My understanding of the phrase “Perception is reality” is that people will act on what they perceive to be reality.
We all do it. I perceive that it is cold outside; I dress according to that perception. Another person may perceive that it is a pleasant day and dress for a warm day.
The reality is that it is 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Some perceive it as cold others do not.
I have oversimplified the concept but I am not a philosopher
While I would agree with what you are stating and that is essentially what I argued (unsuccessfully I might add) that what a given person perceives and how the act accordingly may have literally nothing to do with the reality of the given situation (they may be irrational or illogical). The training was going in the direction of what we see now with “systemic racism” and SJW causes writ large. The instructors were basically telling the entire class that to be effective as a supervisor that you have to bend to the will of the other person’s perception of reality in order to stay in their good graces and effectively supervise them. My argument was that if you can redirect the other person’s perception to reality when they are divorced from it (by being persuasive and not just coming from a position of power), that both could benefit. There are also people who are not able to be convinced (cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, etc.), so you do have to tread lightly and not get into trouble (potential personal liability and all that it entails).
At any rate, if they had approached the subject matter in the way that you describe it, it would’ve been palatable to me.