Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Every good chef knows that to cook up the perfect recipe means considering every ingredient, and making the most of the flavours. But wait, this isn’t a cookery course! No, it’s a course about Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – three things that every reputable organisation needs to take seriously if it wants to be, well, reputable. But the “perfect recipe” metaphor captures the essence of what it takes to be an advocate for EDI: first and foremost, you have to appreciate that variety is the spice of life. You need to respect and celebrate the differences between people while doing your utmost to ensure they are all given fair and equal opportunity and treatment. If you succeed in this, you’ll succeed in getting the most out of them.

EDI is a sensitive topic, and we played with a number of approaches to this course. The metaphor of the chef’s recipe serves to get the overall idea across, but we weren’t convinced it could carry the learning as an overall theme. We thought of taking inspiration from Forrest Gump – referring to people as “peas and carrots” – but that seemed a little too simplistic. We came to realise that a break from the standard iAM format was required, and we decided to introduce “human” characters. After all, it’s hard to capture the finer nuances of diversity with a cast of blue cartoons… with this in mind, we imagined a scenario where uniform and uniformed workers in the iAM universe observe the practices of an inclusive workplace in the human world.

The result is a compelling window into the issues at hand, and the learner comes away with a clear understanding of what actions can be implemented to improve on equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. This is supported by an engaging takeaway tasks and a summary section which lets learners recall the facts at their own pace, and links to websites which help improve EDI in your workplace too.