I know. This saying may exclude on the basis of faith, but it fits perfectly with what I want to talk about today. The choir, it is argued, already "gets it", they are in church every Sunday, singing their hearts out. So preaching to the choir means addressing the people who don't really need the message, because they already get it. That is debatable, of course, but that's the premise.

I spent the morning at the Skills For Change http://www.diversityatwork.org/ conference. One of the key areas of focus was Foreign Trained Professionals, and the difficulty (still) getting work in Canada. I was late for the keynote by John Tory, but the panel discussion on diversity and social innovation was very informative. I have one beef, but I'll get to that in another post.  At lunch we heard from Dr. Eric Hoskins - our provincial Citizenship & Immigration Minister. He made a very real and inspiring speech. Hurray! Someone in politics gets it!

Here's the problem:
The problem with these conferences (I've been to a few now) is that invariably, the people who are there, get it already. As I looked around the room there were heads nodding and murmurs of agreement throughout the panel discussion. Conferences about diversity attract people with an interest. And then we sit around talking about what needs to happen, why it's not happening, and what we are doing and how things have changed.

So maybe we feel a little better (or more jaded) and we go back to our workplaces and continue the struggle.

I'm not knocking the conference at all! The morning was informative, and as we discussed at lunch, the afternoon break-out sessions were designed to provide those in attendance (who "get it") with some concrete skills to take back with them, to move the  agenda forward. That is amazing.

What I wish, though, is that we would find a way to launch ourselves into environments and groups of people who don't "get it", and have these conversations. That's where we need to be.

Anyone?

See more.
(c) 2011 Annemarie Shrouder