‘Elephants in the room’ focus of workshops

BENTONVILLE — The Greater Bentonville Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Just Communities of Arkansas to help people raise elephants.

While they haven’t brought the circus to town, the organizations introduced the 2019 Community, Retention and Attraction of Future Talent Professional Development Series of workshops Wednesday. The series is designed to help participants discuss any “elephants in the room” concerning diversity, equity and inclusion, said Sierra Polk, the chamber’s Talent Initiatives and Innovative Inclusion director.

The series creates safe areas of discussion to help participants contribute to more diverse and accepting communities by creating a platform to discuss difficult topics in a safe environment, Polk said.

The first installment of the series was at the Amaze-um, and attendees had an opportunity to participate in interactive activities and discuss their personal social injustice experiences and perspectives with their tablemates.

“Raising elephants is having that understanding, competency and courage to bring up issues that are happening in your workplace or are happening in whatever organizations you find yourself that have to do with social injustices,” said Donald Wood, executive director of Just Communities of Arkansas, following the workshops. Just Communities is a nonprofit organization that works toward building communities through education, celebration and advocacy, according to the organization’s website.

Workshop topics of discussion included understanding the why, what and how of inclusive culture building by allowing participants to examine personal biases, outlooks and intentions.

“The idea is to start with folks and doing that work internally so they’re ready to start having conversations with other folks, and that can kind of grow into systemic changes,” Wood said, explaining people’s experiences can naturally create prejudices and stereotypes that shape their thinking and perspectives.

“That’s something that’s perfectly natural as far as humans so we can survive,” he said, illustrating his point by using the example of a human encountering a wild animal a millennia ago. “You realize that animal attacks when you get near it. Your prejudice, your discernment, tells you ‘Let’s stay away from that animal.’ It’s just natural human nature.”

Because of social forces, those misunderstandings or fears may become negative prejudices that cause people to view and and treat people differently, he said.

Such prejudices could also lead to discrimination and systemic problems that prevent all members of a community from reaching their full potential, Wood said.

Polk recognized that some of the conversations participants may have during the series could be uncomfortable, but said she’s OK with that.

“There’s a certain level of vulnerability that we’re asking people to be able to present,” she said. “It’s something that is going to come as a challenge because it’s new. It’s uncharted territory for some people that have not been exposed to these types of conversations before.”

Kirk Gober, project manager with Nabholz Construction, said he gained a greater understanding of the need to appreciate the outlook of others and hopes to take steps in the future to help create a better world for his children.

“As a white male, I realize that I’m considered a privileged person,” Gober said. “I have a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old, and they are going to be faced with a number of things that I was never faced with,” he said, adding he hopes the workshop will help him to become a better coach, guide and father for his family.

“Right now, it’s really interesting because there are a lot of similar synergies where people are wanting to have more conversations like this and be involved in more diverse, equitable and inclusive training to understand what that really looks like to build it out as a community,” Polk said. “I think we have a unique opportunity to be able to offer this type of learning and training environment to our members so that ultimately this teaching, understandings and methodologies trickle down to the people who are employed by these organizations.”

Mary Jordan can be reached at [email protected] .