Trauma informed is the future of workplace Inclusion
I’m often asked (by people who’ve known me for a while), how it is that I manage to remain calm while leading diversity, equity, and inclusion work.?
The truth is that I didn’t always feel calm; the first decade+ of my career was profoundly challenging. I took every workplace interaction personally, often spent hours rehearsing what I wanted to say to a manager or colleague, and so many other behaviors that I didn’t see mirrored by peers.?
My path to navigating sticky, political, highly racialized workplace interactions with calm came from a very late-in-life realization that far too many people experience(d) an immense amount of trauma and, as a result, developed behaviors and habits that….were unpleasant (for a lack of a better word).?
Note: This doesn’t discount microaggressions and discrimination being experienced by women of color, LGBTQIA identifying, and others at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.?
It does, however, offer a lens.?
[Trigger Warning]
?At 15, I had an ACE score of 7 out of 10.?
ACE stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. More in the resources section below. NPR has a quiz if you want to get your score!
Why that number worried my guidance counselor didn’t become apparent to me until much later in life. Nor did I understand the future outcomes - for my personal and professional life.?
Approximately 61% of U.S. adults have experienced at least one type of ACE, and nearly 1 in 6 have experienced 4 or more types of ACEs.?
In short, a lot of people are walking around with unimaginable trauma.
And like underrepresented identities, the compounding effects can be felt decades later and show up as -?
There are other, less obvious indicators:?
Do any of these feel familiar? Many of these behaviors also overlap with Tema Okun's work on white dominant & white supremacist workplace characteristics.
What we carry with us can’t be brushed aside when we clock in at 9 am.?
How often are we working with people that have experienced both big 'T' and little 't' trauma? ?
It’s common to ask an employee to take a personality quiz or a strengths assessment, but we rarely know which of our colleagues are impacted by abuse, parental divorce or separation, neglect, and other traumas in childhood (or ones they are experiencing right now).?
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Nor do we fully understand or accommodate for the impact of highly publicized events such as mass shooting events, job loss, extended caregiving, and more.?
Working with a trauma-informed lens at work is critical.?
The risk of not doing this can't be overlooked.
Most organizations struggle to provide the support that their employees (including managers and leaders) need. It leads to what psychologist?Jennifer Freyd ?describes?as "institutional betrayal."
?Institutional betrayal occurs when an institution you trust or depend upon mistreats you.?It can arise due to deliberate actions that harm, as well as from?failing to act ?when action is expected.
How many of us have felt this betrayal over the past two years?
Freyd lays out three steps to integrate a trauma-informed lens at work.
The path forward is, in some ways, is common sense. Translating it to organizational behaviors and habits is the hard part.
ICYMI - Data is Love with Sapna Sopori
This week I had a great conversation with educator and activist Sapna Sopori about?Learning from Trauma-informed Workplaces . We discussed how healing and psychological safety are DEIJ-work and why both need to be a part of our workplace cultures.
Resources
About ACEs
From Standford SPARQ.
Developed by Felitti and colleagues (1998), the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Scale includes 17 items that measure childhood exposure to trauma such as psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, neglect, mental illness, domestic violence, divorce, and having a parent in prison.
Researchers have used the?Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale?with adults of all ages, including White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian respondents from different socioeconomic backgrounds (Felitti et al., 1998). Additionally, the National Crittenton Foundation (2016) tested the ACE Scale with a group of White, Black, Latinx, Native American, and multiracial respondents that included older children and teens (ages 10 to 18).
Founder ALG Consulting │ Building safer, respectful, caring & inclusive organizational culture │ Global trauma-informed policy advisor: harassment prevention, DEI and wellbeing │ Facilitator and learning designer
1 年Hi Aparna R. this! it just popped into my feed - we are so aligned, here is an article I have written and shared on the topic with considerable interest in Canada and beyond - I can see this is needed: let's keep this movement alive: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-we-need-more-trauma-informed-approach-deib-adriana-leigh
Founder | Organizational Effectiveness Consultant | Leadership Coach | Board Member | Published Author | Culture, Strategy and Operations Expert
2 年Insightful Aparna. Leaders who build relationships with their team, listen and use empathy probably know more about trauma their employees have those who don’t.
Award winning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility & Well being (DEIABW) Strategist | DEI Auditor | DEI Council - External Advisor | DEI Speaker | Strategy Consultant “ Inclusion starts with I ” - Neetu Taj
2 年This is a painful intersectionality that most people miss or shy from sharing. but often these have always been grounds for strong bonds as well! Totally love this but I doubt if organisations have it in them to take it to these levels of depth of inclusivity!
With Me Change Happens! Harnessing the Magic in 'co.'llective - co.create; co.alition; co.llaborate | Human-Centered People & Transformation Strategist | Master Facilitator | Creator | Behavioral Coach
2 年As an individual, who's story & history includes many forms of trauma, I am deeply grateful the dialogue is beginning to shift into to the open and cultural expectations that any and all trauma are to be kept quiet [or least to never be acknowledged beyond a therapist's room if one can access it]. I'm extremely grateful to know deeply dedicated individuals are providing ways for organizations to bring trauma respectfully into dialogue & processes. TY Aparna R. You may be interested to get to know Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, PhD and her work in this area, if you 2 are not yet connected. I expereinced Yabome earlier this year through the AI Jam 2022 as a featured speaker and new connection.
Designing at the intersection of trauma-responsiveness, education, systems change, and organizational culture ?? ??????
2 年I love this so so much. Trauma-informed systems is my wheelhouse and I’m so excited it’s entering the larger conversation!