Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Diversity & Inclusion team recently attended the 5th Annual Diversity and Inclusion Symposium, held in Richmond, Va.

Diversity and Inclusion office, Code 1103’s program analyst Craig Fieldings mentioned that during the first session where President & CEO of Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. spoke about four basic steps when addressing diversity and inclusion was interesting and intriguing.

"Step one, we need to be clear why we are addressing diversity and inclusion at the workplace," said Fieldings. "This is the most important step of the four steps."

Step two is to be clear to what extent you are willing to go to accomplish your agenda. Focus needs to be on inclusion first, before diversity, as well as on culture and lesson regulations/rules.

"If the rules worked we would not be in the current state," said Taylor.

Taylor continued that step three is to be inclusive in your actions, because culture has multiple dimensions and constantly growing.

"Step four is to determine method of measure to show efficiency," said Fieldings. "We need to be transparent in communicating results."

The symposium didn’t stop with Taylor. For the Engineering and Analysis Division, Code 136’s critique administrator Jade Joy, the part of the symposium that enhanced her experience was the workshop with Mauricio Velasquez, President of the Diversity Training Group.

"Mr. Velasquez talked about what a change agent is and what their purpose is," said Joy. "A change agent is one who will speak up and renounce horrible acts even when it doesn’t seem like an easy thing to do."

According to Velasquez, a change agent is one who values differences and lives a code of conduct and values. They need to lead by example and be transparent. A change agent is mindful of biases and prejudices. They identify and remove barriers calls out. They are coaches, always positive, solves problems, resolves conflict and sees problems as opportunities.

Throughout the day, NNSY’s Diversity and Inclusion Team continued to gather knowledge to bring back to the shipyard so that they can have a stronger and more impactful diversity and inclusion program that will benefit all of those who work at America’s Shipyard. For more information regarding the Diversity and Inclusion Team, contact the Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager, Valerie Scott, at 396-8086.

Get more information about the Navy from US Navy Facebook or Twitter.

For more news from Norfolk Naval Shipyard, visit www.navy.mil/.