'Behavioural change requires time': Starbucks closes U.S. stores for anti-bias training

As more than 8,000 Starbucks outlets across the U.S.close their doorstoday to allow workers to undergo racial bias training, diversity experts say they hope the coffee chain's commitment to taking a long-termapproach to learning can set the standard for employerslooking to better educate their staff aboutbias in the workplace.

The coffee giant'sdecisionto offer the training comes after anincident last month at a Philadelphia location that saw an employee callpolice after two black men sat down at a table without ordering anything. The pair who had arrived early for a business meeting were ultimately handcuffed and led out of the caf, andvideos of the arrests were widely shared on social media, stoking national outrage over racial profiling.

StarbucksCEO Kevin Johnson quickly apologized toRashonNelson andDonteRobinson, and promised to take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again, including today's cross-country training for the company's 175,000 U.S. employees

(Canadian stores will follow suit on the afternoon of June 11.)

"We are here to makeStarbucksa place where everyoneeveryone feels welcome," Johnsonsaid in a video released last week topreview the training curriculum.

The previewalso contains a message from rapper and activist Common, who will lend some star power to the day, and one fromStarbucks'founder Howard Schultz.

Employees will spend the rest of the four-hour session listening to diversity consultants from the Perception Institute, as well as reflecting on their own personal stories of bias, the company said,calling the training "a first step," not a solution.

WhileStarbucks'swift response after the Philadelphia incident has shone a spotlight on anti-biastraining, the company is not alone in its efforts.

Across North America, employers and organizationsarescrambling to provide employees with diversity training, typically designed to educatepeople about implicitbiases and stereotypes, including acknowledgement of their own.

Some large retailers, including Walmart and Target, say they already offer some form of unconscious bias training.In Canada, such training isbeingrolled out tosome hospitals, school boards and police forces even city halls.

Taking a long-term approach

"Trainingscan raise awareness around topics;trainingscan also provide strategies and tools,"saidShakilChoudhury, a Toronto-based consultantwho has been conducting diversity training for about 25 years.

"But ultimately we're looking for behaviour change, not just 'Wow,this was a great training,'" he said. "Behavioural change requires time."

Even the most well-crafted, one-day sessions can only do so much, said Choudhury.

He said his most effective programshave been with companies that have held multiple training sessions spreadout over the course of a year, giving him the chance to track the impact his teaching is having.

And a paper published in the Harvard Business Reviewtitled "Why diversity programs fail"found that the positive effects of diversity training "rarely last beyond a day or two."

Choudhury also argues that comparing programsand their resultscanbe difficult, as there are no industry-wide standards outlining what diversity trainingshould look like and what actually works.

"There are lots of critics saying diversity trainingmight not work. Well, my question is:'What diversity training? Because there's no systematic training," he said.

'Stereotype rebound'

Others who study such training, like Sonia Kang, caution it can lead to "stereotype rebound" when stereotyping and discrimination actually increases after training.

Kang said she sees potential in what Starbucks has laid out, but noted there are often unintended consequences to diversity training in the workplace.

"If you tell people not to think about a white bear, they basically can't think of anything other than a white bear. The mere act of suppression leads to a heightened activation of whatever concept you're trying to suppress," said Kang,who teaches organizational behaviour and HR management at theUniversity of Toronto.

Diversity training can also lead to a backlash, she said, "because people feel like they're being coerced into it."

In order for such training to be successful, Kangsuggests that participants need to "buy into the end goal" and fully understand the intended outcome.

For Starbucks, that includes the recognition that today's training is aimed at setting the foundationfor a long-term effort, which the company says will play out "in the coming weeks, months and years."

It's an attempt that Choudhury says"certainly feels hopeful."

"But I'm not willing to give [Starbucks] a gold star until I see what thosenext steps are," he said.