Workshop: Diversity in Startups – Unleashing Potential, Breaking Down Obstacles

Companies that strategically promote diversity in their workforce increase their competitive advantage, ability to innovate and tap into new markets, as well as position themselves as a strong employer brand. Yet we are all influenced by unconscious thought patterns, so some companies do little to no reflection on the topic of diversity, and thus lose the opportunity to realize the full potential of their employees.

It is important to reduce unconscious thinking patterns and open up to more diversity in the company. Unconscious thought patterns influence our perceptions, mindset and behavior. In the workplace, too, pigeonholing and stereotyping shape our decisions, leading us to prefer people who are similar to us and to perceive the others as threats.

In this interactive workshop, participants will be sensitized to think about unconscious thinking patterns, i.e. “unconscious bias”, reflect on them and actively work against them. In addition, participants learn how to use these insights to promote more diversity in their companies and thus unleash undiscovered potential.

Speaker

Lela Grießbach is an intercultural start-up consultant and a trained trainer for intercultural competence. As a freelance university lecturer, she teaches sustainability and diversity management and has many years of experience in international project management, marketing and corporate communications. She is also pursuing a PhD in Entrepreneurial Diversity and SME Management.

Participation

The workshop will take place on site at the Startup Incubator Berlin premises in Berlin-Siemensstadt.

Registration is open here until 12/12/2022 at 3:00 pm, the number of participants is limited to 20 people. Please be sure to let us know if you can’t attend! There is only the workshop offer on site, a hybrid implementation (online and presence) is unfortunately not possible.

Due to the required registration and access routes to the workshop room, we ask participants to arrive in time at the reception of our location (Rohrdamm 88, 13629 Berlin-Siemensstadt, U-Bahn line 7 station Rohrdamm) by 3:45 pm at the latest. A personal document with a photo (ID card, driver’s license or similar) is required for access to the Siemens plant premises.

IMPORTANT: Wearing an FFP-2 mask is mandatory for all participants in our classroom sessions. The nature of these events means that it is not possible to maintain a minimum distance of 1.5 m between the people present. You have to bring your own masks, the organizer does not provide masks.

Free of charge

The workshop is free of charge for all participants, as it is supported by public funds. For billing with our funding agencies, registration in participation lists (name, mail address, signature) is required on site.