Scene One: January 23, 2007:
Leaning into our discomfort around inclusion
9 Practices for Organizational Change
Below are the 9 Practices for Organizational Change: Moving from Exclusion to Inclusion, presented by Patti Digh and David Robinson, The Circle Project, presenters of this session. Included below are examples of how to implement the Practices in your workplace and personal life.
Practice #1: Reframe Your Story: What if you focused on strengths, not shortcomings?
Meaning-making has very little to do with truth or fact and is more a function of your frame of reference. How would changing your frame of reference change the meaning you make? Celebrate what might look like a problem. What do you see now?
Example: You are tired of your manager ignoring your contributions. You come into work everyday earlier than everyone and leave later than everyone. You meet your numbers and goals, but are never considered for promotions.
How can you reframe this story?
You have an opportunity to take control and be creative. You can ask your manager for a development plan, ask for feedback on work and start thinking outside the box. You can do what you need and want to get noticed because your manager isn't watching your every move.
Practice #2: Put Down Your Clever: What would happen if you picked up your ordinary instead?
How would your relationships change if you let go of your need to be right? What would you see if you let go of your need to be the expert or any other "role" that keeps you separate? What you judge as "ordinary" in yourself is actually what makes you unique; you are at your most powerful and authentic when you "put down your clever and pick up your ordinary."
Example: You are intimidated of your new co-worker. He got hired right out of a great university, while you never graduated from college. He seems to be the star of the show before his first day even begins. You anxiously wait his start-date, thinking of all the ways you can assert your authority by showing him the ropes, slowly and sparsely. You can't let your boss know that he may be smarter and more capable.
Put down your clever!
The new hire shows up and instead of giving him a cold and incomplete run-through of the ropes, you tell him, "You know, I've never been great with computers, and since you just graduated I'm sure you've used your fair share. Do you mind helping me with a new program I'm trying to install?" Suddenly you're not in competition with the new hire; you've allowed yourself the opportunity for a new, more helpful relationship.
Practice #3: See And Be Seen: How willing are you to really be seen?
After you are able to put down your clever you will discover that you are capable of being seen. Only then will you be able to see others. There is directionality in "seeing;" relationship requires that you allow yourself to be seen.
Example: After telling the new hire that you are not very comfortable with computers, you've opened yourself up to not just be seen as the employee with five more years experience. You don't have to constantly be on guard, making sure he knows that you have more experience. You can be seen as an employee with different skills to bring to the table. As you open yourself to be seen, you will not just view the new employee as the recent college graduate who is after your next promotion.
Practice #4: Find Your Edges: Is your edge a boundary or a horizon?
All significant change and learning happens at the edges and the edges are rarely comfortable. Discomfort is a signal that you are on edge. Find it. Don't judge it. You'll discover there is often a significant discrepancy between what you think you do at the edge and what you actually do.
Example: Your company has just hired a customer service representative to work in a visible location. This person has a bar pierced through her nose. You can't believe that your company would risk losing business by hiring such an out-of-the-ordinary employee and you are against the whole idea. You don't like these "angry" types who pierce and tattoo themselves all over their bodies. This is your boundary.
Let it be your horizon!
Ask the new employee a question to open up the dialogue. You might be surprised to find that she is an African Studies major and pierced her nose in admiration of the ancient nomadic Berber and Beja tribes of Africa. You may also be surprised that not every customer of your company finds her nose piercing offensive or intimidating. In fact, the data shows that more and more young people are becoming customers, apparently not affected by the appearance of customer service representatives.
Practice #5: Embrace Wicked Problems: What would it take for you to resist tame solutions?
What would happen if your organization started having the necessary conversations to confront wicked problems rather than resist them with tame solutions? Get to the root of your organization's intentions with its diversity and inclusion efforts and follow through with that intention.
Example:
A group of executives participate in a diversity and inclusion seminar. After a morning of intense, thoughtful and enlightening conversation, the CEO decides that this has gone far enough; he steps in to complete the rest of the seminar himself. He breaks the team up into three and asks each team to design a potluck, brochure and video, respectively, to showcase the company's diversity efforts. Rather than allowing a break-through to occur, the CEO "solves" the wicked problem of diversity with a very tame solution.
What could you have done in this situation?
Challenge the authority in your organization - be the catalyst for change you want to see. You could ask to speak with the CEO out in the hall. Use the approach of speaking for yourself. Say that you have been incredibly motivated by the direction the conversation was going. And to stop it and assign planning tasks feels like putting a band-aid on a deep cut that needs stitches. Suggest that he might like to ask the group what would be most meaningful for them at this point and really listen to what his direct reports have to say. Invite him to consider the buy-in that he has achieved during the morning and that he may have an unusual opportunity this afternoon to effect some real change in the organization. In other words, spark and participate in those difficult conversations necessary to make any real progress.
Read more about Wicked Problems and Tame Solutions
Practice #6: Know Your Mask: How would taking off your mask change the quality of your engagement with others?
The majority of your communication is nonverbal. How are you consciously or unconsciously blocking your communication with others? Discover and come to know your mask; when is it necessary and when are you hiding?
Example: You walk by the receptionist, a Latina woman, everyday. Sometimes you smile, sometimes she is on the phone so you just look ahead and keep walking. The turnover rate for receptionists is so high, why take the time to get to know another one? Your mask is that you are better than a receptionist. You don't have time for people in such low menial jobs. You might even be prejudiced.
Take off your mask!
You might be surprised to find commonalities in other people if you take off your mask and communicate with others. Ask the receptionist how her weekend was. Ask her if she has kids. Ask her where she grew up. Practice with all of your co-workers. You will find that not only will your quality of engagement be much more meaningful, but you won't have to hide who you are in front of others anymore either.
Practice #7: Grant Specificity To The Other: Can you acknowledge that every single person you meet is as richly human as you are?
How would your engagements change if you recognized that every human being has the same depth of experience as you do? That their hopes, dreams, frustrations—their lives—are as rich and varied in experience as yours?
Example: Your company hires a man who has a seeing disability. You think to yourself how difficult it will be to get to know someone who can't even see you. Oh well, his disability is not something you want to deal with anyway.
Don't think of him as a "what." Think of him as a "who."
Yes, this man has a disability. But he is a person with a disability, much like you are a person who is Asian, or white, or black, etc. This is not your only definition. There are other aspects in this man's life that define him just as much. Find out if he likes sports, where he's traveled, how many kids he has, where he's worked in the past. Once you get past the "what" and get to the "who," it will be easy and enriching to see each person as uniquely human as you are.
Practice #8: Say "Yes And..."
How does the language you use facilitate or impede connection? Using a "yes, and" approach is always generative and expansive, while using a "yes, but" approach is always reductive and exclusionary.
Example: You are heading up a committee to explore new training methods for your incoming hires. You have a budget and a timeline. The committee starts off on a creative foot, offering suggestions that have never been provided to new employees. You, however, cannot fathom how these ideas would work considering how cost-efficient and quickly the programs must kick-off. You answer every idea with a "Yes, but we have to keep in mind that we can't afford to give everyone PDAs," or "Yes, but I don't think we can create webinars for every topic in the time provided." The committee becomes much less creative and much more conservative in their ideas, producing very typical ideas for training programs.
Say "Yes, And!"
Although not every idea can work in an organization, allowing the possibility for expansion can produce successful ideas. Rather than a "Yes, but I don't think we have time to create webinars," say, "Yes, and we could produce webinars that are short enough to work in the time provided." Or "Yes, and we can produce a few webinars for the most important topics." Once you eliminate "but" from your vocabulary, you will open yourself up to possibilities you never thought possible.
Practice #9: Remember The Triangle
We're rarely aware of the impact of even the simplest action. Are you underestimating the impact of your choices? How might your smallest action ripple through a community or organization, and beyond?
Example: You work in HR for a large organization and decide to hire Samantha, a person who is openly transgender. You realize that this will have some effect on the other employees, but Samantha is qualified for the job and you need to hire someone right away. After Samantha starts working you realize that this hire has a much greater impact than you thought it might. You are getting calls and e-mails in support of and in opposition to Samantha. Then your company finds itself on the Human Rights Campaign website for companies GLBT should support. This one hire has led to reactions internally and externally that are opening up a broader discussion, when you were originally just looking for someone to fill a position.
What you do and what you say can have a ripple effect throughout any organization. Although everyone might not agree with what you do and say, your true intentions should guide you.
Patti Digh and David Robinson of The Circle Project were the presenters for the first session, January 23, 2007, on inclusion and engagement in the workplace. Diversity and Inclusion Intentions are one of the main constructs of diversity and inclusion work.
Scene One was the first session of the 2007 NW Diversity Learning Series held in Seattle Washington, Life theater - Inclusion and Engagement: Challenging and Expanding My diversity Competency: Moving Beyond My Comfort Zone. The Series is organized by The GilDeane Group, publishers of DiversityCentral.com.