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

I´m working as a working student at a German company. In my department, I´m the only foreigner. But I always feel inclusive in the team. In other departments, We also have other employees who come from different countries with different educational backgrounds. Nobody is isolated. We paid a lot of attention to equality and diversity. Everyone respects and values everyone else.

in my idea, diversity is a good idea. because it makes us to be challenge in many ways. i'm working in a car manufacturing company and There is diversity here in many ways such as age, skill , sex. but there is not different nationality here and i don't know if that's a good idea or not?!

Everyone is different where I'm. I'm from Azerbaijan and we have so many different nationalities, peoples who are the part of each other and Azerbaijan in our country. And that feels so good. Think there're so many langugages that are used by different peoples, so many cultural traditions, dishes and so on. That feel cool.

I'm working in a place where diversity is a little bit not acceptable and it seen like a insubordination because I'm soldier and i must perform an odrers without discusion but in my opinion this is good in this specific "company" becouse where is too many chief there is a little indians (to perform an orders)

In my workplace, often, my company recruitment diversity about ages, sex, cultural identity, nationality..., I think this quite interesting, bring a lot of things worth learning. For example the experience of everyone. And diversity about language skills. Create innovation in the company.

I am still a school student and i live in Saudi Arabia . Here in Saudi Arabia it's quite diverse in our school. We have students from different countries like India, Pakistan and me being a Bangladeshi.

I am still a university student, but I worked before in my country. There was, in fact, no diversity in my teamwork because we were working in a small-sized company and all of the staff were at the same age, nationality, and religion. But I think diversity in the workplace has a lot of benefits, although it is challenging for the team member to cope with differences. In other words, diversity makes innovation and creativity in the work and the problems can be solved with the help of different ideas originated from the source of diversity.

very good, but i need to know the specific meaning of inclusion in this comprehension.

Hello Mr.hanymabrok,

Inclusion here means being a part of the team or group and not being isolated or marginalised. If an organisation is inclusive then it welcomes people from any background and does not exclude them, and tries to be broad-based in terms of personnel and approach.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Diversity is good if you can find common values to keep them together