Luke Visconti’s column, Ask the White Guy, recently responded to a question, “Do you think diversity training is effective? What would make it effective?” I was especially pleased with his candid response and advice that I felt it appropriate to feature his commentary on our blog this week.

Make no mistake, compliance training is not the same as diversity training. They fulfill different goals and serve different purposes. While I do not believe you need software to alert you when there is a lack of diversity in your workplace, I do believe acknowledging the signs early can eliminate the extent to which you must plan and implement procedures of change.

Visconti posed the following sequence integral to the planning process:

1. Benchmarking (find out where your company is)

2. Engagement, broken out by race, gender and age (how the people in your company feel)

3. Understanding goals (approved by the CEO)

4. Diversity plan (to take from where you are and how your people feel to where you want to go)

5. Training (to help accomplish the plan)

Putting these principles into action make all the difference in a company committed to diversity and a company looking to fill a quota. Be careful you don’t get caught up in subtle discrimination, find out where there are opportunities for growth, which departments lack diversity and why and ways in which you can diversify the face of your company.

Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.