Diversity & Inclusion Week 2023
Diversity & Inclusion Week 2023

Monday 2 October


 

Buddy Benches 
Wageningen Young Academy
09.30-11.00 - Forum, entrance Atlas side
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Buddy Benches are a way to promote social inclusion and combat loneliness on university campuses. When a student or staff member sits on a Buddy Bench, it is a signal to others that they are open to making a new friend or just having a chat.
At WUR, we will also launch these benches during the D&I week with an activity where you can add your unique perspective to the benches. For this, you can write on them (during the D&I session only). We will have 2 benches with different themes, one on failures and one on patterns. There are no rules to what you can write or draw on the benches, except that it needs to be respectful.
After D&I week, we will seal the wood on the benches, and place them on campus along with a plaque explaining their use. We encourage everyone at WUR to use the benches long after D&I week, as a durable reminder of the constant need for more inclusivity.

Diversity and racism in education
DARE
10.00-12.00 - Aurora, room I9238

An intergroup dialogue around issues of cultural diversity and racism in the classroom. In this practical session, students and teachers will have the opportunity to work together to listen, reflect and explore strategies for addressing challenging issues around discrimination that may arise in learning and teaching spaces at WUR (and other contexts). 

Inclusive Leadership
Esther Mollema
15.00-17.00 - Plus Ultra 2 - Trainingsruimte

 

We do not live in an era of change, but in a change of era. As a manager, your role is now more crucial than ever to include your team in this. As a leader, can you consistently achieve results while staying connected to your employees? Do you create a culture in which people challenge each other in a positive way to get better together? What are the right steps you should take as a leader, and what should you avoid?

Good teams do not exist without good leaders: the level of performance of a team is largely determined by the focus and actions of the leader. Your behavior as a leader is "contagious": employees unconsciously copy the example of their leader. The difference between great and mediocre leaders resides in the little things that really make the difference. Learn how you and your team can benefit from diversity and different perspectives, and experience how inclusion and social safety can make a difference. More perspectives help teams make better decisions and be more innovative. Yet your brain prefers homogeneous and predictable teams. That gives your brain a sense of peace and ease, and you have more confidence in such teams and also think that they are more effective. This is one of the four mechanisms covered in this training to understand why diversity and social safety can sometimes be challenging. Workshop leader Esther Mollema will show why psychological safety and inclusion form the basis for all teams. She will also discuss how privileges and unconscious biases creep into our decision making and actions, and how you can do something about this together with your team. In addition to more insight into the subconscious workings of your brain, you will receive practical tips and tools for working with your teams.

Esther Mollema believes that the strength of organizations lies in the individual differences between employees. With her practically applicable knowledge, humor and experience, Esther Mollema is much in demand as a consultant and speaker. She wrote four books on High Performance, Unconscious Prejudice and Inclusion. Esther has been recognized by TheNextWomen as one of the hundred most successful and influential female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands.