well-designed scenarios in any medium allow people to experience the world in the shoes of someone different from them, which fosters empathy and increases insight into what support looks like in terms of practical actions.
A setup that places learners in hyper-realistic practice scenarios, tailored to what is going on in your organisation and what you would like to see change – when we encounter scenarios like this, we go beyond intellectual understanding.
These kinds of solutions already exist, and they can range from the simple to complex.
A full spectrum of reality solutions
On the ‘simpler’ end of the spectrum, we’d include courses like one of ours in Bystander Intervention training, where learners take the perspective of a team member approached by a client to be asked: “I’m curious. What made you want to change your gender?” .
Learners are prompted to make choices through these conversational turns, challenging them to really engage with the scenario as they consider the consequences of their chosen action (or inaction, as the case may be).
At the other end of the spectrum are solutions that leverage 360 video to play through various DEI situations from both the view of those causing and practising exclusion (wittingly or no), and the excluded.
These can call for individual reflection, as learners watch a different version of the story, in which conscious acts of inclusion lead to better outcomes.
Well-designed scenarios in any medium allow people to experience the world in the shoes of someone different from them, which fosters empathy and increases insight into what support looks like in terms of practical actions.
Take the insights and experiences from other worlds into this one (and make it better)
No matter the medium or budget, scenario-based learning that offers a challenging mission, choices to make and perspective taking opportunities, goes a long way to not just reducing training fatigue, but also driving the results you want to see.
Our actions shape the world they happen in, and they shape us, too. Scenarios and virtual worlds make that hit home in ways this one here can’t quite.
Virtual realities have always been a way for people to try out alternative versions of themselves and the world, and to form connections beyond conventional ideas of what we might or might not have in common.
Time for a new DEI mission?
That positive energy also drives a hugely successful gaming industry that draws in millions who will forget mealtimes instead of staring at the clock hoping for their elearning to finish. (And it doesn’t need to be all zombies and end-of-days either.)
Immersing your teams in DEI missions is not just fun – it’s also key to venturing past awareness and into the action.
With that enormous visionary, world-building, immersive voltage and the empathy it can create, why wouldn’t you harness that for your own organisation?
If you enjoyed this, read: True investment in diversity, equity and inclusion needs more than just awareness
