A new client of mine recently requested me to design and run a workshop for their top team on ‘valuing differences’. I was excited about the prospect of doing this as this is at the core of Sensei and our mission statement also states it explicitly:

The Sensei International mission is:

To be the best possible global catalyst in organizational and personal transformation. To help the world celebrate its diversity and re-discover its unity … That’s Sensei!

Inspired by our mission and the prospect of designing a new workshop that resonates so well, I named the workshop ‘The Beauty of Diversity’ which the client loved too.

The objective of the workshop was to help participants realize that we are very different from each other in many ways, that all the different versions of us add value in different ways, one person alone does not have all the different aspects and therefore we need to work with others who are different to ensure all angles are covered, that the diversity adds synergy and by celebrating the beauty of this diversity we not only add synergistic value but also re-discover our unity.

I approached the design of the workshop by helping participants look at 4 areas of differences;

1. The thinking and decision-making mode: technical or behavioural.
2. The working preference: quick start, fact finder, implementor or follow through
3. The brain activity dominance: left brain or right brain
4. The communication preference: Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic

The participants had an opportunity to do 4 assessments to ascertain their modes & preferences before the session and that helped us to have some interesting discussions regarding the diversity in the group and the richness and value of that diversity. Each area was learnt with the support of concepts, video’s exercises, discussions and soul-searching sessions that led to personal action plans.

After receiving an amazing transformation the participants left the session with a commitment to deploy their energy to value the beauty of diversity [rather than trying to change others to be similar to them] in order to enjoy personal and organizational growth, success and happiness as this approach helps not only synergize but also be a better closer knit team.