Monsanto, Shell Chemical, the Port of Louisiana, Occidental Chemical and St. Charles Parish participated in a full day of discussion and learning about diversity.

Dan McNeill represented Norco’s leadership support for the forum. Motiva employees provided leadership for general and breakout sessions including an overview of diversity processes, establishing a diversity council, diversity as a strategic business initiative and expanding employees’ understanding of "diversity."

Richard Green led "Establishing a Diversity Council."

"A diversity council is composed of people charged with moving the diversity process forward in an organization," Green said. "They are not the ones to implement the program, instead they guide and push the process, getting others involved. The success of the council depends on all employees, not the council alone. Ten to 12 people can’t affect that kind of change alone. They can, however, be an effective catalyst for change."

Kristi Larpenter led the second breakout session, "The Business Case for Diversity," considering why a company would want to get involved with a diversity process at all.

"The world is changing. The brightest people entering the market today are very different from Baby Boomers," Larpenter opined. "Diversity isn’t simply about color or gender. It’s about understanding that each of us is different in significant ways, respecting those differences and realizing we have common goals and aspirations for our business."

Using this understanding of diversity as a premise, Larpenter helped attendees see that from a business perspective diversity awareness is crucial to:

In the last breakout session,"Diversity Awareness Education," facilitated by R.J. August, attendees learned:

The voluntary diversity awareness workshop was offered to all 700 employees, and 525 participated, a 75 percent participation rate. This high rate of participation was likely achieved in large part because employees knew they would learn about this sensitive issue from fellow employees who were intricately familiar with the history, culture and current environment at Motiva Norco Refining.

"We felt that a dialogue around diversity could bring out deep felt sensitivities and emotions," Green explained. "People are just more comfortable with co-workers when honestly grappling with these issues. What is most important is that we engage each other in dialogue, learning from each other about each other, getting below the surface to understand our differences and see how much we really have in common."

Theron Williams engaged the participants in meaningful dialogue around two videos shown over the course of the day’s activities that highlighted the principles covered during the breakout sessions.

Green noted that the diversity process is an ongoing journey and not an overnight revelation. Council members will continue to work on the process and employees will celebrate successes along the way.

One successful way the council has been able to involve employees is through targeted diversity action teams (DATs). A council member works with each DAT, composed of employees specifically concerned with common diversity issues. For example, a support staff DAT examined issues clerical/administrative staff were experiencing including feelings of not being valued by other parts of the organization. The DAT established that there were strong feelings that clerical staff had no opportunity for advancement into leadership roles or other areas of the organization. Together, the DAT is finalizing recommendations for clerical staff interested in advancement, including training and opportunities available.

"In general, we have found participants eager to learn and thirsty for the information we shared," Green noted. "During the river region forum, we networked with other organizations to help them form diversity movements in their own organizations. Here at Motiva, we’ve been at this for a while and we still have some road to travel, but we are very grateful to share the benefit of our experience with our fellow industries along the river."