Diversity Training with a difference
Focussing your cultural lens to collaborate with ‘the other’ at work
Diversity Training with a difference
Focussing your cultural lens to collaborate with ‘the other’ at work
NIODA is offering this series of experiential workshops as an opportunity for organisational leaders to deepen their understanding of diversity in the workplace and grow capability for collaboration across difference. We start from the position that to reap the benefits of diversity we need first to learn about ourselves. Participants are invited to consider ‘taken for granted’ aspects of culture by looking into their own and others’ ways of being in the world. From this place of self-knowledge, collaboration with the other is made possible.
Through these workshops, you will gain new insights into
- the concept of culture as something that is co-created
- the impact of our own unconscious biases upon work choices and practices
- understanding of conscious and unconscious factors that create and influence culture in organisations
And increase your skills in
- intercultural communication and collaboration
- using a cultural lens to analyse group and organisational effectiveness
Experiential learning will be supported by critical discussion of selected theories and readings.
When and where
Onsite at your workplace or live interactive sessions on zoom
These sessions are fully interactive and can be onsite or online. The two and a half hours will involve short seminars, experiential learning activities, group discussion and reflection for integration of learning.

Dr Brigid Nossal
Deputy CEO & Director of Consulting, NIODA
Brigid is a co-founder of NIODA and has worked as an organisational consultant and executive coach for over 25 years. She has been delivering experiential learning programs for over 15 years. This has included staff and Director roles on Group Relations Conferences, teaching in the RMIT and NIODA Masters degree and running external and in-house training programs. Brigid is passionate about systems psychodynamics and experiential learning approaches because of the way that they enable clients to develop a curious stance and deep insight into complex and emotionally challenging issues. Brigid has been teaching the NIODA Masters subject (and earlier iterations) ‘Through a Cultural Lens: Collaborating with ‘the Other’ at Work’ since 2010. She has also trained others to teach this subject. Organisations have become more acutely aware of the need to develop work cultures and ways of relating in which diversity is embraced for all the richness that this can contribute and in which people feel accepted and psychologically safe. Brigid’s extensive consulting and teaching experience means that she has developed to a high level the skills necessary to create a learning environment in which people feel safe and open to new experiences and new insights about themselves as leaders, about the organisational cultures that they help to co-create and about what is involved in creating safe and healthy workplaces.
Brigid has worked with a broad range of organisations. Over the past 15 years, this has been mostly in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Before that, Brigid delivered accredited in-house training to large private sector organisations such as Southcorp, Simplot and ANZ. The principals, in terms of healthy work cultures in all organisational contexts, are the same.

Ms Helen McKelvie
Masters Course Coordinator, NIODA
Helen has had over 25 years of working in organisations to inform her approach to helping others gain insights into how they take up roles and how to achieve greater alignment with individual, team and organisational purpose. Her own roles as internal planning consultant, policy and project manager, and lawyer in workplaces in both the public and private sectors have provided her with first-hand experience of the complexity and challenges of organisational life.
Helen is an alumnus and now teaches in the Master’s program at the National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA). She also has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne. In addition to her academic qualifications, Helen is an accredited practitioner of PRISM Brain Mapping, an online, neuroscience-based behaviour mapping instrument, and is a registered Analytic-Network Coach. Helen also has training and experience in workplace mediation and yoga teaching qualifications.
When & Where
Your in-house experiential training program
The program is designed to run over six months with a combination of half-day and monthly two-hour sessions. We know that to create and embed sustainable and healthy practices takes time and requires a commitment.
NIODA’s highly experienced staff will be leading this new in-house training program.
📆 Dates
To suit your organisation
💷 Includes
Each of the two and a half hour sessions will involve short seminars, experiential learning activities, group discussion and reflection for integration of learning.
👩🏻💻. Location
Live interactive online or onsite sessions
About NIODA
The National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA) offers internationally renowned post-graduate education and research in organisation dynamics, and decades of experience consulting with Australian organisations.
The study of organisation dynamics brings together socio-technical and psychoanalytic disciplines to explore the unconscious dynamics that exist in every group, team or organisation. Learning more about these theories, and reflecting on the experience of them, can support leaders and managers to unlock great potential in their organisations, tackling issues through a whole new light.
Get In Touch
PO Box 287, Collins Street West,
Melbourne 8007 Australia
+61 (0) 414 529 867
info@nioda.org.au
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