Starbucks shuts down 8,000 stores on Tuesday for Racial Bias training

"Starbucks will temporarily shut 8,000 stores for four hours Tuesday afternoon to conduct racial bias training for its employees. It follows an incident in Philadelphia last month in which two black men were arrested simply for waiting in a store. What would seem like a positive step forward is already, perhaps predictably, being criticized."

Starbucks (despite the optics due to the incident above) are taking a significant stand and getting in front of an important and crucial issue that holds the possibility to make a rather substantial impact on it's people.

"Will Starbucks’ effort work? The critics say it’s laughable to think that racial bias will end after a four-hour afternoon training session.
They’re right. But that’s not the way to measure it.
The training program, if it is effective, will start a dialogue among some 175,000 employees". 

What is your organization doing to lead this conversation today? How are you reacting or responding to these incidents that occur? This is a hugely important topic that is surfacing more and more in the businesses we support. 

Ask yourself: How can we bring this conversation forward in a proactive manner, how can we expose our people to the unconscious biases we may hold? How are we constantly striving to make our workforces more inclusive and diverse in all our actions?

Forward by Tess Sloane, Talent Lab