Courageous conversations
The Courageous Conversations programmes helps us to understand how well we can work with diverse groups of people by understanding our own bias around difference and promote inclusion.
We need this today more than ever because the problems that we face like global conflict, health and viruses, resource shortages, and climate change cannot be solved by one nation acting by itself.
These long-term intractable problems can only be solved by unprecedented levels of co-operation between nations and people.
The only way to solve problems is to work together by “breaking down the barriers to communication”
We adapt and filter information given and received to us through our daily interaction with people. We relate differently when we are at home, when we are with our friends and when we are at work. The information we give and receive in these different situations may be biased based on the people we are interacting with, our preferences, judgements and values.
So we have to figure out what it means to be true to ourselves, while knowing we always need to filter and re-appropriate how we express ourselves based on the context.
Authenticity is noble and many of us seek to be diverse and inclusive. How do we give people the safety to be themselves while also expecting flexibility as a ‘team player? When are an organisations values unifying and when do they squelch diversity and innovation? Can authenticity become an excuse for inflexibility?
The more you work with people who don’t share your values, norms and expectations, the more you’re going to have to choose between what is effective and what feels authentic. And what is “authentic” to one person may be “offensive” to another.
At its core, Courageous Conversations helps you to open up discussions around difference and inclusion to enable a much deeper level of understanding to take place.
Hiring people who are willing to go along with an organisations core values is essential. However hiring first and foremost based on ‘cultural fit’ quickly leads to a group think mentality. Instead of looking for people who fit the organisation culture, do you need to ask what is missing from it? This would bring in people who can contribute to your organisations culture and take it further by enriching and stretching it rather than hiring a person who simply fits with what your organisation already has.
So, what does a courage conversation mean if:
- you are a white male managing a white male/female?
- you are a white female managing a white male/female?
- you are a white male managing a male/female person of colour?
- you are a white female managing a male/female person of colour?
- you are a male person of colour managing a white male/female?
- you are a female person of colour managing a white male/female?
- you are a male person of colour managing a male/female person of colour?
- you are a female person of colour managing a male/female person of colour
- you manage someone who is from a different country?
- you manage someone with a different accent?
- you manage someone who has a mental health diagnosis
- you manage someone with a physical disability?
- you have/do not have experience of any of the above.
Do you have anyone at work that you speak to about the challenges you may have managing someone who is ‘different’ from the ‘culture fit’, or do you keep this to yourself as you do not want to be perceived as being a sexist, racist, or having a phobia?
What do you do if there are performance issues with that someone who is ‘different’ from the ‘culture fit’?
Are you comfortable to address the performance issues with them or do the performance issues continue to manifest until they get to an unacceptable level resulting in a potentially more severe or higher tariff of capability to be addressed with the presenting evidence of unacceptable performance that you have gathered?
The only way we can grow is to stretch ourselves beyond the limits of who we are and to take a more culturally intelligent approach to authenticity and fit.
With JGC, we help you to talk honestly about some of the issues and dilemna’s that you have encountered with managing difference in a safe, confidential environment and we discuss how to become a fuller, more authentic version of yourself.
BE YOURSELF – BUT EVOLVE
“Inclusion is not bringing people into what already exists; it is making a new space, a better space for everyone.” George Dei
For more information about Courageous Conversations, please ‘Get in Touch‘