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STATEMENT OF PHILOSOPHY AND APPROACH
REGARDING WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

Gardenswartz & Rowe is committed to creating organizational environments that welcome and include everyone while diminishing and excluding no one. Whether through training, consulting, or writing books and training materials, our work with organizations draws us toward creating organizational climates permeated with respect and dignity, places where healthy, resilient and productive people have an opportunity to flourish.

Diversity in today's pluralistic organizations gives us a prime arena in which to do this work. Over the years, we have developed a belief system and a paradigm for dealing with diversity that is rooted in the following principles.

Diversity is an "inside job," meaning that diversity is not about "them." Rather, it is about each person coming to terms with his or her attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about others.

Diversity goes beyond race and gender. The diversity tent is big enough to include everyone . . . young and old, homeless and affluent, immigrant and native, white and black, gang members and corporate professionals.

No one is the target of blame for current inequities, however, all of us have responsibility for removing them. Human beings have been socialized to behave in certain ways, and all of us are at times both perpetrators and victims of discrimination and stereotypes.

Human beings are ethnocentric, seeing the world through their own narrow view and judging the world by their familiar yardstick.

The human species resists change, continuing to seek homeostasis. This makes the constant adaptation required by diversity difficult for people already overwhelmed by staggering transitions.

Human beings find comfort and trust in likeness. There is a tendency to seek the company of those most similar to us.

It is difficult for people to share power. History shows us that we rarely do it voluntarily.


The Gardenswartz & Rowe Difference

G&R's approach is non-confrontational. It involves bridge-building that focuses on increasing understanding and expanding a repertoire of skills for all participants.

The content of training goes beyond awareness. It includes knowledge about different cultures as well as the interpersonal and management skills necessary for survival in today's global work world.

While the training begins with intrapersonal awareness as a necessary starting point, it is strongly application oriented. The "so what" question is asked, and the connection to the real world of consumers and employees is always made.

The learning environment G&R creates is magic. Their extensive experience can be seen in the learning climate. It is safe, secure, open, and full of the possibilities of exploration.

Gardenswartz & Rowe has been working with diversity since 1977.


Lee Gardenswartz & Anita Rowe…

are published authors of seminal materials in the field. They have written a number of books on diversity and have created over 300 activities and training tools upon which to draw.

have been professionally recognized. They were named ASTD Trainer of the Year in 1985 and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) awarded their book Managing Diversity: A Complete Desk Reference and Planning Guide, the Book of the Year award in 1994.

are recognized speakers on global and domestic diversity.

are co-founders of the Global Diversity Roundtable

design and regularly present the Diversity Train-the-Trainer Certificate Program through SHRM.

customize their work with each client.


Definition of Diversity…

Our definition of diversity is best described in the following model.


(click on the image to enlarge)




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