How to speak up against bias… without losing your job ??

Welcome to Simply Diversity. This bimonthly letter breaks down key diversity concepts and explains how you can apply them... simply. There are plenty of terms heard ‘round the Internet as we prioritize diversity, inclusion and belonging in everything we do. This newsletter explains what these concepts are, why they’re important, and how to practice them.?

During a client training session, someone asked, “what do you do when you hear a microaggression and you want to say something, but you don’t feel you have enough power?”?

In other words: how do you speak up without putting yourself in the line of fire?

Break it down:?

It’s an important question, and it’s a reason why so many of us stay silent: we’re scared to put ourselves at risk!?

So how can you interrupt as individuals without losing our jobs? And how do you incentivize your teams and managers to interrupt it as well??

You have to understand and recognize your privilege.

When it comes to the workplace, I’m talking about two kinds of privilege:?

1. Social privilege, i.e. your identities that align with the dominant or majority culture, such as white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, Christian, able-bodied, citizenship, etc.
2. Workplace privilege, i.e. your tenure or seniority in the company or your current role, and your relationship with your colleagues, managers, and direct-reports

How much privilege you do or don’t have determines the risk you take by speaking up. For example, let’s say you’re a cisgender man:

• If you’re the least experienced and least-tenured person in a meeting, it might not be wise to call out the CEO on his biased comment towards your female colleagues?
• But if you’re a high-ranking cisgender man, you may be the perfect person to call out the CEO in the meeting

Addressing bias and microaggressions without taking undue risks requires recognizing and leveraging your privilege when you can. This requires adding context to the situation. It means you have to look around the room and assess your privilege relative to others’. It also means you have to acknowledge you have privilege at all.?

You will find that if you do this quick context assessment, you may be a cisgender white male with the least amount of privilege or a lesbian Latina female with the most! Understanding the levels of privilege in the room helps address the miscommunication and hurt feelings that arise when we’re expecting allyship from someone who doesn’t have the privilege to give it.

As for incentivizing your teams and managers to interrupt them as well? It’s simple, though not easy:?

Do Something Different:

The truth is, sometimes you have to put yourself in the line of fire — especially when you have workplace and social privilege. So what can you do?

1. Role-model the behavior and expect others to do the same?

Call yourself out when you commit a microaggression. Provide unconscious bias training for your team and learn with them. My Unconscious Bias course is a great place to start. It was the most popular course on LinkedIn Learning this year, and it’s free until October 15th!

You can also tie the behavior to company values: set the expectation to speak up when things are out of alignment with your values as a company.

2. Confront without being confrontational?

Say something without accusing. For example, ask for clarification: “I took your comment this way. Is that what you meant?” This works well for someone senior to you, at your level, or someone earlier in their career.

3. Create psychological safety

Never shame someone for bringing attention to a microaggression… or committing one. It has to be safe to make mistakes! Never gaslight and do your best not to get defensive — and to diffuse defensiveness in others when you can.?

My final piece of advice is the least glamorous but most effective: practice. Bringing attention to bias is never cut-and-dried or easy because people are involved.

But that’s why it’s worth it: because people are involved! At the end of the day, we want the same things: to do a good job, be liked and respected, and to feel confident and valued.?

Every time you use your privilege to interrupt bias or raise awareness of a microaggression, you make your workplace a place where more people can fully thrive.?

What tactics do you use at work to create psychological safety? How about role-modeling this behavior? Please share your tips in the comments and let’s start a conversation.?

About Stacey Gordon and Rework Work:

Stacey Gordon is Executive Advisor and Diversity Strategist of Rework Work where she and her team coach and counsel executive leaders on DEI strategies for the business, while offering a no-nonsense approach to unconscious bias education for the broader employee population. Stacey’s unconscious bias course has consistently been the second-highest viewed course on the LinkedIn Learning platform and it has also been translated into at least four languages. You can find Stacey’s book, UNBIAS: Addressing Unconscious Bias at Work, at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and wherever books are sold.