Objectives

In the past ten years, the workforce has changed dramatically. More than ever, a workplace is a diverse collection of individuals proud of who they are: their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, their ethnic background, and all the other components that make an individual unique. In order for your workplace to succeed, your employees must be able to appreciate and celebrate those differences.

Benefits

• Understand what diversity and its related terms mean
• Be aware of your place in diversity and where you can improve
• Understand how changes in the world have affected you and your view
• Be able to identify your stereotypes
• Understand what terms are politically correct and which are not, and why
• Be familiar with the four cornerstones of diversity
• Understand what the pitfalls of relating to diversity are and understand how to avoid them
• Develop a technique for dealing with inappropriate behavior
• Develop a management style to encourage diversity
• Know what to do if you or one of your employees feels discriminated against

Outline

• What diversity and related terms mean
• How has diversity changed your world?
• Understanding and identifying stereotypes
• Using politically correct language
• The four cornerstones of diversity
• The STOP technique
• How to discourage diversity
• Dealing with discrimination
• Preventing discrimination
• Managing for diversity

Facilitator Profile

Dr Thomas Koo is currently Head of a Singapore Quality Award organization and has more than 15 years of extensive experience in both the private and public education and training sector. Presently, he is also lecturing in renowned university degree programs in Singapore.

He has trained students from various industry backgrounds in certificate, diploma and degree programs levels as well as adult learners. Dr Koo specializes in business subjects including Business Management; International Marketing; International Business; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Communications, Economics; General Management; Marketing; Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, and Small Business Management.

Consistently rated highly by students, he has nurtured top students in every cohort and has won the ‘Best Trainer Award’ thrice.

Dr Thomas Koo’s industry credentials include strategic and advisory roles with Informatics Holdings Ltd and the Altron Education Group in areas of program and business development; courseware development, international franchisee training, articulation and credit transfer with overseas universities, global brand building for the Thames franchise system; franchise training and support for new and existing franchisees, centre setup and advising, testing and certification, and served as Vice Dean in the School of Business School and member of Academic Advisory Board. He was responsible for the regional expansion of the International Division and the financial aspect of all the centers locally and overseas including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Dr Thomas Koo has led teams to win national and international competitions such as the “Best Overseas Virtual Enterprise” in the Hong Kong International Trade Fair; 2 Gold Awards in the National Innovation Quality Circle in 2006 and 2008 for an educational simulation software developed in-house; and winning “Voter’s Choice Award” and “1st Runner-Up Award” in the INNOVATE IT Challenge organized by the Singapore Management University.

He has also contributed to the Higher Education scene by serving as a judge for the Start-up@Singapore National Business Plan Competition by NUS to evaluate Business Plans since 2006.

In his current organization, Dr Koo has been awarded the “Outstanding Facilitator Award” for Productivity & Innovation; “College Commendations Awards” for Entrepreneurship Development and the INNOVA Award for leading in learning and innovation.

He is currently teaching Organization Change Management in Edinburgh Napier University’s degree programme. Most of the students enrolled in this degree programme are HR professionals.