Building Alliances Across Differences for Organizational Change and Equity Workshop

Many organizations worldwide are grappling with both the opportunities and the challenges of working with the differences that arise in increasingly multicultural and diverse organizations. In order to initiate and create sustainable organizational change, coalitions and alliances between diverse groups is often needed.

However, we have learned that these alliances are challenging to build and sustain. The demand for strategies and approaches for working across social identity and cultural differences is urgent. In our work with change agents, we have found great interest in exploring and enhancing both the understanding of the processes and tools for building successful allliances and coalitions for organizational change.

In June 2002, CGO convened a group of approximately 35 practitioners and scholars for a workshop entitled Building Alliances Across Differences for Organizational Change and Equity.

The objectives of the workshop were:

  • to discuss and expand on learnings gathered by CGO during the previous three years of work on the theme of building alliances across differences for organizational change and equity;
  • to provide opportunities to apply the lessons from our collective thinking to concrete situations faced by change agents in their work;
  • to advance our understanding of skills and practical actions for working across differences and building successful alliances and coalitions.

As a starting point, CGO distributed a briefing note on its learnings on working across differences. CGO began the workshop by presenting learnings that described a “Stance for Working Across Differences,” which included the requirements to have both a commitment to connecting and an appreciation of the simultaneity of identity. CGO also articulated some “Skills and Practical Actions” for working across differences that address: power equalization and empowerment; changing discourses, language, and voice; diagnosing problems in working across differences; and sequencing and managing the process of building alliances.

The group explored the possibilities and limitations of the “stance” for building alliances for change and equity within work organizations. Participants worked in small groups to develop guidelines or tools that support building alliances for organizational change and equity.

 

Filed under CGO Events
View all news & events for June 2002