SHRM Workplace Diversity Conference & Exposition, October 18–20, 2007, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Concurrent Sessions

Recertification Credits Available
Attention PHRregs, SPHRregs and GPHRreg! The Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCIreg) will award hour-for-hour recertification credit for each professional development session you attend, including preconference workshops and concurrent sessions. Visit www.hrci.org for more information.




Session Recordings
Most concurrent sessions will be audio recorded by Speaker Concierge powered by AVMG, a division of Audio Visual Management Group, Inc. You’ll be able to choose between audio CD and MP3 recordings. More information on how to purchase these recordings will be at the conference.


The SHRM Diversity Initiative
The SHRM Diversity Initiative, established in 1993, seeks to foster awareness and appreciation of workplace diversity issues among HR professionals, their employers and other business leaders. The primary purpose of the initiative is to assist SHRM members in managing a diverse workforce by providing diversity-related research materials, workplace-applicable tools, publications and linkages with key organizations. Making the business case for diversity and valuing individual differences are the cornerstones of the SHRM Diversity Initiative. For more information, visit the Web site at www.shrm.org/diversity


Information is Your Best Resource
Each full conference registrant will receive one copy of the concurrent session speakers' presentations on compact disc in the conference packet you will receive at registration when you arrive at the conference. The CD includes important information about SHRM's Diversity Initiative, the online Diversity Forum and SHRM's services and products as well as live links to the SHRM Web site – your window into the HR world. It also includes information about exhibitors with links to their websites. Plus, if you choose to listen to the speaker while you look at his or her presentation, recordings of concurrent sessions are also available for purchase at the conference in one of three formats—audio tapes, audio CDs or MP-3.



The SHRM Difference
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers its conference attendees access to important and relevant topics presented by top-notch speakers. SHRM requires its presenters to focus on session content rather than mentioning or selling books, products or services from the podium. The exhibit hall offers attendees a great opportunity to network with colleagues and connect with exhibiting companies that provide the products and services you need to leverage your contributions to your organization.

Sessions: Thursday  |  Friday  |  Saturday

The content-rich concurrent sessions offered at the Workplace Diversity Conference & Exposition cover an extensive and inclusive range of diversity-related topics. Sessions are summarized below. Each session lasts 75 minutes. We encourage you to plan your conference curriculum in advance.

Choose a first and a second choice at each time frame, and remember to arrive early, as seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. A track designation is included with each description (in case you want to focus your learning on sessions in one of the three tracks). Some sessions are offered more than once so that you have the scheduling flexibility to create your own conference curriculum.

Practitioner Exchange – Sessions in this track showcase achievements and success stories experienced by peer role models in the diversity field. Learning outcomes focus on program and process models you can recreate in a form that fits with your own organization.

Diversity Issues – These sessions present information on new trends and themes influencing workplace diversity and offer practical information that can be applied in the workplace.

Strategy and Influence – The sessions in this track focus on making you more successful as a diversity champion in your organization by developing planning, reporting and business knowledge skills.

SPHR Attention SPHRs!
Sessions marked with this symbol are approved for strategic management credit hours for Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) recertification.
GPHR Attention GPHRs!
Sessions marked with this symbol fulfill the requirement for Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) recertification.


THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17

10:45 a.m. - Noon

Did I Hear You Say What I Think You Meant?
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This program provides you with practical skills that can enhance communication, reduce workplace conflict and effectively manage the conflicts that do arise.

How often does workplace conflict arise out of misunderstandings or misconceptions? More often than not. What we say, what we mean, and what others see and hear can be vastly different. It is these very differences that often underlie feelings and perceptions of exclusion that can lead to allegations of discrimination or harassment. Join this interactive program that blends theory, practical tips and interactive exercises that you can incorporate into your own "Inclusive Workplace" training.

Presenter: Christine V. Walters, MAS, JD, SPHR, independent consultant, FiveL Company, Glyndon, Md.


Backlash: When Religion and Sexual Orientation Clash
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: Useable techniques and skills for avoiding diversity backlash and ensuring an inclusive workplace by setting reasonable standards of behavior and expression for all employees.

What happens when religion and sexual orientation clash in the workplace? HR professionals struggle with balancing inclusion of historically oppressed groups (like the LGBTQ community) without marginalizing religious employees, who may feel ignored and challenges by initiatives that conflict with their beliefs. The resulting tensions can create a lose-lose situation for all. We will explore the boundaries of these tensions, examine the competing interests at stake and present some best practices to ensure supportive and civil work environments.

Presenter: Georgette Bennett, president, Tanenbaum Center, New York, N.Y.


Stereotype-Busting
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This session will enable you to better communicate with, and provide services to, diverse employees and customers, avoid harmful stereotyping, and respond to prejudiced comments in a way that educates rather than attacks.

How do you manage stereotyping in the workplace? Can you educate your employees about cultural diversity without resorting to blanket statements or caricatures? Is there a neutral "grain of truth" that we can identify in a particular stereotype, while at the same time, discouraging distorted thinking and rigid overgeneralizations? In this lively session, you will learn a more complex and nuanced approach to these issues, and concrete suggestions for addressing them in your workplace.

Presenter: Judith Kaye, JD, president, Judith Kaye Training and Consulting, Providence, RI

The Secrets of Recruiting and Retaining Generations X and Y
Track: Practitioner Exchange

Workplace Application: This presentation will equip you with the essential tools to be able to attract, motivate and retain Generation X and Y employees.

With the Baby Boomer Generation occupying 45% of the job market, it is expected that massive retirement is to soon occur. Generations X and Y are next in line to assume new responsibilities, but there are growing concerns that these generations are ill-equipped. This eye-opening presentation will discuss the myths and truths of what makes these generations "work." We'll uncover cost-effective ways to attract, motivate and retain Gen X and Y employees.

Presenter: Kate Wildrick, SPHR, human resources generalist, Ventura Foods, LLC, Portland, Ore.


Play BIG: Reach Your Potential
Track: Strategies and Influence

Workplace Application: This program teaches you to lead and communicate in a diverse world confidently, powerfully and courageously.

In order to gain support from top management for diversity programs you must first transform yourself and be prepared to confidently, powerfully and courageously communicate with top management. This interactive, experiential, laugh-with-gusto, learning program focuses on the FIVE behaviors that can hold you back and offers the strategies and tips to embrace the behaviors that can transform you to become the confident, powerful and courageous HR professional you want to be.

Presenter: Pegine Echevarria, author, speaker, TV personality, Team Pegine, Inc., Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.



SPHRThe Power of Measurement: Evaluating Your Diversity Success
Track: Strategies and Influence

Workplace Application: This session will describe how to define and collect powerful measures to help guide you in your diversity interventions.

In the inimitable words of Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you are going, chances are you will end up somewhere else." Diversity efforts in many organizations do not take advantage of powerful measurement tools to measure change in an organization over time, both in perception and in quantifiable gains for the business. This session will describe how to define and collect powerful measures to help guide you in your diversity interventions.

Presenter: Kathleen K. Lundquist, Ph.D., president, APT, Inc., Darien, Conn.


Mindful Matters: Inclusion Begins with Knowledge
Track: Diversity Issues (repeated Friday at 10:15 a.m.)

Workplace Application: In this enlightening workshop, Dr. Robbins will examine a key component in cultural competency-knowledge.

Knowledge shapes the way we perceive people and impacts our subsequent behavior. Without proper knowledge information and data about other people and other cultures, we are destined to be culturally incompetent. Don't miss Dr. Robbins' unique and insightful approach to understanding how we make mistakes when it comes to people who are different than us, and how we can prevent many of those mistakes. It starts with knowledge.

Presenter: Steve Robbins, Ph.D., chief "What If?" officer, S.L. Robbins & Associates, Grand Rapids, Mich.


Diversity Danger Zones and Best Practices
Track: Diversity Issues (repeated Saturday at 9:15 a.m.)

Workplace Application: This session focuses on diversity danger zones and includes "best practices" recommendations for how to avoid them.

We all know that achieving greater diversity is essential to an organization's success. But maximizing diversity is deceptively complex. Employers must navigate around legal, interpersonal and political minefields. Issues to be addressed include: How do you increase diversity without violating non-discrimination laws? How do you establish goals that do not have the reality or appearance of impermissible quotas?

Presenter: Jonathan A. Segal, Esq., partner, Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, Philadelphia, Pa.


3:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

GPHRDeveloping Globally Diverse Organizations
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This session will help you develop and broaden your diversity program into a globally dynamic curriculum.

Globalization is pushing diversity training beyond the traditional boundaries of race and gender. As companies integrate employees from other cultures, diversity training must evolve and adapt for organizations to become truly global. This session focuses on reformulating diversity training toward a model that empowers employees with the necessary tools to adapt and work effectively with diverse cultures.

Presenter: Mark Frederick, Ph.D., director, Global Performance Solutions, IOR Global Services, Riverside, Calif.


Managing the Many Wrinkles of the Aging Boom
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This presentation offers thought-provoking scenarios with practical tips for managing a diverse aging workforce and its multi-dimensional challenges.

Baby Boomers have changed HR contours for more than four decades. Now HR must make changes. Ready to: replace senior leader who heads south earlier than planned; avoid litigation when the jobs of employees with "satisfactory" evaluations move Far East; confront exceptional employee slowing with arthritis? There are 13,569 legal and countless business reasons to consider these and other scenarios. America's aging calls for strategic planning, problem solving, and risk management.

Presenter: Mitzi H. Martin, JD, attorney-at-law, Baker and Daniels, LLP, Indianapolis, Ind.


Are Your Company's Diversity Initiatives Driving You to Court?
Track: Strategies and Tools

Workplace Application: This program will you analyze your program's potential legal risks and seek appropriate guidance from in-house or external counsel to ensure compliance with the applicable laws and decrease the potential for costs to these programs associated with lawsuits.

Diversity initiatives are an integral part of our corporate programs, but these initiatives can land your company in court. Discrimination suits are on the rise, and diversity programs are a growing target. This program will analyze the applicable employment laws and discuss risk management practices to ensure your diversity initiatives fully comply with these laws. Attendees will receive tools to analyze potential risks in their own corporate diversity programs.

Presenter: Stuart A. Brock, CCM, JD, attorney, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, Charlotte, N.C.


Decoding Corporate "Fit": Empower Yourself and Advance Your Career
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This highly entertaining and interactive session will help you decode corporate culture and find a place where our style, abilities and attitude will be appreciated.

Based on extensive research, you can learn to recognize how Fit Factors are silently embedded in your organizational culture and learn to eliminate the barriers they create for you and your employees. Imagine that five candidates are up for a job and all of them are equally competent. Who will get the job? Such decisions often come down to a combination of informal criteria, which are called Fit Factors. The answers to the questions "Who do we comfortable with? Who seems most natural in the role? Who looks like a leader? Who communicates like us?" often lie in the organization's informal, unspoken rules and norms. Once you go beyond entry level, advancement and success depend on these rules and norms—yet few of us understand how to decode them. Fit In! is your decoder tool.

Presenter: Mark A. Williams, founder, MarkusWorks, Bethesda, Md.


Diversity Retention Strategies and Tools
Track: Practitioner Exchange

Workplace Application: This session will help you innovate what your organization does currently to retain talent and more importantly you'll walk away with the tools needed to execute a "Best in Class" retention strategy in a diverse and competitive workplace.

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole… So goes the old folk song refrain! Is there a hole in your organization? Are you spending resources recruiting and onboarding talent only to lose them far too soon? This session is your "wet-vac" solution. Learn the strategies successful organizations leverage to aid in retaining their top talent. Dry land is just ahead.

Presenter: Deborah Carey, diversity recruitment practice manager, DoubleStar, West Chester, Penn.


SPHRThe Diversity Scorecard: How to Strategically Measure Diversity Results
Track: Strategy and Influence (repeated Friday at 3:00 p.m.)

Workplace Application: This Diversity Scorecard presentation offers proven techniques and information that allows you to learn ways to develop Diversity Scorecards that are designed for performance and measurable results!

Many diversity professionals and others interested in diversity have asked: "How will we be able to demonstrate that diversity contributes to the organization's bottom line? How do we show senior executives and others that diversity is a strategic business partner that is aligned and linked to the strategic goals and objectives of the organization?" This session offers proven techniques and information that allows diversity professionals to learn ways to develop Diversity Scorecards that are designed for performance and measurable results!

Presenter: Dr. Edward E. Hubbard, president and CEO, Hubbard & Hubbard, Inc., St. George, Utah


SPHRStrategies to "Push" Diversity Initiatives to the Next Level in Your Organization
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: This session will engage you in discussing strategies to provide several frameworks that are relevant from multiple perspectives and applicable from implementation through maintenance of diversity initiatives.


This interactive session will explore tools and tips on how to strategically "push" the correct buttons in your organization and to move diversity initiatives forward, whether you are just devising a diversity strategy or moving to the next level. This session will cover all aspects of a diversity plan, including:
• Moving from compliance to commitment; gaining top management support;
• Leveraging generations to influence successful organizational practices; and
• Identifying and pushing the glass/bamboo ceiling to influence organizational change.

Presenter: Laraine Kaminsky, executive vice president, Graybridge Malkam, Ottawa, Canada


SPHRLeaders Who Get It!
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: This session will provide you with practical strategies for engaging leadership and keeping diversity on the forefront of the business agenda using the three-step model of connect, create and collaborate.

There is little question that leadership commitment is essential for a successful diversity strategy. And yet chief diversity officers lament that securing commitment at all leadership levels is their most difficult challenge. Based on the groundbreaking book CEO's Who Get It: Diversity Leadership from the Heart and Soul, this session will reveal guaranteed strategies for sustained leadership engagement from the c-suite to the shop floor.

Presenter: Mary-Frances Winters, president and CEO, The Winters Group, Inc., Cheltenham, Md.


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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19

10:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Can You Hear Me Now? Cross Gender Communications in the Workplace
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This presentation will help you improve cross-gender communications in the workplace by understanding differences in communication styles and adapting style to increased effectiveness.

"I heard what you said… But I'm not sure what you meant." One of the biggest workplace problems is the misunderstandings generated by miscommunication. And that problem is no more apparent than between the genders. It's not a matter of expecting men and women to communicate exactly the same way, but one of understanding the difference in gender-specific communication styles. In this presentation, you will learn how to bridge the business gender gap by discovering the real science behind gender differences. All attendees will leave with tools to go back to their workplace prepared to communicate at a higher level of effectiveness.

Presenter: Art Jackson, president and chief consultant, ENPM, Inc. Woodbridge, Va.



Understanding Emotional Intelligence & Skill-Based Diversity/Tolerance Program Design
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: Learn how to design your own Skill-Based Diversity/Tolerance Program that will boost the Emotional Intelligence of your workforce to ensure a happier, healthier and more productive work environment.

Most diversity programs fail… PERIOD. Why? Because most are "Culturally-Based." So, what is a "skill-based" program and why do they work? What skills must be included in the program? What is "Emotional Intelligence" and why is it a vital skill for your program? Come and unlearn what have learned about diversity/tolerance programs in the past so you too can build a successful skill-based program, foster a more emotionally intelligent and productive work environment.

Presenter: Scott Warrick, JD, MLHR, SPHR, president, Scott Warrick Human Resource Consulting, Employment Law and Training Services, Reynoldsburg, Ohio


Culturally-Targeted Mentoring Strategies for Diverse Employees

Track: Strategies and Tools

Workplace Application: You will be able to improve the effectiveness of your mentoring programs and can apply the same culturally-based concepts to performance evaluations and other employee development and retention tools.

While corporate mentoring programs are recognized as successful leadership development vehicles, they tend to be less effective with diverse employees. Often, this failure stems from cultural differences that set mentors apart from their mentees. In this workshop, attendees will: • Identify cultural differences that impact the mentoring process;
• Understand how your diverse employees can view leadership and career development; and
• Learn and practice culturally sensitive strategies to mentor your diverse employees more effectively.

Presenter: Graciela Kenig, president, Graciela Kenig & Associates, Glenview, Ill.


SPHRLeadership…Intentionally
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: Those with improved knowledge and skills in the area of leadership will be able to reduce complaints, marginalize conflict, and lessen attrition among a multitude of diverse colleagues, bosses and employees. Intentional leadership leads to intentional results!

Lead others to improved understanding, communication and performance. Five hundred management study participants have revealed that most, who are leading, are not as effective as they think; most who believe they have strong people skills are in denial; and the number of managers who can adapt their behaviors to the diverse work force equals 5%. Become an adaptable leader who intentionally, successfully, and effectively addressed the diverse needs of your workforce.

Presenter: Monica L. Wofford, president, Monica Wofford International, Inc., Orlando, Fla.


Mindful Matters: Inclusion Begins with Knowledge
Track: Diversity Issues (repeated from Monday at 10:45 a.m.)

Workplace Application: In this enlightening workshop, Dr. Robbins will examine a key component in cultural competency-knowledge.

Knowledge shapes the way we perceive people and impacts our subsequent behavior. Without proper knowledge information and data about other people and other cultures, we are destined to be culturally incompetent. Don't miss Dr. Robbins' unique and insightful approach to understanding how we make mistakes when it comes to people who are different than us, and how we can prevent many of those mistakes. It starts with knowledge.

Presenter: Steve Robbins, Ph.D., chief "What If?" officer, S.L. Robbins & Associates, Grand Rapids, Mich.


SPHRGet It Right The First Time: Making the Right Choices for the First Two Years Diversity Implementation
Track: Practitioner Exchange

Workplace Application: Learn how to initiate, implement and manage your diversity initiative from start-up through the first two years.

This session is for the diversity practitioner who wants to have practical, high-level overview of how to implement diversity within the corporation/organization. This session will establish the proper definition of diversity; and who should drive the initiative, identify the key differences between affirmative action and diversity. This session will also discuss a diversity business case, the strategic approach needed to ensure success, the pros and cons of metrics as well as practical metrics to gauge success.

Presenter: Mark K. Butler, manager, Diversity, Marathon Petroleum Company, Findlay, Ohio


SPHRLinking Generational Diversity to Engagement and Bottom-Line Performance: Evaluation Criteria
Track: Strategies and Tools

Workplace Application: The evaluation criteria allow you to assess whether your current people strategies and management practices engage all four generations.

The four generations (Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y) demonstrate different behaviors and expectations in the workplace. In order to fully engage each cohort, organizations have to acknowledge the differences, and respond by demonstrating organizational engagement. The generational differences will be highlighted and how cohort behaviors and expectations impact your ability to get, keep and grow all four generations will be discussed. Demonstrating organizational engagement (transparent, responsive, partnering) allows organizations to build and execute win-win strategies for all four generations.

Presenter: Adwoa K. Buahene, managing partner, n-gen People Performance Inc., Toronto, Canada


3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

GPHRFrom Chennai to Shanghai: Diversity Driving Business Results through Global Talent Management
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: This session provides you with an innovative framework for examining complex regional differences, languages, educational backgrounds and other diversity variables and their impact on global performance management.

Managing global talent has become a critical success factor for corporations that are extending their global reach as well as their size. As companies expand rapidly into India, China and other key world markets, HR leaders are presented with complex Global Talent Management challenges and opportunities. Specific strategies are explored for applying an innovative framework to attract, retain, engage and develop the best talent globally.

Presenter: Anita Zanchettin, chief learning officer and director, Global Diversity and Inclusion, Aperian Global, San Francisco, Calif.



What Works and What Doesn't to Successfully Engage White Men in Diversity and Inclusion Efforts
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: You will gain a clearer understanding about what you can do in your organization to more effectively engage white men in diversity and inclusion efforts.

White men and diversity are often practiced as an oxymoron. Many white men can feel alienated or even threatened by diversity efforts. This session will examine some of the current best practices to bring white men into full partnership with white women and men and women of color to lead vibrant and successful diversity and inclusion efforts. We'll look at what it will take both personally and organizationally to practice full inclusion.

Presenter: Bill Proudman, managing partner, WMFDP, LLC, Portland, Ore.


SPHRThe Diversity Scorecard: How to Strategically Measure Diversity Results
Track: Strategy and Influence (repeated from Thursday at 3:15 p.m.)

Workplace Application: This Diversity Scorecard presentation offers proven techniques and information that allows you to learn ways to develop Diversity Scorecards that are designed for performance and measurable results!

Many diversity professionals and others interested in diversity have asked: "How will we be able to demonstrate that diversity contributes to the organization's bottom line? How do we show senior executives and others that diversity is a strategic business partner that is aligned and linked to the strategic goals and objectives of the organization?" This session offers proven techniques and information that allows diversity professionals to learn ways to develop Diversity Scorecards that are designed for performance and measurable results!

Presenter: Dr. Edward E. Hubbard, president and CEO, Hubbard & Hubbard, Inc., St. George, Utah



Diverse Talent Life Cycle Management
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: You will receive specific information and tools that will prepare you to better manage your diverse talent.


This session seeks to lay out a model that more comprehensively links to world of the executive recruiter (or head hunter) and the world of management consultancies in a way that will help organizations, of any size, achieve a greater degree of business success in both areas. This session will introduce the concept referred to as "Diverse Talent Life Cycle Management." This concept links both diversity recruitment and the effective management of the diverse workforce. This session will identify the six steps included in this concept.

Presenter: Eric Ellis, president and CEO, Integrity Development, West Chester, Ohio


Diversity Without Excuses
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: This session will allow you to effectively communicate the "diversity imperative" throughout your organization's management structure.

Diversity Without Excuses will provide a dramatic catalyst that will allow your organization's diversity initiative to grow as never before. We give you the information through "we can't find any" and provide strategies to remove obstacles, and truly engage senior management in your diversity effort. If you don't know how, are fatigued, or simply looking for a different perspective, this session will provide the answers.

Presenter: Joe Watson, CEO, Without Excuses & StrategicHire, Reston, Va.


Unity in the Community: The New Paradigm for Valuing Differences
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This session will share and discuss the concept of "unity" as a vehicle to truly leverage differences.

As we have seen the diversity industry advance with sophistication, not frequently have we heard the word unity mentioned as an outcome of our efforts. When we truly leverage differences and empower people, we create unity in a lasting way that produces powerful results. Unity is that state of operating when the best of all our people are able to flourish into meaningful ideas. We are moving from in the house to "valuing the neighborhood".

Presenter: Doug Harris, leader/managing director, The Kaleidoscope Group, LLC, Chicago, Ill.


SPHRMaking Space for Everyone: The Diversity Journey at NASA Goddard
Track: Practitioner Exchange

Workplace Application: This presentation will outline the essential elements of an effective Diversity program.

This session will address the importance of aligning diversity initiatives with overall business strategy and the link between diversity and mission success. Starting with an overview of Goddard, Ms. Won will share insights of their diversity journey and the essential elements of the Goddard Diversity Program. Lastly, she will describe three flagship activities at the Center that are key to creating and sustaining an equitable and inclusive work environment.

Presenter: Sharon W. Wong, special assistant for diversity, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.



SPHRAccomplishing Your Strategic Goals through Diversity and Strategic Alignment
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: By utilizing diversity to create strategic alignment, organizations will experience a greater return on its investment while accomplishing all of its strategic goals.

In this fast-paced, highly interactive session, participants will learn how to strategically align the organization's goals with the actual daily activities of its diverse population. An understanding will be gained for involving multiplicity while utilizing a range and assortment of individual talents within the organization, creating a diverse population thus facilitating a synergistic organizational mixture. The focus is to align organizations' diversity and work to create the greatest possible return on organizational investment.

Presenter: Jon L. Walker, professional registered trainer, J. Walker Enterprises, Fresno, Texas

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20

9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Top Ten Issues that Employees in the Minority Encounter that Everyone Should Know About
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This session provides practical strategies for creating inclusive cultures in the workplace.

This session will create awareness about the issues that professionals in the minority encounter in the workplace. Based on interviews with a range of professionals who self-identified as minorities, the results showed that while minorities encounter similar experiences, Generations X & Y respond differently than their predecessors. This session facilitates an understanding and an awareness of how behavior is perceived by others and how it can interfere with a productive work environment.

Presenter: Natalie Holder-Winfield, diversity and employment law consultant, QUEST Educational Initiatives, Stamford, Conn.


Overcoming Barriers to Diversity: Analyzing Your Organization; Crafting Your Approach
Track: Practitioner Exchange

Workplace Application: As a result of this session, you will learn to apply a tool and a method you can use within your own organizations to diagnose barriers to diversity and to craft more powerful diversity initiatives.

Too often, diversity initiatives, though implemented in good faith, fall short of their goals. Underneath any diversity initiative are tacit assumptions about the barriers to achieving a diverse workforce. These tacit assumptions, though driving the diversity initiative, are seldom deeply examined. In this session, you will be given a tool and a method to examine the barriers to diversity in your organizations and to ensure that your diversity initiatives/interventions match the barriers to diversity that exist within your organizations.

Presenter: Hannah Rudstam, Ph.D., training director, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York


Free to Be… You and Me
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: This session will provide real-world examples from organizations that have successfully created more inclusive environments that have facilitated the integration of persons with disabilities into the fabric of their workplaces.

A truly inclusive diversity program is a crucial ingredient for attracting, developing and retaining a talented workforce, and building a reputation as an organization of choice. John will explore the development of diversity initiatives with a focus on integrating persons with disabilities (PwD) into the workplace and the removal of barriers for employees who become disabled. His first-hand experiences and current work in inclusion of PwD into the banking and hospitality industry will be highlighted as "best practices".

Presenter: John C. Dorland, senior associate, Graybridge Malkam, Ontario, Canada


Diversity 101: Shifting Our Paradigms
Track: Practitioner Exchange

Workplace Application: What does diversity mean? Nothing. We must examine how we look at the issues of diversity in a different way.

This session is designed to do just that – to help you look at "diversity" from a different angle. The systems and institutions that oppress people are not our fault; however, we must take responsibility to dismantle in effective systems in order to build equity for all. We must move from looking at diversity to moving toward cultural competence in our organizations. Anoka County has implemented the cultural competence model and has found great improvement in how it's staff has changed its thoughts about diversity and diversity training. This highly interactive session will leave participants with goals and action plans to take back to their organizations.

Presenter: Andre Koen, cultural coordinator, County of Anoka, Anoka, Minn.


SPHRIncreasing Your Workplace Diversity Initiatives: Using data to make your case and to show your competitiveness
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: This session will provide diversity professionals with practical and credible methods to strengthen the impact and competitiveness of the diversity initiatives within your organization.

Workplace diversity initiatives are not given priority at many organizations. Oftentimes, unless there is a crisis or attention-grabbing public relations debacle, workplace diversity sometimes lacks a champion from the company's senior leadership. How does your company stack up in comparison to other companies when it comes to diversity initiatives? What are the typical diversity-related activities across organizations? What's the outlook for the future of workplace diversity? Walk away with data that will reveal what companies are doing and saying, and learn ten strategies to make your business case for more workplace diversity initiatives with more support from your leadership.

Presenter: Steve Williams, Ph.D., SPHR, director of research, Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Va.


Recruiting the Best and Brightest Regardless of Their Cultural Backgrounds
Track: Diversity Issues

Workplace Application: Attending this session will help you modify the recruitment and selection process of your organization so that the best candidates get the job regardless of their cultural backgrounds.

The recruitment and selection process of many organizations results in the rejection of many qualified, culturally different candidates for reasons that are not related to their ability to do the job. This presentation analyzes why this happens and proposes tips and suggestions to HR professionals who want to ensure that their organizations hire the best and brightest—regardless of their cultural backgrounds.

Presenter: Lionel Laroche, president, Multicultural Business Solutions, Inc., Toronto, Canada


Leveraging Diversity and Employee Productivity
Track: Strategy and Influence

Workplace Application: At the end of this session, you will talk away with a focused plan of action to address an immediate situation in your workplace.

Employees have a high performance ratio that leaders must tap into which will result in a dramatic success on the job. Leaders must learn to leverage the differences to drive optimum behaviors and achieve the levels of personal effectiveness. This session will offer solutions to help you work with anyone at any time. Four leadership strategies will be identified that will allow you to leverage differences and create influence.

Presenter: Hattie Hill, CEO, Hattie Hill Enterprises, Inc., Dallas, Texas


Diversity Danger Zones and Best Practices
Track: Diversity Issues (repeated from Thursday at 10:45 a.m.)

Workplace Application: This session focuses on diversity danger zones and includes "best practices" recommendations for how to avoid them.

We all know that achieving greater diversity is essential to an organization's success. But maximizing diversity is deceptively complex. Employers must navigate around legal, interpersonal and political minefields. Issues to be addressed include: How do you increase diversity without violating non-discrimination laws? How do you establish goals that do not have the reality or appearance of impermissible quotas?

Presenter: Jonathan A. Segal, Esq., partner, Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, Philadelphia, Pa.

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