Team Connectedness

In This Section

10 Actions You Can Take

Section 2.0: Start the Conversation, Participate and Listen to Others

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Starting the Conversation

Section 3.0: What is starting the Conversation?

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10 Actions You Can Take: Start the Conversation, Participate and Listen to Others

3. Reflect on your own identity and unique perspective, and how that influences your experiences. Think about how that is the case for each person, making each of our perspectives and experiences different.

4. Participate in discussions and workshops about how to make your workplace a space where everyone feels welcome, safe and respected.

  • Create a space for employees to openly share their experiences so that they can build trust with one another
  • Dedicate time within an employee’s working day to participate in activities and workshops

5. Take the time to discuss with your colleagues how to further build a space where everyone feels welcome, safe and respected at work.

  • Grow your network! Reach out to colleagues who you may not normally connect with

6. When communicating, focus on the words you use so people do feel welcome, respected and invited to contribute. Think about how you can:

  • Avoid distractions, focus on the person speaking, and bring your whole self to the conversation
  • Respect the language people use to describe themselves and follow suit
  • Use the active voice so your sentences are focused and convey presence and engagement with the other person
  • Should someone correct you, acknowledge them with thanks
  • If you observe a mistake, offer a quick correction

3.0 What is Starting the Conversation? The Four A's

Starting the conversation is a series of 4 critical steps that promote and foster equity and belonging amongst priority employee groups.

  • Awareness

Know the data, conduct self-identification surveys, understand employee challenges, needs and barriers to success, and learn about leading practice.

  • Action

Conduct a listening tour that includes 1-on-1 coffee chats with employees and/or focus group sessions. Ask intentional questions, be open to criticism, and provide multiple mediums for discussion such as in-person conversations as well as anonymous channels for communication.

  • Accountability

Review the collected data, promote transparency in sharing the current state results, ensure accountability by sharing the desired future state, ask employees to hold each other and leaders accountable, and set goals and metrics.

  • Again

Repeat the process and be open to iterations. Keep educating yourself and others, take courageous actions to challenge systemic barriers, and demonstrate humility throughout.

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Definition

Microaggression

Microaggression is defined as: “A comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group” – Source: Merriam Webster

Definition

Unlearning

Unlearning is defined as: “To make an effort to forget your usual way of doing something so that you can learn a new and sometimes better way” – Source: Cambridge Dictionary

Definition

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is defined as: A framework for understanding how different aspects of a person’s social and political identities (e.g., gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, physical appearance, etc.) combine to create unique modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies advantages and disadvantages that are felt by people due to this combination of factors – Source: Kimberlé Crenshaw, TIME

Definition

Privilege

Privilege is defined as: “The unfair and unearned advantages individuals are granted for having, or being perceived to have, social identities that align with those deemed to be superior according to societal rules and norms. It is often experienced as an absence of barriers related to a particular social identity (e.g., White privilege, straight privilege)” – Source: Egale

Definition

Safe Space

Safe Space is defined as: “A place intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations” – Source: Merriam-Webster

Safe spaces allow individuals to feel comfortable having brave and honest conversations.

Definition

Emotional Tax

Emotional Tax is defined as: “The combination of feeling different from peers at work because of gender, race, and/or ethnicity, being on guard against experiences of bias, and experiencing the associated effects on health, well-being, and ability to thrive at work” – Source: Catalyst

Definition

Tokenism

Tokenism is defined as: “Performative policies that ostensibly promote diversity or equality (placing women or diverse groups in leadership positions), but do not truly have a positive impact on the workplace. Tokenism isn’t progressive, and it especially causes harm to tokenized individuals, causing extra pressure to succeed due to being perceived as representative of a group and often leaving them in an alienating work environment” – Source: Catalyst

Definition

Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is defined as: “An environment that encourages, recognizes and rewards individuals for their contributions and ideas by making individuals feel safe when taking interpersonal risks. A lack of psychological safety at work can inhibit team learning and lead to in-groups, groupthink and blind spots” – Source: Gartner