Building a culture of inclusivity and belonging in your organization is a journey that requires long-term commitment and a continuous openness to learning. Training can be helpful, but research in organizational science shows that one-time events are not enough to create lasting change in mindsets or behaviors.
Leveraging research and science, Diversity Lab designed the DEI AV Club to incorporate learning through empathy and proximity. This dynamic learning framework — structured around curated content — creates opportunities for participants to learn and then exchange perspectives and experiences, raising awareness and fostering a sense of belonging.
DEI AV Club resources aren’t presentations or “masterclasses”—they’re immersive experiences that allow participants to hear directly from individuals and understand their perspectives. Behavioral science shows that this kind of perspective-taking is one of the few effective ways to change behavior.
Driven by behavioral science, the DEI AV Club’s dynamic learning framework offers curated content and a series of facilitated conversations designed to promote inclusivity in the workplace. These guided conversations about complicated issues lead to a deeper understanding of others’ perspectives and are part of building an inclusive culture.
Learn more about effective unconscious bias training: “Unconscious Bias Training That Works,” the Harvard Business Review.
The DEI AV Club provides an opportunity for hybrid or distributed workplaces to bring teams together regularly for meaningful connection.
The DEI AV Club is usually facilitated within law firms and legal departments as a 6-9 month group learning and engagement experience. Participants listen to and view the resources before each monthly session. The resources include a mix of podcasts and videos, carefully selected to present a variety of impactful perspectives with relevance to the legal field.
Each one-hour session starts with participants convening for an overview of the month’s key learnings. Next, they break into smaller groups facilitated by experts to engage in insightful discussion and sharing. After the breakouts, the entire group reconvenes to share key takeaways and a-ha moments collectively. This process helps to lock in learning and reinforce the community’s connectedness. Following the 6-9 month sessions, the group concludes with a “momentum session” where the participants share how they plan to leverage what they learned in their workplace and team going forwar
Diversity Lab provides resources, facilitator training, a program outline, and tailored discussion questions for each DEI AV Club meeting.
Step 1
Curated resources are shared ahead of the scheduled conversation.
Step 2
An organizational leader kicks off the meeting sharing brief thoughts on the material. Participants break out into small groups with trained facilitators to ensure everyone has a chance to voice their thoughts and experiences.
Step 3
Participants then reconvene as a larger group to share key takeaways across groups in a facilitated “Pearls of Wisdom” conclusion.
Step 4
Diversity Lab tested this initiative with a select group of leading law firms and Fortune 500 legal departments as a pilot born out of the Move the Needle Fund. Beginning in early 2025, we plan to expand the pilot to additional interested law firms and legal departments.
If you want to incorporate the AV Club into your inclusion efforts, please reach out.