A team meeting about diversity

Listen to a team meeting about diversity to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Nina: As you know, our team has grown a lot in the past year and we feel we need to address the diversity in the team.

Brenda: How do you mean, 'address the diversity'?

Nina: Well, we all know that diversity in teams is a good thing, but it can also be a challenge for some people to respect and value people's differences. We've got a really diverse team here – people of different nationalities, backgrounds, religions, ages … and sometimes I don't feel we make the most of this.

Stefano: Yes, and even if it isn't specifically challenging, many people are simply unaware of the isolation that some team members may feel because they are different.

Brenda: So, what does this mean? What are we going to do?

Nina: Well, we need to create a workplace charter. You know, one that promotes equality, diversity and inclusion.

Brenda: That sounds like a good idea. But will people just see it as something the management team has created? Maybe they won't even pay attention to it.

Nina: I know. That's why we're going to involve everyone in creating it.

Stefano: That's a good idea. We could run some workshops and get ideas from the employees about how we can create a more inclusive workplace.

Nina: Exactly. I was thinking that before that we could run some team-building sessions so they can experience the value of diversity for themselves.

Brenda: Yes, I like that. Many people see diversity as something negative, often because there are different opinions or ways of doing things.

Nina: Yes, I know, but if there's no diversity, then the risk is that we all work in the same way, think the same and see the world the same. This makes it hard to be creative and to innovate.

Stefano: I completely agree, Nina. OK. So, what do you want us to do?

Nina: Stefano, can you look for a successful trainer who specialises in running workshops and team-building sessions on diversity and inclusion?

Stefano: Sure. I'll be happy to.

Nina: And Brenda, can you find a fun venue? Somewhere that is quite diverse itself. Something that's not the usual seminar-style environment?

Brenda: Sure. That'll be fun.

Nina: And I'm going to do some further research into how other organisations are benefiting from their diversity. I can share this with the whole team.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

How diverse is your workplace? How can diversity benefit your team?

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Language level

B1 - Intermediate

Topics

equality and diversity

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In order to solve a problem there are so many different ways, But how can you catch them? I think we need different people with different attitudes and background who inform us. Nowdays, the most expensive good is information. You can find it by 2 ways: 1) studing book, 2) consultation with others, specifically others with different attitude.

In my workplace, there are colleagues from different ethnic groups, religions and locations. As you know, there are more than three hundreds ethnic groups in Myanmar. We could learn to different traditional natures and cultures, beliefs, aspects, feelings and many many etc.

In my work place there are not a lot of cases of physical diversity but there are a lot of cases of psycological diversity, we are totally different in ideas, beliefs, behaviours,etc. wich are more difficult to deal with.

In my organization diversity and inclusion environment are welcome, but it is not enough. There is a set of differences that are not considered. The gender gap does not exist, we are the same number of male and female. But there are no disabled or elderly, for example.

Good exercise, it helps me a lot to improve my English level

In my organization promotes a diversity and inclusion environment, understanding it is a good way to achieve the goals.

I think that it might be vital to create diversity in the workplace environment, because we can have interesting ideas and opinions from many people who have differences in gender, ethnicity, religion and nationality. This can give advantages to make business more optimal and favourable

In my workplace, there is some diversity such as sex, knowledge, religion, etc. I think the diversity can benefit my team because we can make the best idea from the different people.