You’re a manager who deeply cares about creating a team that’s diverse, inclusive, and supportive.
That’s great! Because in addition to this being the right thing to care about, investing time, energy, and even money into this is good for your company’s bottom line. Research shows that more inclusive companies make more money and more diverse teams outperform those that are more homogenous.
Studies aside, your company might not have the budget for diversity and inclusion training right now (or, sadly, they may not prioritize it). So, how can you keep pushing yourself to be as inclusive as possible?
You know what I’m going to say: online classes! And these nine are free for the taking:
1. Address Unconscious Bias, Grovo
Broken into 20 “microlessons” at around three minutes each, Grovo’s unconscious bias training will help managers understand how their bias affects their business decisions and how they can overcome it.
Length: 20 videos/ 2-4 minutes a video
2. Gender Equality and Sexual Diversity, Udemy
Becoming more inclusive isn’t just about understanding power dynamics inside the office but the greater issues happening in the country and across the world. This extensive course covers everything, from the history of gender and sexual inequality to different forms of discrimination to the public institutions fighting for minority rights.
Length: 30 lectures/ 5 hours, 35 minutes
3. Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace, Coursera
Perfect for those who are just dipping their toes into diversity and inclusion training, this class covers general knowledge of how power dynamics come into play in the office, and how you can better support, manage, and be an ally to your employees.
Note: This course is free to audit.
Length: 4 weeks/ 2 hours a week
4. Leading With Effective Communication (Inclusive Leadership Training), edX
Part of being a great leader is knowing how to effectively communicate—and this inclusivity training will help you tackle even the most difficult conversations.
Length: 4 weeks/ 1-2 hours a week
5. Inclusion of Minorities in Community Development, Alison
While this class is focused on creating community, it’s still a great resource to understand different kinds of diversity—from class to education level to mental or physical ability—and how you can be more inclusive to those who may fall into the minority at your company.
Length: 8 lessons
6. Becoming a Successful Leader (Inclusive Leadership Training), edX
As the name suggests, this course will help you become not just a better leader, but a more inclusive one. It includes best practices, real-life stories and examples, and exercises to help you continue to improve how you lead as a manager.
Length: 4 weeks/ 1-2 hours a week
7. Understanding Diversity and Inclusion, FutureLearn
Covering important topics like unconscious bias, supporting diversity, and ethnocentric and ethno-relative mindsets (whether you judge or accept cultures as different and equal), this is an easy course to get everything you need in just a few hours.
Length: 3 weeks/ 3 hours a week
8. Optimizing Diversity on Teams, Coursera
As they say, the best decisions are made when a diverse set of voices are in the room. Here’s how you can maximize your teams so that everyone’s opinions are heard and your team is being inclusive so it can thrive.
Note: This course is free to audit.
Length: 4 weeks/ 2-4 hours a week
9. eLesson: Unconscious Bias, Microsoft
Microsoft has its own training course on unconscious bias that managers and employees alike can take. Mostly in text and question form, this is a great overview of how diversity impacts business, innovation, and employee productivity and happiness.
Length: Self-paced