Is your training IN-formative OR TRANS-formative?
To IN-form means to 'give form to'.
To TRANS-form means to 'go beyond the form; to change.'
For education initiatives, these differences are critical.
When education is designed to "raise awareness"- say of: biasses, or different cultures, or anti-racism, or data, or a new policy on diversity, equity, etc...
- this is IN-formative learning.
It can be an important kind of learning. And, for all of us that have gone through 'formal' education systems: it's the bulk of how, what, where, and who the 'learning' was facilitated by.
TRANS-formative learning is: often an intensely threatening or charged emotional experience in which we have to become aware of both the assumptions underlying our various ideas and opinions) along with those that support our emotional responses to change.
When we're engaged by transformative learning, it fundamentally alters our frames of reference (e.g. perspectives, habits of mind, mind-sets, etc.). It's often uncomfortable.
Transformative learning involves heat, and change, and often rapid change- like a pot of boiling water. Heat causes liquid water to become gas: steam.
The learning that induces transformation fundamentally changes one's personal frames of reference, potentially learning new ones, transforming points of view, and potentially permanently altering habits of mind and thinking.
'Raising awareness' is generally more basic. It raises the level of the pot, from this level of knowing, to this higher level. It's in-formative.
What's the education and training that's going on in your organization - is it informative? Or, transformative?
Have you ever received training, or completed education, that was transformative?
In my experience, far too much organizational training and learning initiatives are In-formative. They simply 'raise' the levels of water in the pot - e.g. 'raise awareness'.
They don't change the 'frames of reference' for participants. Or, create deeper self-reflection and questioning of norms and socialization.