“Do you want to be right or do you want to be effective?”
I get that as DEI Practitioners we don’t want to focus on political correctness because we aren’t the bias police…
And I think sometimes we don’t speak up enough in our workplaces about privilege.
We let phrases like the one above silence us and gaslight us into feeling bad for wanting people to “do well by doing good.”
I fear that folks are so worried about being labeled an activist, angry, aggressive or negative that our colleagues will never become the equity-minded employees we claim we are committed to becoming.
I fear most for those who are covering, passing and hiding their identities because the needle is moving so slowly that any semblance of safety with policy and culture shift has been rolled back before they can bring their authentic selves to work.
They can’t get that time back.
So no, maybe I don’t always need to be right so much as I need us to get it right and stop wasting time.
Throughout my career, I’ve let a lot slide for fear that it would keep me from being effective, but long term, I’m not so sure it’s been worth it when I hear stories about my colleagues 23 year long journeys of silencing, closeting and concealing their true selves in the workplace.
From this point forward, I’m not letting anyone gaslight me out of confronting bias in the workplace and you shouldn’t either!
