Dr. B's Blog

Organizations with sound diversity and inclusion strategies frequently experience higher rates of creativity, are able to hire and retain the best and brightest talent and make product development a priority in order to stay competitive.

Yet for years — and in some circles today — the word diversity has been associated with controversial, even negatively viewed practices, such as affirmative action, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, artificial quotas, and listed as the cause of unqualified people “getting in.” These arguments are rooted in our personal values, beliefs and tribalism.

Inclusion — a state or condition where differences are accepted, valued and respected — is often thought of in a more positive light despite creating many of the same effects. Employees in inclusive work environments often perform at higher levels, commit to staying longer with the organization, and are more creative and more engaged than those working in more exclusive environments. Like a safe and healthy planet that is free of toxic waste, we need safe and healthy organizations that are free of toxic attitudes and destructive behaviors.

Read the rest of the article by clicking here:  Clean up your toxic workplace.

Are you working in a toxic workplace? What do you believe should be done to “cleanup” your workplace?

Dr. B

A Pre-modern Chicken Little Story

Chicken Little was not quite yet a postmodern chicken. She enjoyed the freedom to express herself with her friends and sister chickens as they clucked about the barnyard. One day, Chicken Little experienced some cognitive dissonance when an object hit her on the head. Having never experienced this phenomenon, her left-brain interpreter kicked in and deduced that the sky must be falling. As she attempted to decide what to do about this impending calamity, she felt it was most important to share with those around her, what she believed was happening. Based on the best empirical evidence available to her at that time, Chicken Little had deduced the sky was falling.

Chicken Little spread her theory of the falling sky to everyone she met; Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey and Foxy Loxy. For the philosophers of the time, this need to share her worldview with so many might be interpreted as her attempting to seek confirmation from others. For Chicken Little, this event had to be as she thought. She had heard it and even felt part of the sky hit her head. In order to help her overcome her psychological and physical discomfort, she thought she needed to warn the king so that he would be able to get the situation rectified and return her world to normal or at least save her from certain doom. Chicken Little’s premonition of destruction was substantiated in the end, but not because they sky was falling.

Now, had Chicken Little applied some of the principles of critical thinking, she might have asked herself the following questions in an attempt to examine the facts as they were presented to determine if indeed the sky as initially supposed, was falling. She really needed to understand the real problem.

 What was going on here? (what is the real problem?)
 Had the sky ever fallen before? (identify assumptions)
 How could the sky possibly fall? What would be the natural causes? (deductive reasoning)
 If a piece of the sky had fallen, could she see the hole from which it fell (interpretation of the evidence)
 Who else might be able to substantiate her conclusions or interpret the evidence? (collect opinions and perceptions from others)
 I wonder what else might have been able to fall from the sky, hit me on the head and I am still living to talk about it? (evaluation of the argument)

Moral of the story: Leaders create the reality of the world they need to believe exists . . . right or wrong. They defend, in any way they can, their closely held assumptions and beliefs about how things ought to be. When making decisions, most begin from a place of self-interest and personal gratification. For someone or something to contradict a belief (i.e., finding out it was an acorn) may mean destroying or at least infringing on the belief or concept of who one believes they are. For many, this is unacceptable and often leads to garbage-can decision making.

Most of us are not usually interested in exploring what makes us uncomfortable…we are however, more interested in keeping the status quo of our reality. Leaders (and others) must come to understand how important it is to be open to new realities; even those that we don’t want to believe or hear.

What should leaders do? Learn to apply some Chicken Little Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision-Making to our beliefs and values, knowing everyone won’t share in them or accept them. Are you a Chicken Little leader closed to other’s perspectives and ideas or are you a leader open to new realities and unimaginable possibilities?

Remember this . . . predictability, fear, and denial are the enemies of progress, growth, and creativity! Learn how to make effective decisions!

What do you think? Do you believe most managers and leaders use critical thinking before making decisions? Why do you believe what you do?

When attempting to understand how inclusion helps all of us, it is important to remember, not only do we live up to people’s expectations . . . we live down to them too. If we do not expect much of others, we won’t get much from them. It matters less what the message is I think I send. What matters most is the message received. So whether we believe we can or cannot build an organization of inclusiveness, commitment, and engaging diversity . . . either way we are correct.

The messages we send are most often grounded in our personal belief and value systems. Our beliefs tend to control just about everything about our behaviors. Sometimes we are blinded by our own beliefs and values to the exclusion of seeing new paths that would light our way.

There is a story told (author unknown) of a man who was looking for his keys. He was looking for them under the bright street light. His neighbors saw him and came out to help him find his keys. Finally one neighbor asked him where he lost his keys. The man said, “Inside my house.” Stunned, the neighbor asked, “Then why are you looking for them out here?” The man said, “Because there is more light out here.”

Now, we may laugh at this silly man who was blinded by his beliefs, but how many of us are equally blinded by beliefs about others that are just as silly . . . just as negative . . . and just as useless? If we are not being a part of the solution, we are part of the problem. Are you part of your team’s problem?

What do you think?

Dr. B