Love me a troublemaker….
It’s the troublemaker edition
Love the troublemakers
A few months ago I was asked to share my experiences, working in diversity and inclusion with a group of human resources business partners. A group that was increasingly being asked to take on more responsibilities for driving diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives in their part of the business. It’s fair to say they were pretty engaged and asked lots of good questions.
One of the questions was about how to handle people in the business who were disruptive in meetings when they were talking about D&I work.
The other panellist who I was sharing the session with suggested that those people should be “sacked”. He had had experience in another organisation where he sacked the whole management team because they weren’t behaving the right way. Ummm….
Maybe earlier in my career I might have suggested such a thing, but it does seem incongruent with what working in human resources is all about, which as its most basic is helping people do good work, and when this is not happening working out how to support to move things in the right direction. It’s certainly not what working in D&I is about where we want people to be themselves.
My suggestion was the opposite. Why don’t they try to work more with these people? Move towards the tension. Understand their frustrations and point of view. Use their energy to drive the work you are doing. Get them on side so they are disruptive towards what you are trying to achieve, not against.
There are always people in organisations who should be let go. The small group who are not performing, and who are toxic and behaving in a way that undermines the business. But in my experience, most people want to do a good job and feel part of something bigger.
Also in my experience the people who are disruptive and brave can be great allies in making things better. There is a leader I often connect with who says the most challenging things about D&I work. I have to remember to put myself in a curious space rather than a defensive space. When I do that, I learn a lot about what’s going on in the organisation. And that makes me a better D&I leader.
Lisa xx
No trouble here…
But we do have giggles and rainbows and a disruptive academic.
When meetings are no longer virutal
I can’t imagine this future. Will we ever return to the office? And if we do, what will it be like? Have we forgotten how to have face to face meetings? Do you need a giggle?
Monday 11 October celebrated and raised awareness for the LGBTIQ+ community. The thing I learnt this year is that the LGBTIQ+ community is always coming out. It’s not a one and done event. This post really summed it up for me. So exhausting.
Keeping with the them of troublemakers I have Latha Poonamallee on the podcast this week, from New York City (oh to travel to NYC). She bucked the trend of Indian women and had a baby on her own while developing her career in academia, leadership, diversity and inclusion and tech.