Giving Compass' Take:

• Starbucks' racial bias training is part of a long tradition of CSR at the company. If these trainings are repeated they may lead to successful culture change.

• How can other companies take steps to address racial bias before incidents like the one at Starbucks occur? What is the best use of training time?

• Learn three ways to combat unconscious racial bias at work.

The Starbucks Coffee Company has often expressed support for diversity and promoting racial tolerance. In recent years its demonstrated that commitment through a variety of initiatives: its support of LGBT rights, pay equity and its efforts to increase gender and cultural diversity on its board.

Starbucks’ current CEO, Kevin Johnson attempted to address why the manager of a Philadelphia Starbucks had two African American men arrested for trespassing.

As would be expected, Johnson went into overdrive, issuing a public apology and scheduling a meeting with the two men who had by then been released and were now accompanied by their lawyer. The manager who had called the police was let go.

But Johnson didn’t stop there. Within hours he had reached out to civil rights experts around the country and began crafting the outline of a new training module, enlisting the help of experts like former US attorney general Eric Holder, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Sherrilyn Iffil, and others. He announced that all 8,000 Starbucks-owned stores would be closing for a half-day for racial bias training and invited the two men to join him in “finding a constructive way to solve this issue.”

When the first leg of this sensitivity training is over (and there will likely be repeats in the years to come), Starbucks may be able to offer an example of how a company can truly change its culture and transform the way race and social differences are addressed by company policies, between workers and with its many stakeholders.

Read the full article about Starbucks racial bias training by Jan Lee at TriplePundit.