Introduction

The Center for KICKGLASS Change is based in the Farmer School of Business to provide cultural leadership and social change skills to all Miami University students, faculty, and staff. It also offers skills credentials and consulting to external organizations and individuals. The Farmer School of Business provides a professional platform for the Center’s high-tech/ high-touch, building the Center’s initiatives on the model of BQ Model of Future Work Skills that was the foundation of the Farmer School’s First-year Integrated Core. 

The Center designs, funds, and facilitates BEYOND READY CQ, the Farmer School of Business’ innovative new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion skills program, provides students with opportunities to take co-curricular credentials within its CQ Leadership program, advances under-represented talent to leadership, and creates organizational CQ within the Farmer School of Business and beyond. 

KICKGLASS Mission

The Center’s mission is to:

• Enhance individual and organizational CULTURE INTELLIGENCE [adaptability to Cultural difference] within the Farmer School of Business and across Miami University.
• Provide our students (and external participants) with the CULTURAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS desired by employers by shifting from awareness to empathy, and actively demonstrating inclusive leadership behaviors.
• Develop AGENTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE by providing perspective-taking and empathy through experiential learning and cultural immersion, empowering the majority to use their voice to stand up for what’s right, and act strategically to drive social change.
• Provide Miami University’s underrepresented undergraduate and PMBA students (students of color, women, LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities) with preparation to ADVANCE TO LEADERSHIP in a variety of industries, with a focus on increasing representation in tech-related industries.

KICKGLASS Programming

The Center for KICKGLASS Change provides individuals with the knowledge, perspectives, and skills needed to create systemic social change in the workplace, marketplace, and broader society through a variety of offerings designed for members of majority and minority cultures. Social change is defined as changes in human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions. By this definition, social change work must begin at the individual level to build a foundation for systemic change. 

This year, KICKGLASS launched the BEYOND READY CQ program with CQ FOUNDATIONS for all 1400 first-year Farmer School of Business students. We also launched our KICKGLASS Organizational CQ program with CQ training for FSB Professional Advising staff and FSB Faculty. In Spring 2021, we will launch KICKGLASS CQ LEADERSHIP credentials and the GLASSKICKERS program to advance under-represented talent into leadership.

Beyond Ready CQ 

The Farmer School of Business is developing students who are BEYOND READY for the complex business environment that awaits them in the workplace, marketplace, and society. The BEYOND READY CQ program is facilitated and funded by the Center for KICKGLASS CHANGE and designed to provide Farmer School of Business students with a unified strategy and skill set for how to relate and work across cultural differences at home and abroad. All components of the program will be available as curricular offerings to Farmer School of Business students. 

As an AACSB accredited school, our curriculum is designed to provide our students with core work skills required for success in the marketplace, workplace and society. Given the increasing diversity of business environments, we have prioritized a human skill – cultural intelligence, or an individual’s capability to adapt and function effectively in different cultural environments and situations characterized by cultural diversity. According to a recent McKinsey report on Diversity and Inclusion, embracing different cultures and viewpoints drives innovation, improves decision-making, increases employee productivity and retention, and leads to higher profitability.

BEYOND READY CQ is funded and administered by the Center for KickGlass Change. It is designed to provide Farmer School of Business students with curricular opportunities to develop their cultural intelligence (or CQ), measure their progress, and provide evidence of their CQ skills for future employers. This program begins with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program in BUS 101 within the skills-focused First-Year Integrated core.

DEI Modules in BUS 101 include:

• The Business Case for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Embracing Cognitive Diversity in Business
• CQ Foundations - CQ self-assessment, learning, self-reflection, and development of four-year CQ Growth plan.
• The innovativeness and rigor of the BEYOND READY CQ program was recently recognized by Insight Into Diversity, Global Education Times, and Poets and Quants

KICKGLASS CQ Leadership

The KICKGLASS CQ Leadership program focuses on developing open-minded leaders, of all identity intersectionalities, who enter the workforce with the tools to mitigate individual and structural bias and the empathy to include and unite. These workshops will develop Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion skills organized around the four CQ Dimensions to a variety of stakeholders.  The Center will offer Virtual Reality training that places the learner in a real-life situation to identify bias and develop empathy and allyship through perspective-taking. KICKGLASS Credentials will also focus on the intersection of Diversity and Inclusion with vital work skills including collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership and can be scaffolded for certificates. 

The CQ LEADERSHIP program provides opportunities for “majority” students to become agents of social change through empowerment to use their voice, experiential learning within difference, and full immersion to understand the experience of minorities. The CQ LEADERSHIP PROGRAM will provide students and professionals with the opportunity to complete co-curricular credentials to develop their Cultural Leadership skills. The credentials will be designed to promote growth through CQ DRIVE, CQ KNOWLEDGE, CQ STRATEGY, and CQ ACTION. It will provide participants with programmatic development through the four CQ dimensions to performative CQ LEADERSHIP in the CQ ACTION stage. 

In each stage, students will focus on self-awareness, perspective-taking, and skill-development to develop as open-minded leaders, of all identity intersectionalities, who enter the workforce with the tools to mitigate individual and structural bias and the empathy to include and unite. The credentials will develop Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion skills organized around the four CQ Dimensions to a variety of stakeholders. The KICKGLASS CQ LEADERSHIP program will leverage the Farmer School of Business’s decades of experience with delivering high-quality experiential learning opportunities to students and external participants. The Center for KICKGLASS Change will offer a variety of in-person and technologically-enabled remote credentials that will be available to all Miami students, faculty, and staff. They will also be extended outside the university for executive education and alumni learning.

Participants receive digital credentials which can be published on LinkedIn and social media to provide evidence of CQ development to employers, graduate schools, and customers. Each credential will consist of E-Learning and in-person workshops. Students can plan to earn all four credentials in one academic year. Each credential has a discounted fee of $199 for Farmer School of Business students. Click here to learn more about each CQ Leadership credential and register your interest.

KICKGLASS CQ Leadership Scholarships 

KICKGLASS CQ Leadership Scholarships are available for students with financial need and for under-represented talent. Under-represented talent in Leadership includes students of color, LGBTQ+ students, female students in economics and finance, and students with physical disabilities. Please contact Dr. Gillian Oakenfull, Director of the Center for KickGlass Change at goakenfull@miamioh.edu for more information.

GLASSKICKERS

The GLASSKICKERS program will provide Miami University’s underrepresented talent (students of color, women, LGBTQ+, physical disabilities) with preparation to advance to leadership in a variety of industries.  GLASSKICKERS will receive scholarships to complete all  KICKGLASS SKILLS credentials at no cost. Advancement activities will have a specific focus on careers in technology to increase minority representation in technology-related industries. GLASSKICKERS will also receive scholarships to participate in FSB Global Studies program in Asia, Europe, and South America or the Digital Innovation program in San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Luxembourg. These students will coordinate the KICKGLASS FORUM, a diversity-related expert series. 

Please contact Dr. Gillian Oakenfull, Director of the Center for KickGlass Change at goakenfull@miamioh.edu for more information on the GLASSKICKERS program.