by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Diversity training is practically useless when it comes to helping companies diversify their management ranks, according to a recent study by Harvard University sociologist Frank Dobbin.

After poring through 30 years of data from more than 700 corporations, Dobbin concluded that the most successful programs were those that established direct accountability for diversity. Networking and mentoring programs also had a modest positive effect. But diversity training was by far the least effective initiative at increasing the number of white women, black women, and black men in management.

Frankly, I’m not surprised by Dobbin’s findings.

From what I’ve seen, diversity training rarely succeeds at reducing stereotyping and bias within organizations.

Why? Because many diversity trainers actually teach people to hide their racism.

Yes, you read that correctly. Many diversity trainers don’t push people to challenge their own racist beliefs. Instead, the seminars teach people to be more aware of the non-verbal cues (the fancy word is “microinequities”) they send out that may tip others off to their racism. The philosophy is: hide your racism in order to create a more harmonious workplace.

Diversity training also fails because so many companies make it mandatory. Think about how that makes the average employee feel:

John walks into the diversity training session room already feeling resentful. The company may have made this mandatory, but his boss still expects him to make up for the lost hours of productivity by working late.

He thinks to himself that this is a total waste of time. He’s not a racist, he doesn’t even notice color! So obviously the diversity training isn’t meant for him. He tunes out the diversity trainer and turns on his Blackberry so he can catch up on email.

Bored, he looks around the room and wonders which one of his colleagues is to blame for this. Someone must have screwed up by saying something racist. And thanks to that jerk, the whole company is bei