Accenture
Winning Year(s): 2019
Industry: Professional Services
Awards and Accolades:
- 2019 Best Professional Services Innovation Program
2019 Innovation Name: Accenture Inclusion & Diversity Virtual Reality Behaviour Change Program
Awards: 9th Most Innovative Professional Services Company
Employees: 500+
Our innovation is an immersive and interactive program that uses virtual reality (VR) technology to understand the breadth of unconscious bias. It stimulates scenarios so that individuals can:
– Understand and have compassion for others
– Gain awareness of their bias, especially in professional environments
– Embrace the benefits of diverse thinking and people Using a VR headset, the participants deep dive into someone’s possible thinking/perspectives during a conversation – scenarios are based on interviews with Accenture staff.
An example of a scenario is: the first perspective is from a person who identifies as LGBTQI, and the second is from a person who doesn’t identify as LGBTQI enabling participants to experience both perspectives and see the impact on people’s thoughts and feelings as the scenario plays out. By immersing participants in a variety of common scenarios, they are able to develop self-awareness about any biases they may hold in a non-judgemental way. Experiencing the perspective of others in a first-hand way is designed to help participants reflect upon their behaviour and think about how that can be modified to more effectively lead and participate in diverse teams. Participants can then access other resources internally on how to be more inclusive in the workplace.