Bias, Police Shootings and What You Should Do

IMPLICIT BIAS: Most of us would like to think we’re not biased. Yet it is almost impossible to grow up in our culture without absorbing unconscious attitudes that – like the air we breathe – may play out in our actions. In order to measure your own level of unconscious (or implicit) bias, you may want to take the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Developed by a group of Harvard researchers, the test is free and anonymous — Project Implicit. Also, in my experience, it’s hard to “game” the test. For an useful explanation of the test and the follow-up studies, go to: NPR’s Hidden Brain Podcast: The Air We Breathe: Implicit Bias And Police Shootings 

ARE PEOPLE “BAD” OR UNCONSCIOUS? While in the past we may have focused on labeling people as racist, sexist and so on, we now know, that — even those of us with the best intentions — may act in unconscious ways that exhibit bias. I was shocked to discover, for example, the first time I took the IAT, that I exhibited a bias toward men as family breadwinners, even though I had worked since my children were six months old and was a single mother for ten years.

CAN A TEST REVEAL BIAS? Follow-up studies to the IAT have found that there is indeed a strong correlation between unconscious bias and actions in the real world. Yet while recognizing our own unconscious biases is a good first step, we need to do more to overcome our tendencies to unconscious action. Studies have found for example, that to overcome the biases of doctors to prescribe more pain pills for white patients than black patients, simple reminders that pop up on their computer screen before they write a script can help stop unconscious thoughts from becoming acts.

What Should You Do?

1)  Take the test: And encourage those you lead to do the same.

2)  Utilize implicit bias sessions: These cannot be a one-time event. What works is to understand that overcoming our biases is a life-long process, not an event.

3)  Help with control: Follow-up studies to the IAT have indicated that giving people time to think before they act, may help people act with less bias. In addition, reminders, such as telling doctors that a hospital has prescribed less pain medication to black patients than to white patients, may help them stop and think before they write a script.

4)  Use reminders and study what works: While we now know that just testing and training sessions alone do not work, what does work is to remind people to stop and think about whether they may be acting out of bias. Keeping track of the number of black versus white citizens who are arrested, for example. Reminders, measuring, and tracking can help.

What Do You Think?

What efforts to eliminate unconscious bias have you seen be effective? Call or write us at: Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

New Rules for Employee Engagement: What Works Now

MOVING PAST GRIEF:  As I wrote in my May 26 Monday Memo, many of your people are grieving the loss of what we all thought was “normal.”

While it may seem like an effective strategy to just tell everyone to “get back to work” as many organizations reopen, that’s unlikely to be successful. Instead, while we help our associates process and release the loss of their old lives, we need to offer more.

ENGAGEMENT DURING “NORMAL” TIMES:  Even during the best of times, surveys consistently show that around 45% of employees are not engaged, only 29% are engaged, and 26% are actively disengaged. These depressing numbers haven’t budged for years.

NEW DISENGAGEMENT FACTORS:  While many employees are afraid of losing their jobs or the lurking virus, those fears are unlikely to translate into engagement. Even though fear may sometimes motivate, more often fear leads to paralysis or depression. In addition, the recent protests and movements over police practices have thrown many workers into a state of distress. Also, more remote work may motivate some yet distract others who are coping with kids, pets, or the laundry while they attempt to work. Read some of my tips for effective remote working: The Three Best Ways to Use Remote Tools to Lead Your People Now

While many of us like to think we’re effective multi-taskers, recent brain research shows that’s a myth.

What Should You Do?

Follow these eight new rules for employee engagement:  

1)  ALLOW APPROPRIATE EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS: There is no one-size-fits-all right now that reflects what people are feeling, but help your employees use emotional intelligence to express whatever they are experiencing.

2)  FIND THE FACTS: Pricey and yearly employee engagement surveys have swept the market in recent years but many of them ignore two factors: 1) things change quickly; and 2) different parts of your organization have different drivers. My experience shows that shorter and more frequent “pulse” surveys that reveal these subtleties are more successful. Also, make sure that your leaders practice deep listening to find out what is really going on for your associates.

3)  RAMP UP INCLUSION AND UNCONSCIOUS BIAS EFFORTS: Recent news events have shaken the nation and your employees are not exempt. People of color, as well as their numerous allies, will need to know that you support change.

4)  FOCUS ON FUNDAMENTALS:  While not everyone zones out at work because of problems with their direct supervisor, many do. Make sure that your leaders understand and utilize the best practices of performance management and coaching.

5)  LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT:  Surveys consistently show that opportunities for learning and development rank second only to compensation when employees assess their feelings about their work. While many of those efforts came to a screeching halt during lockdown, now is the time to renew these efforts.

6)  DEVELOP STRONG LEADERS:  While leadership is always important, now more than ever, people are looking for models and leadership in order to feel safe and engaged.

7)  BUILD UP GANG LOYALTY: Cohesive teams are engaged teams. Both soldiers in foxholes and successful sports teams work harder for their cohorts than for their leaders. Don’t neglect this step.

8)  MEANING AND COMMUNITY: The most engaged employees are also those who can find the most meaning in their work. Especially after what most people have experienced in the past few months, they are hungry for meaning and understanding in their lives. That meaning may come from a feeling that they are an essential part of the whole organization and that they support the mission, or pride in their group’s contribution to the community. Help people find and sustain meaning.

What Do You Think?

What is your experience right now with employee engagement? Call or write us at: Call or write us at: 303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com

Leadership Lessons You Can Learn From the Current Riots

Weeping or Raging? That seems to be our sad choice as we are still grieving all the Corona fallout, and now watch much of the country go up in flames as riots erupt because of police action (or inaction) that caused the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd. While it may seem easier to avoid the news or start screaming at our screens, perhaps there is a deeper and more useful choice.

What Can We Learn? The author James Baldwin wrote that to be black in this country is “To Be in a Rage, Almost All The Time” . While I don’t ever condone violent protests, I can understand how they arise. If we listen to black history and sociology experts, they may provide us with surprising insights into why these uprisings occur.

The Leadership Lesson: If you are a leader or an influencer in your organization, consider whether you can make a difference in moving the needle on race and other inclusion issues. Many experts have shown how diverse and well-trained leaders in police organizations make a difference in outcomes. In fact, other surprising studies have shown that black doctors treating black patients, black teachers instructing black children, and even black retail clerks interacting with black customers have astonishingly better results. The same holds true for other ethnic groups, as well as gender and other identity groups. Listen to Hidden Brain podcast, “The People Like Us”.

I am not, of course, advocating a return to segregation or quotas in hospitals, schools, colleges or elsewhere. What I am suggesting, however, is that you consider whether a more diverse and inclusive leadership team could lead to better results in your organization. As I have written before, diverse teams are more creative and have better profit results. Read my Monday Memo: How Can You Increase Profit and Creativity? Increase the Diversity on Your Teams

There is also a benefit in attracting, mentoring and retaining a diverse talent pool – a necessity in an age where the demographics of our customer base, as well as the pool of available employees, is growing more and more diverse.

What Should You Do?

EDUCATE YOURSELF: As a leader, you need to start with your own education. A good place to begin is with the two podcasts noted above, as well as the other articles on my website.

EDUCATE YOUR STAFF: Diversity and inclusion sessions, as well as other kinds of bias work and organizational audits on these issues, can go a long way to helping your employees understand. Be sure you understand, however, that this kind of education is not a quick fix: diversity and inclusion is a process, not an event.

       Should Leaders Call Someone a Racist?
       As a Leader, What’s Your Responsibility for Diversity and Inclusion?  Do You Know Our History?

LOOK HONESTLY AT YOUR LEADERSHIP: Have you missed opportunities to attract a more diverse and inclusive pool of leaders? Do you hold your managers accountable for considering these issues in hiring and advancement?

Employee Engagement Now: What Works

ENGAGING YOUR PEOPLE RIGHT NOW: One June 18, 2020, I’m giving a virtual presentation for a human resource organization on employee engagement. (Go to BAHRA to register). With everything else on your plate as a leader, you may think that this is the last thing you need to worry about, but I don’t believe that’s true. Certainly, the economics of your organization, strategy and your own health and safety are important, but if you don’t have motivated and loyal employees to carry out those efforts, they will fail. While I’ve written before about managing through this crisis — Leading Through Crisis: Four New Rules; Crisis Management: What Works? Tight Rules or Loose Rules? — what’s important for engagement right now is listening to your employees and responding to their new feelings.

MOVING YOUR STAFF THROUGH GRIEF: While we may all be feeling afraid, sad, angry and so on now, we may be surprised to learn that we are also grieving. In a useful Harvard Business Review article recently, “That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief“, David Kessler, the world’s foremost expert on the grieving process, explained that most of us are grieving the loss of the lives we once lived. The kind of grieving we are experiencing, however, may feel different than the past. As he explains: “The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.”

Anticipatory Grief: Kessler argues that we are also experiencing “anticipatory grief”, the loss of control overand fear for the future. We may not know what the future holds, but we are increasingly sure it is going to be something negative, and we are focused on that. The problem, as humanities professor Dr. Mark Lilla, wrote in this Sunday’s New York Times is that we keep asking pundits what is going to happen, but no one knows what is going to happen so we should just stop asking: “At some level, people must be thinking that the more they learn about what is predetermined, the more control they will have. This is an illusion. Human beings want to feel that they are on a power walk into the future, when in fact we are always just tapping our canes on the pavement in the fog.”

What Should You Do?

1. LISTEN TO AND ACKNOWLEDGE FEELINGS: Understand that your people may be cycling through all the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, acceptance and ultimately, meaning. As anyone who’s gone through the stages of grieving knows, the process is not linear, people can go back and forth through the various stages. Encourage your staff to express what they are feeling – if they do so appropriately. Educate them about the grieving process. If they know what they are feeling and why, that helps.HELP THEM FIND MEANING: While the future is always uncertain, you can find meaning in the present, the next breath, the next project, doing the next right thing. Make sure that they know they are a part of the whole effort of the organization and that you notice and appreciate their contribution.

   CALL THE EXPERTS: Encourage your people to reach out to employee assistance programs or other mental health professionals. Make sure that they understand that you encourage that kind of support and that they will not be judged for doing so. Bring in – remotely or otherwise – change management experts to help with what’s ahead.

Three Questions You Should be Asking About the Coronavirus but Probably Are Not?

What Reporting Requirements Do We Have for People Who Are Ill? Normally, medical information on individual workers should be kept private, unless the person who is ill seeks to disclose their health problems to others. Yet with the current situation, the need to protect the public health will (most likely) trump any privacy rights. In addition to disclosing the information to co-workers, you may have an obligation to report to government agencies. Here is some general information with links that may prove useful: Restricting Employees Work Related Travel in Light of the Coronavirus Threat and Insights on Coronavirus (legal issues the coronavirus threat raises for businesses).

How Can We Continue to Maintain and Build a Positive Culture When Our People Are Afraid and Discouraged? Given the fear many have of becoming ill, as well as the inevitable financial disruptions of the virus, your people may be working remotely, afraid of layoffs or even business closings. While most will manage to cope, there are things you can do as a leader to help. As Daniel Goleman has documented the research in his book Social Intelligence, humans evolved to stay alive and safe by dwelling in tribes. For most of us, our brains suffer from depression and our spirits darken with social isolation. With many of your people working remotely or not at all, how can you keep them connected?

How Can We Continue Educational and Development Opportunities? Most of us didn’t plan on or welcome the current pause, yet given the reality, how can we use the crisis to learn and grow? When life hands you lemons…

I heard an interview today with Dr. Michael Dowling, the President and CEO of Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare provider and the largest private employer in the state of New York. Dr. Dowling leads a clinical and research workforce of 72,000 and oversees revenues of $13.5 billion. He reminded listeners that while we’re not in control of what happens to us, we can always impact our response to what happens.

What Should You Do?

1. Reporting.In these times, it’s critical to consult your employment counsel for advice on what you should and should not be doing with your workforce. Don’t go it alone.
2. Consider How You Can Keep People Connected.In addition to conference calls, online meetings and other virtual business tools, don’t forget to try creative events to raise people’s spirits. Here’s a sampling of the most innovative ideas I’ve collected:

• Asking remote workers to show pictures of their home office and pets during virtual meetings.
• Hosting virtual after hours “happy hours” where your workers are encouraged to bring adult (or other) beverages, snacks and the like. Asking people to share recipes and hold contests for the best “happy hour” snacks.
• Encouraging PG rated pajama contests where volunteers share pics of the pajamas they’re wearing to work.
• Seven minute “exercise challenges” where someone leads safe exercises that everyone can do.
• Holding online book and movie clubs where colleagues share what they’re reading and watching.

In general, encourage but don’t require people to attend these events but allow people to be creative in suggesting their own culture-building opportunities.

For more suggestions about dealing with difficult times, go to:

Leading Through the Storm – The Eagle Perspective

Leading Through the Art of Inquiry

3. Step Up Educational and Other Development Opportunities. Most live classes, events, conferences and the like have been cancelled or postponed. Again, this provides a unique opportunity to continue and even step up your employees educational and other development opportunities. Ask your providers to do online versions of the same material. Consider what’s been on your list as a leader of development opportunities that you’ve always wanted to provide for your people but haven’t been able to because they’re always traveling, booked, or you don’t have the budget. With so many events cancelled, you may have new opportunities to grow your people. In addition, ask them what kind of continuing education they’ve been wanting to do and listen to their suggestions. Most of our material, for example, can be offered in a virtual format and we’re always developing new workshops, coaching and the like.

Is Working From Home Working? A Mixed Bag

THE BACK AND FORTH OF REMOTE WORK:  Many of my tech clients were ahead of the trend in allowing remote work a couple of decades ago. Ironically, just as less tech-focused companies started allowing some or all of their employees to work from home, some or all of the time, my same clients started sending people back to the office. According to a SHRM article of May 7, 2019, IBM, Yahoo, Aetna and Best Buy were just a few of the companies detailing workers back to their brick and mortar buildings, sometimes generating wails or protests.

WHY REMOTE WORK DIDN’T WORK:  According to research at the time, those most successful working at home had worked with others at the worksite before, had similar work styles, liked one another, had access to high-end technology and were skilled at using it. Unfortunately, most work groups did not have all those factors, leading to all kinds of problems.

SOME REMOTE WORK CHALLENGES:  Psychologists who have studied remote work problems point to “attribution error”, for example. If someone is not in the office, we probably assume that something came up. If we cannot reach them at home, however, we may assume that they are slacking off. Also, other studies have found that people tend to work better when they are surrounded by others who are working hard, and some studies have found that up to two-thirds of remote workers are disengaged. My clients who have seen the pendulum of remote work swing both ways found collaboration harder to create and sustain. Last, but certainly not least, a recent SHRM survey of managers supervising remotely since the pandemic lockdown, has found that a majority found managing more difficult. (As if it was not already difficult enough!)

What Should You Do?

DON’T ASSUME: While some recent reports have suggested that companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and so on have told employees they can work from home indefinitely, don’t be surprised if the trend swings back again. Also, not everyone WANTS to work from home. Young workers who live alone may depend on work for social ties, and those of us with kids, dogs, and laundry multiplying all over the house may be relieved to return to their office or cubicle.

TRAIN, TRAIN, TRAIN: If you are a manager, make sure that you learn how to manage remote workers differently. See, for example, my recent Monday Memo on how to do so: The Three Best Ways to Use Remote Tools to Lead Your People Now. Make sure that your people have the skills and training that they need. Also, do not assume that everyone knows how to Zoom or use Microsoft Teams effectively.

CUT EVERYONE SOME SLACK: Especially now, when we are all still emerging from a global trauma, people need time to adjust to the changes – whatever those may be. Do not assume that everyone can maintain the same level of productivity and engagement that they had before.

Tough Talk Now: Why You Can’t Wait to Have That Challenging Conversation

WE ALL WANT TO WAIT:  It’s easy to put things off right now, isn’t it? With many of us unemployed, working from home and/or managing our kids’ schoolwork – not to mention all those shows online you’ve been meaning to binge watch – we all want to avoid having to tackle one more unpleasant task. Yet waiting to have that challenging conversation with an employee or boss is the last thing you should do. Now, more than ever, you need to find a way to say the things that need to be said.

WHY TOUGH TALK NOW:  I’ve been coaching leaders for many years on how to say the things they need to say but can’t seem to find the right time or words. A global pandemic certainly seems like a great excuse to procrastinate, but my view is that is exactly the wrong time to delay.

WHY CEOs FAIL:  One of the most useful research projects I’ve seen is from FORTUNE Magazine. They did a study about why CEOs fail. The problem is not usually in strategy or vision, but in execution, especially the failure to fix people problems. These CEOs frequently avoided the difficult conversation that many people in the organization knew they needed to have with one of their direct reports. Others knew that the staff member needed to hear and implement difficult feedback – or perhaps even be released from the organization – yet the CEO was avoiding the tough talk. Even if you are not a CEO, this failing may hold you back from success.

What Should You Do?

ASK YOURSELF, WHAT IS THE COST OF DELAY?   Every conversational delay has a cost: extra compensation for someone you don’t need, incomplete or shoddy projects from an associate who is just not good at their job, or morale problems from other employees who know that you’re not managing someone well. Even if your people are working from home or furloughed, trust me, they are still communicating. They are on the phone, Snapchat or email gossiping about what’s going on with you and everyone else.

FIND OUT WHY YOU ARE NEGLECTING THE DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS: Is it because you lack the skills, the courage, or the understanding of the current cost of waiting? Have you always avoided conflict? Of course, it’s hard to add to anyone’s anxiety right now, especially if you have to let someone go, but in the long run, you are not doing anyone any favors by failing to give them the feedback they need in order to succeed. Even if you must move them out of the organization, the impact of that move on the perceptions of the other people who are watching your actions IS important. What message are you sending your more competent staff by allowing an associate to slack off or engage in any other unproductive behavior? Right now, you need all your staff — hands on deck, fully engaged and working at capacity, not staff who are avoiding what you need from them to help get through this crisis.

GET THE SUPPORT YOU NEED TO DO THE RIGHT THING: Find a coach, a therapist, a shaman, or a priest to help you buck up your courage and engage in a tough conversation.

DON’T COP OUT ON EMAIL: Even if you cannot meet in person right now, you need to pick up the phone or log in and give them the courtesy of hearing your voice and seeing your expression. If you use your imagination, you may even be able to meet – six feet apart — wearing masks, of course. One of my clients delivered his annual performance reviews to his direct reports in his back yard after sanitizing lawn chairs, ensuring spacing and adding masks to the conversation.

I was inspired by a program on NPR about 88-year-old Nick Avtges of Waltham, Massachusetts. With his wife of sixty some years in assisted living and a virus raging, he had been unable to visit her over the past month. So his children came up with an innovative solution. After polling their Facebook friends, they found someone with a cherry picker, loaded Nick into the bucket and hoisted him up to the third floor. With the pair both wearing masks and gloves, Nick was able to touch his wife’s frail hand on the window screen, while holding up his handmade sign that proclaimed: “I love you, sweetheart.” Nick’s assessment after his adventure: “Even now, there’s always a way around things if you try hard enough!”

For more strategies and skills on how to have tough conversations, go to www.workplacesthatwork.com.

Managing Fear For Yourself and Your Staff: The Hidden Reason We’re Afraid Right Now!

FEAR RUN RAMPART:  Most of us are managing fear right now and for good reason. We are being stalked by an invisible assassin, we are worried about loved ones, lost jobs and a world economy in freefall. Yet there is another more hidden reason we are afraid.

A LONELY TIME:  Even if we are cooped up with a partner or a pair of teenagers who are driving us nuts, most of us are coping with a degree of social isolation that is far from our usual life. We can’t go to our usual workplace, the gym, church or temple, or even the park or coffee shop. If you are managing employees remotely, it is useful to remember that they are in this surprising and lonely headspace also.

THE NEURO-PSYCHOLOGY OF LONELINESS:  With rare exceptions, we are herd animals. We gather in packs for all kinds of good – and sometimes not so good – reasons. Our brains have developed over the millennium to remind us that we are safer with our tribe. We are wired to connect. Without our fellows, the deep and primitive parts of our brains react with fear. Psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad, for example, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, reminds us that lacking social connections even puts us at greater health risk. One study, for example, pooled the evidence collected from 70 studies that followed a total of 3.4 million participants for an average of seven years and came up with a startling conclusion: those who are more socially connected live longer, irrespective of what other kinds of health issues they may have.

Researchers believe that loneliness evolved as a kind of early warning system that something is not right, prompting us to get back to the tribe in order to escape saber tooth tigers. That sense of threat can trigger inflammation in the body, leading to tissue breakdown and impairment of the immune system, increasing our susceptibility to conditions ranging from heart disease to Alzheimer’s disease.

After loneliness stimulates a white blood cell inflammatory response, that response feeds back to the brain and makes it irritable, suspicious, and prone to negative emotions, says Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo, Director of the Brain Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. People who are lonely live at such a heightened level of alarm that they even lose sleep, in addition to daytime bouts of anxiety and depression.

Significantly, researchers tell us that simply being with others will not cure the brain’s negative response. What we need is a shared sense of values and life experiences: we all want witnesses to our lives.

What Should You Do?

TALK ABOUT IT: For leaders who are busy zooming and phoning your staff, be honest about the challenges of isolation. Gently allow your associates to share their feelings and to come up with creative ways to connect, even if they can only do so remotely. Be a courageous model, appropriately sharing your own lonely feelings. And – as I wrote in my last two Monday Memos — prefer video platforms and phone calls over constant emails and texts.

The Three Best Ways to Use Remote Tools to Lead Your People Now The Best Crisis Management Plan Right Now

Remind people of shared values, goals and the witnessing that arises from being part of a team.

BEEF UP YOUR EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: Therapy can help with loneliness and the resulting negative emotions, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Many therapy groups are working during the pandemic, through phone or Zoom. Encourage your people to take advantage of their services.

CARE FOR YOURSELF: You cannot be an effective leader if your brain is being hijacked by loneliness. Recognize the issue and seek therapy if you need it. Take advantage of what connections you can, reach out of friends, family and colleagues that you haven’t spoken with in years, go through a walk in the neighborhood and smile and nod at your neighbors or chat through your mask at an appropriate distance.