Get Out of Our Silos, and Other Actions for Allies
Each week, Karen Catlin shares five simple actions to create a more inclusive workplace and be a better ally.
1. Get out of our silos
Last weekend, after the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden addressed the nation. He urged us to stand together: “While we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens.”
Biden also said, “Here in America, we need to get out of our silos, where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is rampant, where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours.”
Minutes later, Trump posted “UNITE AMERICA!” on his Truth Social account. And he pledged to use his upcoming Republican Convention speech to unite the nation rather than attack Biden. Source (Note: I wrote this newsletter before Thursday night’s speech.)
I found myself thinking about something I heard Dr. Bernice A. King , CEO of the King Center, say at a conference a few years ago. She also emphasized the importance of getting out of our silos (yes, those exact words Biden used in his speech) and connecting with coworkers in a real way. She encouraged us to be curious and understand their world. To learn where they are. To give them space and place to have genuine and honest conversations.
For example, she told us about a woman who wanted to remove the Confederate flag from a government building. Instead of getting angry and defensive when a man pushed back, she asked why the flag was important to him — not to trick him but to understand him. In turn, he then asked her why it was important to her to remove the flag.
They were able to have a genuine, honest, and productive conversation.
Allies, let’s all strive to get out of our silos and have such conversations ourselves. In our personal lives and at work.
To do so myself, I’ll rely on some of my favorite clarifying questions:
I hope you’ll join me.
2. Look out for all-dude events
Last week, I came across a LinkedIn post about a Digital Asset Roundtable that “was a fantastic session, where practitioners, builders and leaders from across the industry were able to explore and build consensus. And a shared commitment to scale our infrastructure and delivery for our clients.”
It included a photo of 19 smiling people, all appearing to be men. Many, if not all, are white.
Another day, another all-dude event. ??
Let’s check the invite list for the next exclusive, important event you receive. If it lacks diversity, take a minute to consider who is missing. Someone who could contribute to the conversation, thinking, problem-solving, and strategic direction setting. Someone your firm or industry needs to remain relevant and grow.
And score them an invite.
p.s. If you have an assistant who screens your emails and manages your calendar, ask them to be on the lookout for events lacking diversity, too.
3. Repeat yourself when asked
I recently started following Casual Ableism, an Instagram account that raises awareness of ableism by sharing real situations. Here’s one of their posts that I found especially helpful:
“The amount of times, as a HOH [hard of hearing] person, I need to ask people to repeat themselves and they just say ‘don’t worry about it’ or ‘I’ll just tell you later.’ It’s not hard to try again. It’s not hard to include and accommodate.”
When someone asks us to repeat ourselves, let’s do so right then and there.
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4. Write respectfully about disabilities
Last week, subscriber Carolyne Taylor shared the first item in my newsletter at their weekly “Wake Up HR” event for the CPHR BC & Yukon community. Some members who are disability experts pointed out that my terminology could be better phrased as “people with disabilities” versus “disabled people.”
I regularly get comments about using person-first language (“people with disabilities”) or identity-first language (“disabled people”) from disabled people and disability experts, and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus. Opinions also seem to vary depending on geography and personal preference.
And as explained in this article from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), some groups prefer one style over the other. For example, many people in the Deaf community and many in the autism community prefer identity-first language.
The article includes, “If writing generally, experts suggest defaulting to person-first language when writing about children and using a mix of person-first and identity-first language when writing about adults or autistic individuals generally.”
I should have used a mix in the first item in my newsletter last week.
One last thing: Let’s respect the language others use to describe themselves. Read more in this cautionary tale I shared last year.
5. Community Spotlight: Review past editions of “5 Ally Actions” with your team
This week’s spotlight on an ally action from the Better Allies community is from a subscriber who wrote,
“I meet with a small group of colleagues quarterly to discuss various leadership topics. Our next session will be to review your archived newsletters, choose a topic from one of your weekly messages, and take 10 minutes or so to talk about the topic. We will share how it’s relevant to us and why we wanted to learn more about it.”
I love it. If you’d like to do a similar exercise with your team, you can find my archived newsletters online.
And I’d like to learn from you next. What’s one step you’ve taken to be a better ally? Please reply to this email and tell me about it. And please mention if I can quote you by name or credit you anonymously in an upcoming newsletter.
That’s all for this week. I wish you strength and safety as we all move forward.
— Karen Catlin (she/her), author of the Better Allies? book series
Copyright ? 2024 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.
Upcoming Event
August 7 2024: I’ll be speaking with Dr. Erica Taylor, MD MBA about allyship in healthcare at a webinar hosted by the Orthopaedic Diversity Leadership Consortium. To claim your free spot, register by selecting “Better Allies” as your organization and by using the access code BETTERALLIES.
Many thanks to our sponsors, including American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH), Duke Orthopaedics, Exactech, J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society (JRGOS), Johnson & Johnson DePuy Synthes, and Stryker.
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