At this point, the fact that workplaces need to figure out how to welcome a diverse range of perspectives is practically self-evident. In the November 2020 election, Biden won with an electoral college vote of 306 to 232. That tally, however, belies the fact that, in terms of the popular vote, this was a close race: 74 million voters selected Trump and 81 million selected Biden. Given those numbers, it is almost certain that right now most workplaces have some employees who are sympathetic to each candidate. There are plenty of conservative employees in companies in liberal parts of the country and vice versa.
There may have been a time when this split mattered less than it does today. Maybe there was a time when most people left their politics at the factory or office door, did their jobs, and went home. Those days are gone. The current ethos in the workplace is to bring your whole (or authentic) self to work. While this focus likely reflects an interest in and concern for the complete well-being of employees, it has other implications. Our whole selves inevitably include our political orientations, our moral intuitions, and our tolerance for difference. And on these points, as the 2020 election results demonstrate clearly, we’re divided—in many ways more so than we’ve been in decades. In other words, people with very different views on the best direction for the country are going to have to figure out how to coexist.
“Political polarization” is an unsatisfying term for this reality. Arguably, it’s been overused to the point where it has lost any real meaning. Besides, the differences we’re facing run much deeper than whatever measure or candidate is up for a vote at the ballot box. We’re facing differences in how people understand core and intuitive concepts that include fairness, identity, and intent. To look only at how those concepts play out on election day is to miss the point entirely. In figuring out how to move forward in this context, we can choose to work with the grain or against it. Working with the grain suggests figuring out how to talk with one another, understanding that we’ll never all agree. Working against the grain consists of an effort to get everyone on the same page on these and other difficult and controversial topics. The sooner we recognize that the former is the only path forward, the better off we’ll be. Corporations and organizations that ignore this reality will see an erosion in their workplace cultures—and in their bottom lines.
What’s the answer? We can help identify what will work by first considering what won’t. Often, the response to the question of how to address these differences takes one of two forms. The first is conflict resolution training. The argument might go something like this: People need to learn how to talk to one another when they disagree. Under this approach, the disagreement is the problem and the solution is to give people the skills they need to respond accordingly. Conflict resolution often involves tips like: define acceptable behavior, hit conflict head-on, understand the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) and the importance factors, and view conflict as an opportunity. And, to be fair, this makes all the sense in the world if the problem is, for instance, a disagreement over a deadline or the quality of a product. But it won’t help when the issue is controversial or touches our sense of right and wrong.
The second response is DEI training. After all, the thinking might go, the “D” stands for “diversity.” However, conventional DEI training almost always focuses exclusively on navigating and respecting differences between demographic (race, ethnicity, gender, etc…) and cultural (religious, national, etc…) groups. But demographic and cultural diversity are not the same thing as viewpoint diversity.
Trying to address the challenge of how to welcome diverse perspectives requires a fundamentally new way of thinking. The tools used to resolve conflict or to understand, for instance, microaggressions—a staple of conventional DEI training—can’t work because they don’t address the core issues.
Consider: What if the problem, instead of a disagreement about a deadline or a product, is a conversation at work where the topic of President Biden’s recent executive order on gender discrimination comes up. One person says “I don’t think trans women should be allowed to compete in women’s category sports.” Is that statement a valid opinion or is it a threat to the trans community? Or, as immigration reform comes back into the foreground, what if someone says “I think we should dramatically limit the inflow of unauthorized migrants.” Is that a morally valid opinion or is it coded racist language attempting to hide an effort to keep people with brown and black skin out of the country? The way we think about the answers to these and similar questions will shape how we interact in shared space.
These two approaches—conflict resolution and DEI training—will not, indeed they cannot, navigate this space. The solution is a new way of thinking and asking questions. When the mindset shifts, the skills will naturally follow.
How do we change the mindset? For starters, employers need to think hard about the kind of climate they want to create. Then they need to follow through with actions that grow that climate. And if the goal includes being truly inclusive of a range of viewpoints, they will put norms in place to facilitate this practice. Those norms include humility, curiosity, and a willingness to be wrong. Not wrong about which marketing presentation was the most effective, but wrong about our fundamental and intuitive understandings about how the world works. It’s a steep climb to get there, but it’s well within reach.
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January 30, 2021 at 07:35AM
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Truly Welcoming Diverse Perspectives Will Take More Than Conflict Resolution And DEI Training - Forbes
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