Demographical developments (lower birth rates and population aging) and migration (both within and from outside the EU) rapidly increases the generational and cultural diversity of the workforce. As a result, the strategies, measures and trainings tackling diversity, which have been so far of interest particular to the large international organisations, are now needed for Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises and Organisations (both public and NGOs) (=MSM E&Os) as well. If not well managed the innovative power of this diversity stays behind and many issues are likely to appear: lack of engagement, exclusion, lack of innovation, miscommunication etc. However, the MSM E&Os do not have sufficient resources in place (in contrast to large companies with financial and HR potential to develop full scale diversity policies). Moreover the open offer leadership courses for operational leaders do not include this diversity as a topic. The Synergy in Learning and Cooperation (SiLC) project responds to the needs of MSM E&Os whose team leaders do not know how to cope with the increased diversity and how to turn it into a benefit. They need to strengthen their own and team members’ leadership skills and competences to keep their organisations innovative, efficient and competitive. The objectives of the project are to: a) provide MSM E&Os team leaders with a handbook and toolbox suitable to use learning-on-the-job activities and a bottom-up approach to embrace and utilize diversity in their team b) equip adult educators (facilitators, trainers, coaches) with tools and training to support the MSM E&Os team leaders develop diversity competencies. The project will develop and test the following outputs: • Ready to use toolbox with practical tools and instruction to be used by team leaders at the workplace. • Handbook (standalone) for team leaders. • Curriculum for education facilitators Developing Competences for Leadership of Generation and Culture Diverse Teams in MSM E&Os: “a portable mini-curriculum”. • Handbook (standalone) for facilitators of leadership development.The outputs will be disseminated, among others, also by a series of national multiplier events which every partner organises in their country. In addition, the one short-term joint staff training event will be organised during the project to test and further improve the tools. The results of the project will include predominantly the intellectual outputs, dissemination related outputs (such as newsletters) and training, management and multiplier events held. In terms of impact among the target group, SiLC seeks to contribute to the employment of the abovementioned groups disadvantaged on the labour market as better training/learning opportunities for MSM E&Os and improved team leaders competences will contribute to the recruitment of people of different generational and cultural background. The innovative power of multigenerational/ cultural teams will be released which serves the society as a whole.The project will take place during 32 months and the dissemination of SiLC will continue for at least two years after the project’s life span. Research will be done to feet the intellectual outputs, testing of the IOs will take place in the daily work of the partners and also during a short term staff training event.We will work in an Agile project management way whereas the IO development is done by SAM instructional design. In this way the needs of the target audience and the timelines will be met. Along the way the IOs will be gradually embedded in the daily work of the partners.The 7 partners are all active in the field of adult learning/VET but are from different sectors: private, public and NGOs. They represent the MSM E&Os ourselves and also the intergenerational and intercultural team. Their situation is partly similar and with the different expertise they want to create a solution which is easily to adapt to their local situations. By cooperating in the project they learn each others cultures which forms part of the solution. They all want to support team leaders and facilitators through SiLC and will use their extensive network to create the rippling effect of the results.All intellectual outputs created during the project are freely accessible at the project website and EU platforms.
Context/background of the project; The labour market in Europe is facing challenges due to demographic changes and increasing cultural diversity. From practical experiences of the partners in their day-to-day work as well as research in the market we’ve learned that Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) are lacking knowledge and practical tools to develop themselves into more diversity-minded, inclusive organisations. Leadership education does not yet have the subject of (generational and cultural) diversity inegrated in their curriculum. Especially, but not only, graduates entering a labour market experience resistance against diversity and the same applies for newcomers from other countries/cultures. The last decade more and more projects have started with the subject of diversity. However, most of them were focussing on creation and implementation a diversity-policy (using a top-down approach), having a problem-oriented perspective or were focussing on anti-discrimination and were done in larger organisations. Diversity of the labour market (and therefor at the workplace) is growing rapidly. SME’s experience an urge to adapt to it and grasp its opportunities for their innovative power and future. Although diversity can include any type of differences among people, the SiLC-partners choose the scope of 2 aspects that have actual relevance for collaboration the workplace: age and culture. The SiLC-team has developed and tested a set of tools that support team leaders and facilitators (trainers, teachers, coaches) to work on the subject and improve acceptance of it as an asset for organisational performance. In contrary to top-down approaches (policy-development) the SiLC-partners are convinced building inclusive teams, embracing diversity and using it as an asset for team development are more successful when done in a bottom-up, low profile, practical way in SME’s. By doing so, we support fully the increasing new interest in learning on the job and experiential learning. The objectives of the SiLC-project are two-fold: • supporting SME’s to build inclusive teams, using their performance and innovative potential from a bottom-up approach by delivering a set of tools and supporting materials for collaboration, leadership and leadership training. • VET schools can use the SiLC-tools to train their staff and support their students who are entering the labour market soon (via internship or as junior employee). At the same time SME’s can use the SiLC-tools to implement a more diversity-minded work-culture in their organisation. In the SiLC-project, 6 partners from Netherlands, Spain, Czech republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia varied in the way they work on the subject of leadership and learning and also are active in various areas of the labour market. They collaborated as a diverse team, experiencing it on the run, seeking inclusion and using their differences in age, culture and references as an asset in delivering the project. During the SiLC-project, the partners have done empirical research, developed a toolbox and supporting manuals and a mini-curriculum which have been tested in training sessions and workshops. All partners have tested and implemented the tools in their own work and made an effort to disseminate it to target audiences (VET, SME, NGO organisations) in their resp. countries. The success of the project becomes visible as other organisations start using the IO’s for their own projects and developments, and in some cases it already has lead to development of special training modules for team leaders. The awareness that diversity is important for future performance of organisations has improved and continues after closure of the project. The SiLC toolbox supports this with tools for the workplace and in training. Not all VET-schools and SME’s tend to make it a top priority yet, but the ball has started rolling and the awareness that they have to put it on the agenda has increased. With SiLC the practical tools are available to start with it today, both in VET-education who support students entering the labour market as in SME’s who welcome them as newcomers in their team.