Dublin Bus – Inclusive Leadership Development Programme
Already leading in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, transport company Dublin Bus partnered with RightTrack Learning to create a bespoke Inclusive Leadership Development Programme. Developed with input from Vivienne Kavanagh, the initiative aimed to foster a culture of inclusion among employees, suppliers, and customers. The project also included:
- Tailored leadership programme for managers, SMT, and the Board
- Real-life video scenarios and bespoke D&I training manuals
- Train the Trainer programme with ongoing support
- Focus on assessing inclusivity and mitigating bias
The Story
Dublin Bus commissioned RightTrack Learning to deliver a range of bespoke training solutions to different levels across the organisation. With over 138 million passengers in 2019, the year of the training, it was essential that the company and all employees were aware on how to create and develop a culture of inclusion with colleagues, suppliers and customers.
The face-to-face programme was developed by Paula Whelan of RightTrack Learning who worked closely with Vivienne Kavanagh, Employee Development and Equality Executive of Dublin Bus. Vivienne wanted to update development for various colleague groups, including upskilling of the inhouse training team so they could cascade the learning to all areas of the business.
After close collaboration with Vivienne Kavanagh, the RightTrack team devised essential research by spending time on the front line, taking bus journeys and observing the challenges of working at the Customer Comment Desk, to understand the different roles. The observations then supported the preparation of bespoke scenarios for each of the different functions who would attend the training.
The Programme
Linking directly to the business values and building on the extensive work that Dublin Bus had already achieved in the D&I arena, Paula designed and implemented three aspects within the overall development project:
- Developed a tailored Inclusive Leadership programme to Dublin Bus Managers
- Adapted the Inclusive Leadership programme for the SMT and the Board
Provided bespoke D&I Training Manuals and supporting materials
The training sessions which encouraged managers to be consciously inclusive with everyone from the 70+ nationalities that work at Dublin Bus, were enhanced by real-life video scenarios filmed with actors. Following the successful implementation, a two-day Train the Trainer Programme was then rolled out to the in-house training team, which included on-going support from RightTrack Learning until attendees became familiar with the programme content.
The Inclusive Leadership programme covers:
- Assessing current levels of inclusivity, what an inclusive environment involves and your vision for an inclusive culture. Qualities of an inclusive leader, where your strengths lie, and identity areas for growth. Steps we can take and strategies to uncover and mitigate the impact of structural inequities and bias on decision-making and working relationships.
- Links between allyship and authenticity and how to model those. Behaviours tools and language we can use to help challenge without confrontation and develop leaders’ self-awareness of their reaction triggers.
For the full Inclusive Leadership programme outline, click here.
The Impact...
The training material and support for the in-house trainers was greeted with much enthusiasm by the client training team. The general consensus and feedback was the learning was recognised as essential to support not only the diversity of employees working at Dublin Bus, but also the diversity of customers. Many attendees saw this Diversity and Inclusion development project as another opportunity for Dublin Bus to lead the way, building on the progress already made.
“RightTrack Learning offered us a bespoke solution at Dublin Bus and we were able to work together to decide what was the most appropriate content for us.“ – Vivienne Kavanagh, Employee Development and Equality Executive, Dublin Bus