Listen to understand. Lead inclusively.
Globalization and technology have created an increasingly diverse workplace. Leaders must be able to communicate in a way that ensures both comprehension and inclusion with audiences from a variety of cultures who bring different perspectives . However, the strategies to navigate these conversations effectively are not always intuitive.
Leaders may unintentionally cause offense to colleagues because we are not aware of our own biases, we aren't knowledgeable about potential sensitivities of others, or when in situations where we don’t know what to say so we keep quiet. Inclusive leaders must understand the possible impact of their communication--that insensitivity deflates enthusiasm and that silence also communicates a message. The Inclusive Communication: Fostering Belonging (virtual) program will introduce you to communication skills that will enable you to successfully navigate conversations on culturally-sensitive topics.
Who Should Attend?
Business professionals in middle to senior management across an organization, including Human Resources management, and those introducing or expanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives within their department, business unit, or organization, will find the tools provided in Inclusive Communication: Fostering Belonging (virtual) to be invaluable. Designed for professionals who want to contribute to creating inclusive work environments. this program teaches practical ways to navigate conversations on culturally sensitive topics. Participants will have opportunities to reflect on their experiences and consider ways they can proactively create and cultivate a work culture where teammates truly belong.
More about this program
This is a three-session executive education course based on material taught to Duke graduate business students. It focuses on inclusive leadership and communication strategies, and is open to individuals as well as members of diverse teams that want to contribute to creating an inclusive team environment.
These interactive sessions will include videos, polls, cases, and role plays and serve as a laboratory for you to develop and refine the skills required to demonstrate inclusive leadership. Participants will have readings and video-viewings prior to each class discussion of communications strategies and best practices.
Before each class session, participants should review assigned materials (articles, cases, and videos). These pre-class activities take less than one hour per session. We ask that these be done before the class session in order to facilitate a richer discussion.
To participate in this course you will need to have a working webcam, built in or attached, and have downloaded the Zoom Cloud Meeting app onto your laptop.
If you have any questions about this requirement, call the Duke Executive Education team at +1.919.660.8011 or Toll Free +1.800.372.3932, or email us at execed-info@duke.edu.
The many upsides of creating a culture where all of your employees can thrive are often overlooked in organizations and even in small teams. Diversity brings an array of benefits, such as increased innovation, improved problem-solving, more productive collaboration, and surfacing of new ideas that otherwise would not have come to light. However, to reap these benefits, your organization needs to maintain and build trust with both internal and external stakeholders. When your employees feel respected, appreciated, and valued, their engagement with their team or with the organization increases as does their commitment to success.
To achieve this, you will need to listen for the values and emotions of your stakeholders, foster open communication about diversity issues, and understand your own, possibly subconscious, attitudes and behaviors, and keep them in check. Inclusive Communication: Fostering Belonging (virtual) is designed to provide you with a set of skills to create an environment where diversity will enhance your team's performance.
Learning Objectives
Foundations for Inclusive Communication
- Learn how to establish ground rules that create psychologically safe and inclusive environments.
- Develop tools to engage in meaningful dialogue rather than debate, even if you don't fully understand or agree with the opposing viewpoints.
Micro-Behaviors Contribute to Organizational Climate
- Understand the impact of micro-behaviors (positive and negative) on team culture and climate
- Determine and practice effective strategies to address micro-aggressions, respond when you're offended, and deploy micro-affirmations.
Allyship and Language
- Learn to listen with empathy and convey concern in ways that are perceived as supportive.
- Determine what allyship means for you and develop strategies to signal you're an ally.
Program Objectives
Over three sessions as a participant in the program, you will take away the following:
- Learn techniques for facilitating dialogues about diversity
- Understand the complexity of conversations around culture
- Recognize a range of micro-behaviors that impact organizational climate
- Develop strategies for addressing micro-aggressions and deploying micro-affirmations
- Cultivate the skills to think critically about words and their meaning
- Be able to demonstrate communication skills required to lead inclusive teams
Sample Schedule
Session 1
Foundations for Inclusive Communication
- Establish ground rules for inclusive teams
- Understand our own experiences and world view
- Differentiate impact and intent
- Develop tools for dialogue rather than debate
Session Duration: 2:45 hours
Session 2
Micro-Behaviors Contribute to Organizational Climate
- Identify the role of micro-behaviors on team culture and climate
- Recognize Micro-aggressions, how the best intentions can sometimes go awry
- Determine and practice effective strategies to address micro-aggressions
- Deploy Micro-affirmations and understand their power and impact
Session Duration: 2:30 hours
Session 3
Allyship and Language
- Learn to listen with empathy
- Determine what allyship means for you
- Signal you're an ally
- Understand the impact of word choice, language, and pronouns
Session Duration: 2:45 hours
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Contact Details
Duke Executive Education
100 Fuqua Drive
Durham, NC 27708-0120 USA
Office Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Faculty
Daisy Lovelace
Daisy Lovelace is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She teaches leadership and communication and is committed to creating inclusive teams and organizations. Her professional interests include leadership, inclusive excellence, interpersonal communication, crisis management, persuasion, and influence. In addition to live instruction, she teaches short courses on the LinkedIn Learning platform. She earned her doctorate from the University of Virginia. In addition to teaching at Duke, she has held faculty posts at Indiana University-Bloomington, Princeton University, Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of Virginia.
How to Register
For more information about how to register, please see our detailed instructions.
Frequently Asked Questions
For additional information about our Executive Education programming, please visit our FAQ page.
Be intentional. Be authentic. Be a change agent.
Diversity can be a great force for organizations. Academic research and corporate business reports are replete with studies that associate diversity with greater innovation, superior decision-making, better business strategies, and improved financial performances. Once viewed as tangential to the principal tenets of business operations, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are now publicly acclaimed as organizational priorities, as companies increasingly recognize that a diverse workforce can help them to facilitate a competitive advantage in their respective industries. However, despite the public declarations, social inequity persists across countless organizations and corporations. What is the disconnect?
The Leadership, Diversity, and Race (virtual) program critically examines the issues facing organizations who aspire to capitalize on the synergies of a diverse workforce, and how barriers such as implicit bias and systemic racism can sometimes prevent this from occurring. In our supportive virtual classroom environment, you'll gain an in-depth understanding of how focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion can enhance your organization and team goals, and also gain insight into tools that can help dismantle any barriers that may prohibit your organization’s ability to do so. We will explore the latest research, discuss best practices, and reflect on how you can make a significant impact when navigating and leveraging diversity, equity, and inclusion in your organization.
Who Should Attend?
Business leaders at middle to senior organizational levels, HR management, and those initiating or expanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts within an organization will benefit from Leadership, Diversity and Race (virtual). This program will assist managers who deal with team members, co-workers, or direct reports different from them racially and who want to create a more inclusive and equitable work environment. Others who observe barriers to career growth created by systemic racism in their own company but do not have direct responsibility for, or control of, these practices will gain tools to use in influencing a change in their firm. Being a racially-sensitive leader today requires that you are:
- Knowledgeable about the different experiences people from different races have in the workplace and how disparities are perpetuated in an organizational culture
- Understand the barriers to career growth that some employees have to overcome as a result of implicit bias, stereotypes, and prejudice
- Able to engage in authentic conversations about diversity, race, and systemic racism in the workplace
- Equipped to combat the adverse effects of racism in the workplace.
More about this program
If you are committed to establishing or elevating an inclusive work environment for your business unit, your teams, and your co-workers, this virtual course will provide you with tools to increase awareness of issues in your existing workplace, identify steps you can take to provide racial equity, and build a business case for implementing change.
This live, online course consists of:
- Four live-streamed virtual class sessions (held on consecutive days) lasting between 2:00 and up to 2:30 hours in duration
- Daily team exercises, which provide an opportunity to gain insights and perspectives from participants in other industries and functions
- Robust virtual class discussions with your instructor and your course-mates, who face similar challenges and work issues to yours
Classes will be held using widely available video-conferencing technology, which has become our virtual teaching platform. The technology creates a virtual classroom where you can see the professor and presentation screen, as well as see the other participants. Similarly, the professor can see all of the students who engage online during the group session. You’ll be able to communicate with both the professor and your peers through this platform. This technology is the same as the one we use in our executive MBA classes.
To participate in this course you will need to have a working webcam, built in or attached, and have downloaded the Zoom Cloud Meeting app onto your laptop.
If you have any questions about this requirement, call the Duke Executive Education team at +1.919.660.8011 or Toll Free +1.800.372.3932, or email us at execed-info@duke.edu.
The curriculum for this program includes the following concepts and themes:
Respect and Mutual Understanding
Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how it can be done effectively, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish the shared objectives. Thus, in order to lead effectively, a leader needs to be able to capitalize on the strengths of each of his or her followers and to understand their diverse perspectives. The purpose of this session is to assess shared and differing perceptions and values in organizations that shape how diverse groups of individuals make sense of each other, their work, achievements, and their environments.
Implicit Bias, Prejudice, and Discrimination
The popular press often discusses the idea of “implicit bias”. What is it? Is it a useful idea? This session will give you a deep understanding of the psychology of stereotypes and prejudice in organizations. It will review research on the pros and cons of relying on “implicit bias training” as a tool for fixing organizational problems. Ultimately, the goal of changing organizations requires an “And”: Awareness of implicit bias can be a useful motivation to change, and new structures are essential for real change.
Maximizing Workforce Diversity
Different people and different workgroups start with different assumptions about the importance of diversity efforts and the nature of diversity. To successfully navigate these varying perspectives, this session will help you better understand varying dimensions of diversity with a focus on cognitive diversity (e.g., areas of training, experience, and expertise) and demographic diversity (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, and gender) and their overlap. Emphasizing the dual importance of diversity to foster new ideas and to motivate employees, customers, and investors by having a workforce that represents society, this session will help prepare you to identify and define the diversity advantage in your workplace.
Deconstructing Systemic Racism in the Workplace
Leaders can be quick to condemn racism, but they are frequently ill-equipped to lead authentic discussions about racism in society and in their organizations. Racism is one of the most difficult topics to discuss. To successfully tackle such a thorny topic, business leaders first need to turn inward and assess how prepared they are to lead these conversations. Through personal commitment, education, equitable policies, and targeted investments, leaders can enhance academic excellence by creating environments that reduce - rather than perpetuate - racial disparities. This session will help to prepare you to lead authentic discussions about race, racism, and systemic racism in organizational settings.
Learning Outcomes or Benefits to Individuals who participate:
- Learn how to enhance interpersonal relationships with diverse group members through mutual understanding and respect
- Develop an understanding of strategies that have been successfully implemented to help successfully lead diverse groups
- Attain a better understanding of the social underpinnings that can give rise to barriers that undermine diversity efforts, such as implicit bias, stereotypes, and prejudice
- Understand proven strategies on how to combat the adverse effects of stereotypes and implicit bias in your organization
- Gain a better understanding of the business case for diversity
- Learn how to clearly articulate why diversity is an important organizational goal
- Learn how to engage in authentic conversations about diversity, race and systemic racism in the workplace
- Gain an in depth understanding of systemic racism, how it can perpuate organizational disparities, and strategies that can help minimize it in organizational settings
Sample Schedule
Session 1
Leading Diversity: Levering the Power of Respect and Mutual Understanding
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to enhance interpersonal relationships with diverse group members through mutual understanding and respect
- Develop an understanding of strategies that have been successfully implemented to help successfully lead diverse groups
Session Duration: 2:30 hours
Faculty: Ashleigh Shelby Rosette
Session 2
Foundational Diversity Competencies: Understanding Implicit Bias, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Learning Objectives:
- Attain a better understanding of the psychology of stereotypes and prejudice
- Understand the strengths and limits of implicit bias training
Session Duration: 2 hours
Faculty: Ashleigh Shelby Rosette
Session 3
The Diversity Advantage: Maximizing Workforce Diversity
Learning Objectives:
- Gain a better understanding of the business case for diversity
- Learn how to clearly articulate why diversity is an important organizational goal
Session Duration: 2.30 hours
Faculty: Jeremy Petranka
Session 4
Challenges to Diversity: Deconstructing Systemic Racism in the Workplace
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how to engage in authentic conversations about race and systemic racism in the workplace
- Gain an in depth understanding of systemic racism, how it can perpetuate organizational disparities, and strategies that can help minimize it in organizational settings
Session Duration: 2:15 hours
Faculty: Jeremy Petranka
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Contact Details
Duke Executive Education
100 Fuqua Drive
Durham, NC 27708-0120 USA
Office Hours
Monday - Friday
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Faculty
Ashleigh Rosette
Ashleigh Rosette is a Professor of Management and Organizations and a Center of Leadership and Ethics scholar at Fuqua. She is also a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences. Dr. Rosette studies diversity and negotiations in organizational settings. In her research, she examines the influence of affect and culture on the negotiation process and negotiated outcomes and explores social and contextual factors that influence diversity-related perceptions. Her research has been featured in media outlets such as Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and Business Week. She has received the Excellence in Teaching Award of the Year in the Executive MBA programs at Fuqua eleven times. She also received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award at the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. In addition, she has provided consulting services on topics such as diversity, decision-making, leadership, and negotiations to an array of clients in varied industries, such as banking, auditing services, automobile manufacturing, medical services, and the social/non-profit sector.
Jeremy Petranka
Dr. Jeremy Petranka is the Senior Associate Dean for Executive MBA and Quantitative Management programs and an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Fuqua School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from UNC Chapel Hill in 2009, and has since taught undergraduates and MBA students at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and UNC Chapel Hill. Prior to his career in academia, Jeremy worked as a management consultant, working with multiple Fortune 100 companies to align their information technology with their business strategies, focusing heavily on the role of data within the organizations. His work now focuses on the intersection of business and academics, specifically targeting how economics informs managerial decision-making and business strategy.
How to Register
For more information about how to register, please see our detailed instructions.
Frequently Asked Questions
For additional information about our Executive Education programming, please visit our FAQ page.
Learn the language of business
Financial literacy is a fundamental component of management and leadership. Regardless of your role in your organization, you should understand how different decisions impact your organization’s bottom line today, and in the future. Financial Analysis for Non-Finance Leaders (virtual) introduces you to the essential elements of financial reporting, including managerial and financial accounting. You’ll learn to interpret financial statements, develop a greater understanding of the ways financial information is used as a strategic tool for decision making, and develop the capability to communicate operating, marketing, sales, and growth strategies in financial terms.
Accounting faculty member, Bill Mayew, who instructs this program, offers his perspective on the virtual program format.
“The blended format was a better experience than an online class. Seeing the professor in real time during the virtual class was critical to my level of engagement and movitation. Also, being able to see the other students in the class pulls you into a group learning experience. You learn from each other and you build camaraderie with the others in the class."--Michael Gutierez, National Account Manager, Chiesi USA
"For me, the blended learning format made learning outside work more accessible and efficient. The pre-reading of case studies, working through the textbook, and watching the well-produced videos helped me prepare for class. The professor's energy and engagement with students was amazing."--Eric Hermans, Director of National Accounts, Chiesi, USA
Who Should Attend?
This live, online program is ideal for self-motivated, ambitious professionals looking to fit classroom development into your already-hectic schedule. Regardless of your level, your functional role, your industry, and your geography, if you find being away from the office for four days in a row challenging, if not daunting, Financial Analysis for Non-Finance Leaders (virtual) delivered in this format is the ideal program for you.
- The virtual format allows you to work at a pace that suits your learning style, whether you have little to no exposure to financial statements or you regularly invest as a hobby.
- The live-streamed classes are recorded and available to participants online, so you may review them as frequently as you choose in order to master the material.
The Financial Analysis for Non-Finance Leaders (virtual) course is the optimal choice for professionals who will benefit from increased familiarity with financial concepts and fundaments in their decision-making, but who are unable to travel to Durham, NC, for the in-person program.
More About the Program
Our virtual program format consists of six weekly live, online class sessions, held on Wednesdays, starting at 11:00 a.m. EST, and varying from 90 to 150 minutes in duration. The same course content as the in-person program will be delivered in a format that consists of live-streamed class sessions (see schedule below) with individual or team assignments to be completed outside of class meetings, and online resources to assist with your learning. You’ll engage in robust virtual class discussions with your instructor and interesting individual and team assignments and exercises with your classmates.
The class sessions and group discussions will be held using Zoom video-conferencing, which has been extended into a virtual teaching system. This technology creates a virtual classroom where:
- You can see the faculty member and any presentation material he/she may be sharing
- You will be able to see the other participants in the classroom for that live-streamed virtual session
- The faculty instructor will be able to see all of the students engaged online during the group session
- You will be able to communicate with both the faculty member and your classmates through the Zoom platform
| Live Teaching Schedule | |
| Date | Topic |
| Sept. 1 | Introducing Financial Statements (Part 1) |
| Sept. 8 | Understanding Financial Statements (Part 2) --understanding balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements |
| Sept. 15 | Profitability and Efficiency--analyzing financial statements |
| Sept. 22 | Credit Risk |
| Online quiz completed by September 29 | |
| Sept. 29 | Inventory Management |
| Oct. 6 | Budgeting and Forecasting |
| Final exam week of October 6 | |
Ensure that you're all set to participate before the program starts. We will be hosting a cohort introduction prior to the first class:
| Date | Duration | Cohort Introduction |
| August 25 | 1.0 hour | 11:00 am - 12:00 noon ET |
For more information about our new format, please send us an email at execed-info@duke.edu.
To participate in this course you must have a working webcam, and have downloaded the Zoom Cloud Meeting app onto your laptop.
To earn a certificate credit for this course, which will count as a course toward the elective requirements for the Certificate of Leadership and Management, you must:
- Be present at a minimum of five of the six live-streamed class sessions
- Score a passing grade on the quiz and final exam for the course.
If you have questions about any of these requirements, call the Duke Executive Education team at +1.919.660.8011 or Toll Free +1.800.372.3932, or email us at execed-info@duke.edu.
Discussion topics are designed to provide an overview in financial management by introducing you to real-world financial reports and discussing the interpretation of financial information. Combined with basic practices and assessments of an organization’s financial stability, you’ll gain insight on how to leverage financial information to evaluate performance.
Discussion Topics
Financial Statements
- Learn to read the 3 most common financial statements for product and service industries.
- Analyze a company's financial health, including efficiency and profitability drivers, using DuPont decompositions.
- Use key financial ratios to analyze customer credit risk.
Costs of Goods & Cost of Services Sold
- Examine inventory costing and contribution analysis for specific products/services.
Budgeting & Forecasting
- Develop division level income statements including direct, variable and "soft" costs and utilize for project selection.
- Compare an actual P&L to budget variances; incorporate budget variance feedback into investment decisions, employee incentives and control systems to maximize division profitability.
Program Objectives
At the conclusion of the program you’ll be able to:
- Read and understand financial statements to evaluate financial performance.
- Design control systems and incentives that align objectives with profitability.
- Build budgets that monitor and evaluate business performance.
- Determine the cost and profit of business decisions.
- Identify relevant costs, including overhead, when adjusting a mix of products and services.
- Forecast division finances with a comprehensive treatment of costs and expenses beyond inventory.
- Understand key deviations from forecasts and assess the impact of potential changes to business processes.
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Faculty
Bill Mayew
Bill Mayew is a Professor of Accounting at Fuqua. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration (Accounting) from the University of Texas at Austin. He previously worked in accounting and financial reporting assurance at Ernst & Young. Professor Mayew studies the managerial communication of firm performance, including voluntary and mandatory financial disclosures in financial reports, and has received multiple awards for teaching excellence.
Rahul Vishishtha
Rahul Vashishtha is an Associate Professor in the Accounting area. He received his PhD in Accounting from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 and has been on the Fuqua faculty since graduation. Professor Vashishtha’s research focuses on the determinants of disclosure and its economic consequences. His recent work examines how mandated disclosure of public information affects corporate investment choices. He teaches financial accounting in the Daytime MBA program.
John Heater
John Heater is an Assistant Professor in the Accounting area. His research interests include disclosure, regulation, corporate governance, and financial intermediaries. Professor Heater’s current work on disclosure and managerial incentives investigates how increased performance disclosure requirements affect firm stakeholders and how the CEO and CFO roles affect financial reporting. Professor Heater teaches Financial Accounting.
Mohan Venkatachalam
Mohan Venkatachalam is the R.J. Reynolds Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Professor Venkatachalam received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1996 and is a Chartered Accountant from India. He has worked as an Accountant and Internal Auditor in India and the Middle East.
Prior to joining Duke, Professor Venkatachalam was a faculty member at Stanford University, and has taught several courses including Financial Accounting, Financial Analysis and Executive Compensation. He has published research papers on a wide range of topics in valuation, nonfinancial performance measures, accounting disclosures, derivatives and corporate governance. His most recent work involves the role of verbal and nonverbal managerial communication in financial markets. He was an Editor of the Accounting Review and serves on the Editorial Boards of The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies and Contemporary Accounting Research.
How to Register
For more information about how to register, please see our detailed instructions.
Frequently Asked Questions
For additional information about our Executive Education programming, please visit our FAQ page.