June 2021 DE&I Dialogue Group Takeaways

On Monday, June 14, Loeb Leadership held its fifth “Safe-Space” dialogue session entitled “Social Media and the Workplace: The Line Between Inclusion and Censorship.”  Loeb Leadership’s Safe Space workshops provide participants the opportunity to share knowledge and perspectives, and engage in thoughtful dialogue around topics of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The topic of our most recent workshop was inspired by the proliferation of social media posts by people in the workplace that have offended others or caused colleagues to feel threatened and uncomfortable. We believe that in order to address the consequences of these actions, people need to gain a better understanding of the motivation behind the posts and be mindful of the impact they may have on the people or communities within the organization.

Over 40 firms, Fortune 500 companies and educational organizations attended and engaged with Loeb Leadership’s expert panel including Dr. Fritz Galette; Joy Stephens; Rini Fonseca-Sabune, Esq; Organizational Culture expert, David Robert, Jonathan Trafimow, Esq. of Moritt Hock; and moderator and executive coach, David Sarnoff, Esq., ACC. 

Panelist Jonathan Trafimow, Esq. offered his perspective. “The way to a healthy corporate culture is not through the repression of views and ideas we don’t like,” he said. “It is permitting those views to be heard and rebutted, not through fear of punishment but through the marketplace of ideas.” This theme was reinforced by Dr. Fritz Galette who suggested organizations should “create a culture of expression, not repression.”

The panelists were united in stating that organizations should not wait for the controversial post to happen without having had a dialogue beforehand around your organization’s values and accepted behaviors. When those are aligned, the organization will have clear guidance on how to address these matters with consistency.

There were many valuable takeaways and highlights from this one-hour dialogue:

·       Organizations have a right to protect their brand by holding people accountable for their words and actions.

·       Provide clear guidelines as to what is acceptable behavior, offering clear examples of what speech is acceptable and what is not.  

·       Where organizations fail: they wait until something bad happens and then they are in a defensive posture when responding.

·       Do the hard work now!  Don’t wait for the tough situations to come up and be unprepared on how to handle triggering comments.

·       It is often common that organizations are more focused on how the public views them than how their own employees are impacted by the words in a post. Think about the implications on organizational culture and employee morale.

·       Lack of accountability sends a conflicting message to the workforce, impacting the way they work and feel about the organization moving forward.

·       We need to practice getting uncomfortable having these conversations. Getting together and listening to each other’s lived experiences helps us understand how our words can impact others.

·       A smart phone is like a “loaded pistol.” It can be used to post hurtful and insensitive messages. 

·       Some people believe their reality is everyone’s reality. There isn’t just one reality.

·       And lastly, free speech doesn’t mean it’s free from consequences.

Loeb Leadership has witnessed through these Safe-Space dialogues the passion and desire of both individuals and organizations to attain a better understanding of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and how it relates to workplace culture.  t is with this understanding that Loeb Leadership has expanded our programming to include DE&I facilitated discussions, training programs, group coaching cohorts and the administration and debrief of the Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) assessment.

To learn more about Loeb Leadership’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programming, click here.    

Loeb Leadership’s next Safe-Space dialogue event is scheduled for Monday, September 13, 2021 at 1:00pm to 2:00pm EDT.  Please save the date.

If you have any questions, or would like to suggest a topic for future Safe-Space events, please email David Sarnoff at dsarnoff@loebleadership.com.