The Fear Factor: Why Leaders Are Petrified Of Getting Diversity Wrong

In case you missed it:

Here are 3 popular posts from the last week:

- Someone told me I’m “frequently disrespectful” to Chief Diversity Officers ??

- Don’t sacrifice short term “wins” for long term gains when it comes to your organisational culture.

- What does an effective change agent look like?

Make sure you share these with anyone who needs to know this

Yesterday We Hosted The Authority Series.

Our guest was author Tara Jaye Frank who spoke about her book: The Waymakers: Clearing The Path To Workplace Equity With Competence And Confidence?

I talk about it here.

I've read the book so you know what I think.

Here we got to learn from Tara Jaye Frank as the Authority!

Tara shared a lot of practical insights including:

- What to do if you're trying to encourage others to be Waymakers

- Why it's important to be seen, respected, valued and protected.

- A Framework for practical development

Make sure you check out our LinkedIn Live!

Check it out here

I love podcasts!

I was recently on the Good Morning, HR podcast with Mike Coffey, SPHR, SHRM-SCP ?

Mike is all about helping professionals improve how they recruit, select, and manage their people.

We spoke about so much including:

- Evidence Based Inclusion and how it differs from traditional DEI narratives

- Where you should go to find evidence and expertise

- Understanding "belonging" as a part of inclusion

There was lots more.

Check out the full show here

Over the past 18 months I’ve spoken to 147 People Leaders and “fear of getting it wrong” was a huge concern.

Over the past two weeks I’ve had conversations with a lot of people who feel that way right now.?

If you’re a regular member of our audience who puts these insights into practice then you are already in good shape.?But there’s nothing wrong with a reminder.?

Here I’m going to share 5 themes from several conversations I’ve had over the past couple of weeks about how organisations are responding to the horrific violence in Israel and Gaza.?

As always my intention is to help you to make your own mind up.

Here’s what I’m NOT going to do.?

- Provide an analysis of the news.

- Provide an analysis of the specific events themselves.?

- Provide any details about the identities of the people I’ve been speaking with.?

I will say they are Everyday Leaders like you.?

Some are devastated by the horrific violence.?

Some are devastated by the horrific violence… but afraid to talk about it.?

Some are directly affected.?

Some are indirectly affected.?

They all reached out to me directly and unsolicited and encouraged me to share what follows.?

I discuss this in more detail on our podcast but here’s the key points:

1 Should Organisations Talk About This??

If you don’t know the answer, this is indicative of one of 3 Biggest Problems Organisations experience on their Inclusion Journey.?

Performance: Organisations find it difficult to articulate a “business case for Diversity” for their specific organisation.

- I don’t mean money.?

- I don’t mean profits.?

- I don’t mean productivity.?

I mean what does Diversity, Equity Inclusion mean in your specific organisation.?

?- Not what the “experts” say.

?- Not what social media says.?

If you don’t know how to respond, you haven’t spent enough time deciding the relationship between the identity of your organisation?

and the identity of the people who comprise your organisation;

and your relationship with identity groups outside of your organisation.

Let’s get specific.?

If your organisation is vocal and articulate, saying things like:?

“we should bring our whole selves to work.”

“we care about social justice in society.”

“Diversity is the right thing to do.”

Your company is making claims and setting expectations about its beliefs and values.?

You might reasonably expect them to be as vocal and articulate about the horrific violence.?

You may even expect them to create spaces within the organisation for conversations to take place.?

Why??

Because “we should bring our whole selves to work.”

Because “we care about social justice in society.”

Because “Diversity is the right thing to do.”

It’s a lot more nuanced than that, but your individual circumstances matter.?

Think about the narrative in your own organisation.?

Is this in line with the response??

Some of you may be thinking:

“Dr. Jonathan, we don’t have a formal policy in place”.

That may be insufficient because you may be obliged to do “something” as part of your contract.

2 Are You Violating Your Psychological Contract?

Think of psychological contracts as a set of ‘promises, ‘expectations’ and obligations.

I talk about this here.?

They play a vital role in shaping the relationship between organisations and employees.?

You already know about the explicit promises in the workplace.?

?- How much you get paid.?

- Where you work ?

- When you work?

Not enough is known about the implicit promises.?

These arise from:?

- Observations of others

- Past interactions

- Good faith

- Fairness.

For leaders saying “we didn’t promise to talk about this..”I encourage you to consider if that is consistent with your psychological contract.

People expect you act in line with your psychological contract.??

If you don’t it is devastating.?

So much of the research on Psychological Contract is about avoiding a breach because it’s such bad news.?

You don’t want that.?

We tell our clients:?

If you’re making a statement: it’s important everyone knows why.?

If you’re choosing not to make any statements : it’s important everyone knows why.??

If your response is a surprise to members of your organisation,? then something is wrong.

If your response is a surprise to anyone you’re in a psychological contract with, then something is wrong.?

What are the expectations your organisation has set up based on their past interactions?

I’ve been speaking as if it’s all about how the organisation responds.

But what about the people in the organisation?

3 Do You Really Have Psychological Safety At Work?

This is something that Diversity experts talk about a lot.?

I wrote a post a couple of months back saying:?

“Is Psychological Safety meant for everyone? ??

People tell me what they think.

People tell me they are afraid to say these things in public. ??

Why??

They tell me they are afraid of “Diversity experts” and others tearing them down in public.”

Over the past two weeks people have been repeating this back to me.?

Do you feel comfortable discussing any of this with a Diversity expert or anyone in the public domain?

We talk about Psychological Safety with our clients and in our Book Club.

We like the definition from the book:? 4 Stages of Psychological Safety By Timothy R. Clark

He says:

"Psychological safety is a condition in which human beings feel?

?(1) included,?

(2) safe to learn,?

(3) safe to contribute

(4) safe to challenge the status quo?

?all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way."

I discuss the book in detail here.?

Leaders are realising that creating an environment of Psychological Safety is tougher than you think.?

It’s one thing discussing that accounting report, this is something else.?

Ask yourself: ?

How comfortable are you??

Who is comfortable??

Why??

You don’t have to do this alone.. help is at hand, if you’ve been nurturing the relationships properly.?

4 Did You Enable Employee Resource Groups?To Be Of Practical Use?

When I say Employee resource groups, I mean:?

?- Business resource groups?

- Staff networks

- ERGs

I don’t mind what you call them but specifically I’m referring to voluntary groups of employees within an organisation with:

- Shared values OR

- Shared social identity OR?

- Shared interests

You don’t need all, you need at least one.?

Some organisations will use them as a resource to do something useful.?Some organisations will use them as part of a performative action to pretend they care.?

Imagine two scenarios:??

Scenario 1:??

Employee Resource Groups?that enhance the careers of their members through?

?- Voice?

- Engagement?

- Psycho social support

- Career development support?

- Exploring identity as a resource in the organisation??

That’s not a random list, it’s a to do list from my thesis of how to enhance the careers of your employees and serve the organisation.?

Scenario 2:?

Employee Resource Groups?that are only given enough resources to mark cultural events.?

Flags, Food and Fun.?

Nothing else.?

Imagine approaching both for guidance and support.?

In the first scenario, you would already have the resources you need.?

Why??

Because Identity as a resource involves education.?

Here’s a quote from my thesis:?

“the employee resource group plays a more indirect, advisory role that supports operational functions.?

In particular, participants described the employee resource group providing relevant cultural education to the organisation that may be useful in an appropriate business context.??

This means that the education role did not always have to be drive profits; but it was useful for demonstrating value in the organisation.”

There’s a lot of people who wish they had that right now.?

I don’t want to over complicate it.?

The reason I tell you to start a book club is because it serves many purposes:

1. It gives you the opportunity to create a resource that involves education.?If you had a book club you can start to develop insights and garner some basic knowledge about the lived experiences of your colleagues!!!!This would help you decide the relationship between the identity of your organisation?and the identity of the people who comprise your organisation;and your relationship with identity groups outside of your organisation.
2. The very act of having a book club helps you to cultivate Psychological safety.
3. If you haven’t done these things you still can… but people will be paying attention because it will create a new set of ‘promises, ‘expectations’ and obligations.

5? It's Useful To Make Your Own Mind Up?

I always encourage you to think for yourself.

At any given point there are people trying to influence you. You should include me in this.?I do my best to reveal my bias and my agenda.

I’m on a mission to help a million people like you to make your workplace inclusive.?

Always bear that in mind with everything I share with you.?

There are a lot of people trying to persuade you right now.?

This makes me think of the Rhetorical Triangle.

?Ancient Greeks claimed there were three modes of persuasion.?

- Ethos, a credible appeal?

- Pathos an emotional appeal?

- Logos, an appeal to logic?

It is said that to have a persuasive argument you need all 3.?

The Rhetorical Problem of Diversity and Inclusion occurs when people rely too much on the pathos.. the emotional appeal and?too little on ethos and logos.

I talk about it in detail here.?

You’ll recognise this in the use of guilt and shaming to motivate you to change.?

I say this because there are people using guilt and shame in order to motivate you.?

I raise this because there are some:

?- Very Charismatic

- Very Convincing

- Very Persuasive people?

Telling you what you should and should not be doing.??

You need to make up your mind up about if they deserve your attention.

I encourage you to think for yourself through Evidence Based Inclusion .

I encourage you to collect evidence from at least 4 different sources:?

- The scientific literature

- The organisation

- The stakeholders?

- Professional Expertise

This helps you to make better decisions about how to tackle issues of Inclusion in your workplace.

It works for our clients.

It can work for you too.

PS.?

I want to draw attention to the underlying theme of dialogue and behaviour in public spaces.?

Life is not always in the public domain.?

I say this because there are people doing plenty in private.?For reasons of their own, they don’t want to talk about .?They don’t have to talk about it.?

We think of Diversity as a management approach recognises? that as individuals we have differences and there is value in those differences.

Evidently, people will think, behave, respond in ways that differ from our preferences.?

Managing this is not one bit easy.

But you don’t have to do it alone?

As always

I’m cheering you on.

Dr. Jonathan

Whenever you're ready, there are a few ways I can support your Inclusion Journey:

1. Work with me 1:1

2. Get Practical Book Insights

3. Get our Free Email Course