5 Everyday Actions to Fix your Homogeneity Problem
By: Better Allies
Tags: Diversity, Workplace Culture, Betterallies, Allyship, Inclusion

5 Everyday Actions to Fix your Homogeneity Problem

Photo from Cindy Gallop’s keynote at the 3% Conference in 2019

1. Nix concerns about being a diversity hire

The 3% Conference focuses on changing the ratio of women and people of color in advertising. At their event last year, Cindy Gallop delivered a powerful talk to the white men in the room about what their future will look like with more diversity.

While I recommend watching the entire talk, be sure to catch this brief clip where Cindy delivers a zinger of a message:

“When I hear women say to me, ‘Cindy, I don’t want to be hired just because I’m a woman,’ my response is, ‘Get over it. And look around you at all the incompetent men who got hired just because they are men.’”

Allies, let’s be prepared to nix concerns about being a diversity hire, from women or anyone from an underrepresented group. Use Cindy’s line, or craft your own.

2. Disrupt “pet to threat” situations

Last week, I learned a new phrase: “pet to threat.” People on Twitter were using it to describe what had happened to Dr. Timnit Gebru, who Google fired after censoring a paper she co-authored on ethical AI and large data sets. (The research is concerning on many levels, as summarized by the MIT Technology Review.)

Attorney and writer Erika Stallins summarizes the “pet to threat” phenomenon as “what happens when women, typically Black women, are embraced and groomed by organizations until they start demonstrating high levels of confidence and excel in their role, a transition that may be perceived as threatening by employers.” In her article, she shares some appalling examples. She also credits Kecia M. Thomas, now an associate dean at the University of Georgia, who coined the term.

Here are some signs from Stallins that a woman may be transitioning from “pet to threat”:

When previously-friendly colleagues are no longer collegial

When someone receives pushback for legitimately exerting their influence

When someone lacks access to the same rewards and recognitions of comparable peers

When someone’s expertise is underutilized or ignored

If you notice any of these signs, speak up on behalf of the individual. Include them in conversations where you can tap their expertise. Recommend their work. Endorse them publicly.

3. Don’t tell a candidate they have an unusual name

In an article for the New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. Josh Ellis, Onyeka Otugo, Alden Landry, and Adaira Landry shared a scenario of what an interview day might be like for a Black applicant:

“Inside a conference room with a long wooden table, a Black residency applicant sat next to 12 other applicants on interview day. None of their peers were Black. Across the table hung photos of faculty members, including the program director, medical director, and department chair. None were Black. In the corner of the room, administrators and coordinators were monitoring the agenda. None were Black. Rosters with descriptions and headshots of the faculty interviewers were distributed. None were Black. Later, residents spoke to applicants over lunch, and nurses sat at their workstations during the tour. None were Black. During the course of the interview day, the Black applicant was asked whether they were lost and twice was assumed to be anyone but an applicant. They were told that they had an unusual name and that they were articulate. Their hair was critiqued. At the end of the interview, the Black applicant wondered, ‘Do I fit in here?’”

The authors provide a collection of strategies to improve the interview experiences of Black applicants. I recommend you read their article and identify at least one you can take action on to ensure candidates interviewing with your organization feel they “fit in here.”

At the very least, don’t tell Black candidates they have an unusual name.

4. Refresh your evaluation criteria

In How Do You Evaluate Performance During a Pandemic?, Stanford researchers Lori Mackenzie, JoAnne Wehner, and Sofia Kennedy explain how the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing bias in the workplace, especially for mothers. They go on to outline the challenges managers face when evaluating employees, including this telling quote:

“As one manager put it, they need to balance the need for flexibility that’s specific and supportive to the individual’s needs with the need to also somehow be equitable to others.”

Before embarking on a performance review process, the authors recommend refreshing your evaluation criteria to be relevant to business needs and measurable. As they wrote:

“For example, ‘be innovative’ is not measurable, but ‘bring together people from different functions and perspectives in forums that encourage idea sharing and problem solving’ is.”

While this should be a best practice in regular times, it’s especially needed right now.

5. Don’t insist on pronouns

As I read Lily Zheng’s recent Harvard Business Review article, Creating better policies to support gender non-conforming individuals, one comment stood out:

“Even organizations that have some understanding of ‘transgender issues’ are poorly equipped to respond to gender-nonconforming employees.”

Lily shared the story of Sawyer, a trans man who applied to a company and had the interview aggressively ask about pronouns:

“When Sawyer mentioned that he was fine with either he/him or she/her, the interviewer refused to take that as an answer, saying, ‘You need to choose right now. You need to be comfortable, so you need to tell me.’”

Some people may not care, like Sawyer. Others may not feel comfortable sharing theirs because of being gender fluid, non-binary, or early in a transition, for example.

If someone doesn’t want to share their pronouns, just call them by their name. It’s that easy.

Given the upcoming holidays, I’m taking a few weeks off from writing. The next “5 Ally Actions” newsletter will be in your inboxes on January 8 and will include some exciting news. (I can’t wait to share it with all of you!) I wish you strength and safety as we all wrap up 2020 and move forward,

— Karen Catlin, Founder and Author of Better Allies®