Expanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s REACH

In the first four years of Paradigm’s existence, we equipped more than 50,000 people on six continents with strategies to cultivate more diverse, inclusive organizations through our in-person workshops. In the coming months, we’ll reach nearly double that number of people with our newest training offering.

We’re not doing this by cloning our amazing consultants (though we are hiring!). Instead, we’re expanding our impact by bringing our workshops online with our new eLearning suite—Paradigm REACH.

Why Now?

For companies that care about hiring great people and building best-in-class cultures, the stakes have never been higher when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). As a part of comprehensive DEI strategies, organizations of all sizes, across industries, and around the world are eager to upskill employees through effective training that goes beyond just checking a box. They know that bad diversity training is worse than no diversity training and want their programs to have real impact. They recognize that valuing diversity, managing bias, and fostering inclusion are critical skills for every employee, whether they’re interacting with customers in a store, building your products, moving your inventory across the country, or leading the company. But effectively engaging every employee is a huge challenge.

While our clients have been eager to deliver training to their entire workforces for years, reaching everyone in-person is simply not scalable. So, we challenged ourselves—how do we take the best of what we’ve learned over the last four years and create an online offering that combines the interactivity of in-person workshops, the accessibility of online training, and the sophistication of executive learning programs? And how do we make sure any employee, anywhere, is successfully equipped to build and foster a more inclusive workplace?

About REACH

We knew we wanted to create something different than existing online diversity trainings. We wanted to create something that engages employees with relevant content, inspires them to take action, gives them the tools the need to be successful “offline”, and makes them part of a learning community committed to DEI.

REACH is an eLearning Suite designed to do all of these things, combining video modules, animations, quizzes, polls, opportunities for self-reflection, and discussion guides and resources that enable employees to continue their learning offline.

The courses can be delivered to any employee on their device of choice, anywhere, anytime. The content and branding can be customized, and trainings can be delivered using an organization’s own Learning Management System (LMS).

Rest assured, our in-person workshops are here to stay (and more popular than ever)! REACH simply makes it easier for our clients to deliver impactful training to more people. Now, companies can easily embed DEI training into their onboarding program to upskill new employees right away, they won’t have to close shop to train customer-facing employees, and they can easily reach those who are on the road. As workforces become increasingly distributed, every employee can have the same foundation regardless of their physical location.

When Can I Get It?

The first Paradigm Reach course—Inclusion at Work—is relevant for employees at all levels. It addresses the importance of diversity and inclusion, provides tips to recognize and manage unconscious bias in work-specific contexts, and helps everyone build skills to foster a more inclusive workplace.

It’s currently being piloted by several global companies and will be available this Summer. If you’re interested in learning more, we’d love to chat! Just sign up on our REACH early access page and we’ll be in touch soon.

UPDATE: There’s more REACH news! Read the follow up post, and take a first look at the DEI elearning program.

May 23, 2019

If you're interested in more information on Paradigm Reach, contact us today!