Promoting Inclusive Workplace Environments
Using a Evidence-Based Approach
We apply scientific motivational principles to help organizations reach their goals of increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We provide tools, guidance, and support to help organizations succeed in creating inclusive environments such as tailored and empathic training, evaluating the effectiveness of trainings and other organizational DEI efforts, and we consult on how to maximize employee buy-in when implementing new DEI initiatives.
About Us
We are a team of behavioral scientists with expertise in motivation psychology.
For the past 18 years we have been working to understand how to motivate wholehearted and value-based action. The team’s work, published in over 100 scientific papers, shows that people can become more inclusive when they receive the right support. We see the first step in this process as getting buy-in from people - in other words, helping them to care about principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (and not assuming that everyone already does).
Underneath this is a guiding belief that people have an inherent tendency to grow and be inclusive when supported by their social environment. That means that organizations have a big role to play in supporting employees in being more inclusive. Our job is to support organizations and their DEI staff as they support their employees in doing DEI work, such as conducting trainings or rolling out new initiatives.
Our Ethos is to:
​
Inspire self-reflection for trainers and trainees
Meet people where they are at, wherever they are with respect to commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
Provide empathy and compassion, versus judgment, for how hard this change process can be
Listen from the ground-up, rather than direct from the top-down
Harness people’s own values to inspire a greater personal commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
Be transparent: we are always evaluating the effectiveness of our approach, and will disseminate those results whether they make us look good or not
Services
Inclusion Training
A science-based approach is used to create a training that will work for your business. We offer training materials that we will tailor to the needs of your organization and assess its effectiveness when implemented
Consultations
We offer consultations with leadership and / or DEI training staff to enhance the motivational qualities of your DEI strategies. We specialize in helping to enhance the way policies, initiatives, and training are communicated to employees in order to promote buy-in
Strategizing
One size fits all doesn’t work in DEI training. Before, during, and after the training, we will help implement strategies to ensure a more inclusive environment based on your specific needs
Current and Previous Projects
Our research team has focused on two key questions using Self-Determination Theory, a theory concerned with how to promote well-being and how to produce sustained motivation:
​
1. How can we promote resilience and well-being in individuals from historically excluded groups?
​
2. How can workplaces motivate their employees to care about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)?
​
Our projects relating to answering these two questions can be found below.
We have found that accepting and supportive others (parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, teachers, healthcare providers) are critical to the health and well-being of individuals from historically excluded groups. Much of this work focuses on LGBTQ+ individuals, finding that accepting others are helpful for coming out, self-acceptance, and mental and physical health.
Gender
add here
Workplace DEI trainings and initiatives often fall short of improving the culture of inclusivity in the organization, and there is growing recognition that this may be because they do not motivate or inspire people to change. We have been applying motivational theory and strategies such as empathizing with feelings that may come up for attendees and avoiding shaming and blaming language to DEI efforts with police officers and staff in the UK. Motivational approaches that inspire - versus force- a personal commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion appear promising.