Understanding the Lies Our Brains Tell Us is the First Step Toward True Diversity

On The Crossman Conversation, we talk a lot about diversity and how to achieve it—but we haven’t talked about why that’s so difficult. And then Jason Greer explained it.

Jason is an employee relations and diversity expert, founder of Greer Consulting, Inc., and bestselling author of Bias, Racism & the Brain: How we got here and what needs to happen. When he talks about diversity, he skips the platitudes and goes straight to the core of the issue.

“Our brains are consistently telling us a story about the outside world,” Jason said. “But what we’re finding through research is that 98 percent of what your brain is telling you is an absolutely lie because the brain is geared toward safety and the brain wants to keep you safe.”

When we’re in an unfamiliar situation, Jason explained, our brains might perceive it as unsafe and go into a threat state. We get scared and we push back.

When diversity training focuses on differences rather than similarities, it’s the same effect. “What the trainees are absorbing is we’re different, we’re different, we’re different,” said Jason. “If the brain is geared toward identifying the environment for threats, when the brain hears ‘different,’ it automatically thinks it’s unsafe.”

The solution is to minimize the differences and find more room for commonalities. It’s a simple yet challenging concept—and if you’re willing to put in the effort, it works.

That’s a practical takeaway from our conversation. But Jason shared more that you’ll want to hear.

When he was a teenager, his family was the target of cross burnings by the Ku Klux Klan. He was harassed, attacked, and called the N word so often that he thought about changing his name.

Then God touched his heart with a message of forgiveness.

But Jason didn’t simply forgive the people who had tormented him—he asked them to forgive him and he did it in a stunningly public way. You’ll want to hear Jason’s own words as he explains what he did and why.

Jason’s powerful story is one of the most Christlike I’ve ever heard. Listen to our conversation here:

https://www.theshepherdradio.com/podcasts/the-crossman-conversation/episode/s1e34-jason-greer-nicknamed-the-employee-whisperer-shares-deep-insights-into-diversity/

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John Crossman is the founder of Crossman Career Builders, the host of The Crossman Conversation, and the author of Career Killers Career Builders. Check out Crossman Career Builders on YouTube. Connect with John on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.