Reimagining DEI for Stategic Change at NU

2025

Five Remote Live Sessions

Experiential Learning

Session Dates Coming Soon | 2025

[Application Deadline: TBA]

$1,875

New applicants click here to apply

Executive Learning and Organizational Change is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®

Course Overview

This course introduces tools and best practices for effectively planning and executing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) change in teams and organizations.

Assuming introductory-level awareness of the relationship between social identities and people’s workplace experiences, this course will:
- Identify underlying premises associated with different conceptions of DEIJ work, and the implications of these different conceptions on the way the work is received and experienced by the team members.
- Understand how to conceive and execute organizational strategies and DEIJ initiatives as an integrated sets of projects and behaviors rather than one-off and disconnected interventions.
- Conduct analyses to understand the role of power, power distribution, relations, and the role of power in relationships in organizations, and how to use these analyses to anticipate and mitigate DEIJ resistance.
- Understand how DEIJ efforts interact with local cultural norms and values in multi-national and cross-cultural settings, and how to develop and implement DEIJ strategies in these contexts.

Course Schedule

	Remote Sessions	11 a.m. - 1 p.m. CT

Click here to apply

Who Should Attend

DEIJ practitioners or leaders who are interested in being champions for meaningful DEIJ change in their organizations.
Mid to senior-level leaders who aim to strengthen their skills as inclusive change management leaders.

Questions Will We Answer

How do I establish a sense of urgency around the need to address DEIJ challenges in an organization in the context of resistance and backlash to DEIJ work?
How do I create a DEIJ strategic framework for organizational change?
How do I assess the current state of the organization and its key stakeholders around DEIJ strategies?

Benefits and Outcomes

By participating in this session, you will learn to:

Plan and execute organizational change initiatives that take into consideration individual identities, cultural norms, and organization contexts.
Apply frameworks to design and guide equitable and inclusive organizational change processes.
Diagnose the potential change impact, including potential risks and leverage points, by understanding the challenges associated with DEIJ work.
Select criteria for assessing change and measuring progress.
Oversee the change process as a “change agent” or change leader.

Earn Continuing Education Credit

ELOC is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP. This program is valid for 11 PDCs for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP.
ELOC is accredited by IACET giving students the opportunity to earn CEUs. This program is valid for 1.1 IACET CEUs.

Program Content

This course leverages change models to provide participants with a framework for how to implement DEIJ work in their organizations.

We begin by helping students learn how to get a meaningful current pulse around where your organizations are in making progress on DEIJ.
We then focus on how you can establish a sense of urgency around the need to adopt a more robust DEIJ philosophy and set of behaviors.
Next, we then help you assess your critical stakeholders and think through approaches to engage them while anticipating and combatting resistance.
Finally, our focus shifts to helping you solidify your vision for change and end up with concrete behaviors to bring this vision to life.

FAQs

Is this course for internal change leaders, external consultants, or both?

Both! This course will support you in leading change for equity and inclusion whether you are working inside your employer organization or as a third-party consulting partner to an organizational client.

Is this course appropriate for members of groups or teams from the same organization to attend together?

Yes! We have delivered a version of this course to groups of professionals from the same organization and they have found it useful both for individual leadership development and in developing shared language and understanding for use in their work together.

If you are interested in a group discount or designing a custom, private session for your organization, please email us at eloc@northwestern.edu.

Is this course for professionals working in all sectors?

Yes! This course is relevant to mid to senior-level leaders across sectors, industries, and roles.

Is this course only for DEIJ practitioners?

No! This course is for any leader who aims to support and advance equitable and inclusive organizational change.

Is this course only for change management professionals?

No! This course is for any leader who is or will be involved in, managing, or advising on organizational change at the team, department, division, organization, enterprise, and/or system level.

Instructors

Renetta McCann

Renetta McCann is Chief Inclusion Experiences Officer at Publicis Groupe, where she is focused on creating inclusive change for individuals and institutions. She was previously at Leo Burnett, where she oversaw the agency's U.S. recruitment, training, benefits and talent management. She isn’t afraid to try out new models for employee engagement or test new programs to enhance success – she believes that these efforts broaden perspectives and promote creativity. She is a champion for women and for the development of minorities in the advertising industry.

Ahmmad Brown

Ahmmad is a sociologist who studies inequality in organizations and interventions that foster inclusion and belonging. His current research examines racial and ethnic minorities' experiences in historically and predominantly white organizations, reparative and transformative (rather than punitive) approaches to the experiences of wrongdoing and objectional behavior in workplaces, and dialogic engagement in organizations.

As a practitioner, Ahmmad has worked with leaders and leadership teams across sectors to support the development and implementation of DEI change efforts. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and an M.A. in Sociology from Harvard University, an M.B.A. and M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Ritu Tripathi

Ritu is an applied soical and cross-cultural psychologist. She teaches in the LOC undergraduate and Master's degree (MSLOC and MSSEP) programs. Her courses include: Global Organizations and Leadership, Global Teamwork, Leading Global Change, and International Negotiations for Policy Administrators. Prior to Northwestern, Ritu worked as an Assistant Professor (2010-2022, tenured/permanents) at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India.

Ritu received her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Her dissertation focused on cultural variations in the motivational impact of autonomy and obligations among Indian and American corporate professionals. At UIC, she was the recipient of the prestigious Dean's Scholar Award, which is the most distinguished award that UIC offers to graduate students in recognition of a student's scholary achievement. Prior to UIC, Ritu received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in Psychology from University of Allahabad, India.

Reimagining DEI for Strategic Change