Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leadership is an authentic leadership style that rules out discrimination, bias and favour based on gender, race and other protected characteristics and allows all employees to feel valued. By creating exposure to diverse voices and lived experiences through storytelling, this program is designed to foster and deepen empathetic understanding, awareness of biases, curiosity, and cultural intelligence that are essential to leading a diverse team efficiently and authentically. Let us walk you through the program design.
Program Overview
A Five-Session Series
Session 1: The Importance of Diversity and Understanding Bias in Leadership
The first session, focusing on de-stigmatization and self-reflection through creating a deeper understanding of bias and the science behind it, is the foundation of this program.
Format: Film Screening + Q&A + Breakout Room Discussion
Session Duration: 90 mins
Film: Bias
Filmmaker and Speaker: Robin Hauser
Session Goal:
- Understand how bias is a natural evolutionary
mechanism - Unpack how bias affects decision making
- Explore how having a diverse and inclusive team helps with mitigating the negative impacts of individual and collective biases
Session 2: Women Empowerment in Leadership
Format: Film Screening + Q&A + Breakout Room Discussion
Session Duration: 100 mins
Film: Pioneers in Skirts
Filmmaker and Speaker: Ashley Maria
Session Goal:
- Deepening an understanding of the stereotypes about women
- Explore the roadblocks and obstacles women face
- Discover ways to be allies and empower women in the workplace, especially in leadership roles
Session 3: Building Allyship & Community in the Business World
Format: Film Screening + Q&A + Breakout Room Discussion
Session Duration: 100 mins
Film: The Power Broker
Filmmaker and Speaker: Bonnie Boswell (Whitney Young’s niece)
Session Goal:
- Critically looking into the history of racial discrimination in business
- Explore strategies on how to build a more racially inclusive team and business
- Examine the role of business leaders in the fight for equity in the workplace
Session 4: Authenticity in Inclusive Leadership
Format: Film Screening + Q&A + Breakout Room Discussion
Session Duration: 75 mins
Film: Who is Larry Bates? (A Storybolt Original)
Speaker: Jennifer Brown
Session Goal:
- Become inspired by the story of Larry Bates, the first openly gay CEO in Japan
- Gain a better understanding of how authenticity and empathy enable inclusive leadership
- Learn how to create a sense of belonging by encouraging authenticity in others
Session 5: From Understanding to Action, Becoming an Inclusive Leader
The final session of the program is designed to actualize the empathetic understanding that has been brought to the surface in the previous sessions with an action-oriented approach.
.png "Who is Larry Bates_ (2)")
Format: Panel Discussion
Duration: 75 mins
Speakers: Your Leaders & Storybolt Speakers
Session Goal:
- Build upon new learnings achieved in the previous sessions and move towards action
- Dive into strategies, policies, and best practices that enable leaders to build an inclusive culture in the workplace
- Discuss the work it takes to be an inclusive leader
Potential Program Facilitator:
Annie Rezac is a passionate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion activist and a visionary leader for change. Annie currently serves as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs Manager at Ulteig Engineers, Inc. Prior to Ulteig, Annie led the Chicago Literacy Alliance in a city-wide equity initiative to increase access to learning resources in Chicago's most disinvested communities. As the former Executive Director of Unsilence, a storytelling-based human rights organization, Annie oversaw the national expansion of social justice programs and led candid conversations around gender identity, mental health, and gun violence. She is committed to bringing individuals with disparate life experiences together and creating pathways toward allyship and authentic connection.
Todd Belcore is a six-time national award-winning lawyer, mediator, advocate, law lecturer and non-profit co-founder with over 20 years of experience fighting for economic, social, and racial equity worldwide. Todd is the Executive Director of Social Change-a national non-profit committed to liberation, amplifying community voices, and disrupting legacies of systemic injustice through storytelling, organizing, and direct action.
In addition to the disruptive liberation work Todd engages in at Social Change, Todd also consults organizations, businesses, and government entities on ways to ensure their modus operandi promotes economic, social, and racial equity inside and outside of the workplace.