The invisible enemy in the diversity and inclusion struggle is resistance in the form of the status quo. This elusive foe reinforces that our role as diversity and inclusion trainers is one of social change agent.
 
You are either leading or trailing when it comes to leading change when it comes to inclusion. So, get in front of it. Remember, if you are not changing hearts and minds regarding diversity and inclusion, then you are coming up short as a trainer. If you take the lead for the change that inclusion delivers, it will take you to places that you have never been before.
 
Marshall Goldsmith a leadership coach has 2 recommendations for trainers when it comes to change. What got us here as trainers will not get us there. That is Lesson 1. Lesson 2 is what got us here will not keep us here.
 
Your adult learners will question the change that inclusion demands as well. It is not that they are resistant to this change. They are just committed to something else. Your job as a trainer is to get them to develop a bigger story for themselves where they have the starring role.
 
I always try to remember there are 3 truths at play in telling the diversity and inclusion change narrative. Your truth, the truth of your students and the truth. Your job as a trainer is to merge these competing versions of truth into our truth.
 
I try to stay grounded to my calling as a change agent in my role of trainer by remembering the words of Woody Harrelson who played Rex Wells in the movie, The Glass Castle. This flick chronicles Wells as a father who takes his family from town to town living in abandoned buildings and abject poverty. Wells tells his oldest daughter, “You were born to change the world, not just add to the noise.” This is our job description as diversity and inclusion trainers. Go big or go home.
 
There is an art to leading change. David Clarke, a global chief experience officer with PricewaterhouseCoopers, a professional services network suggests there are distinct skills that change agents must master.
 
You better be a high performer as a diversity and inclusion change agent with the best interests of the organization at heart. No one and I mean no one will take you seriously as a change agent if you cannot deliver the bacon on your end. If you are breaking things up, you better have the talent and skills to put things back together again for an improved outcome. High potential and high performance translate into people taking you seriously as a change agent.
 
Change is not about hearing yourself talk but making the organization better. Allow confirmation bias to work for you as you attach your ideas and suggestions to things that are in the best interest of the people you are training. Highlight how your plans advance the aspirations of those you seek to influence.
 
Remember that a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down. Social change agents bite on people and then they blow on the wounds. Remind yourself that everyone is prone to negativity. They will hear your change message initially in an adverse fashion. Frame your change lesson in a way that avoid unnecessary negative emotional overreactions in the people you seek to persuade to your cause. Don’t get shot down before you have a chance to stand up.  Your byline should be nothing personal, this is about the business of making each other better. You may never win the Miss Congeniality award as a trainer, but you may end up in the long run as your team’s most valuable player.
 
You must first make the argument that the current state of diversity and inclusion is not acceptable. This is the reason for your existence as a trainer, to disrupt business as usual because you are taking your people to another level. Secondly, you must help your adult learners visualize what a different diversity and inclusion condition looks like and how a different work environment can help themselves, their colleagues and their customers. Finally, you must show your audience how we are going to get to that preferred situation. What steps are you going to articulate to your group that will get them moving toward a new vision for diversity and inclusion?
 
Research by G.V. Goddard, a New Zealand Professor of Psychology, backs up this claim that real learning must translate into action. He claimed that people will forget 75% of the information they receive in a training within 48 hours unless they immediately apply what they learn.
 
I like the way Jana Anders from Emerging Leadership frames our daunting tasks as diversity and inclusion trainers of putting our training money where our mouth is. (1) How do we make a rational case to our customers and hook them on an emotional level; (2) How do we pull our people along this difficult road by understanding their resistance and (3) How do we take control of this discussion by laying out a clear roadmap that adjusts to the present-day challenges of our workplaces that get us on the path to action.
 
I call it the trinity of embracing change for diversity and inclusion: (1) Hook them with a heartset by starting with the heart; (2) Equip them with a mindset by engaging their brains and (3) Motivate their execution by using their hands.
 
Convince them to want to do diversity and inclusion instead of being told to be diverse and inclusive. To embrace the recognition of differences not to earn a reward or avoid a punishment but to accept differences because it is the right thing to do for themselves, the taxpayers and the agency.
 
Move them from persuasion which is temporary to influence which is permanent. The key is to pull them and not push them by making learning a habit rather than a chore.
 
Remember, inclusion does not knock us on the head. It tickles our hearts and enlarges our souls. It requires us to hang a vacancy sign within ourselves that says “Come on in, we are open for business?