The year is 1981. I and the other members of the Choral Arts Ensemble (a forty voice choir) show up at the Portland Memorial Coliseum to practice prior to singing back up on a number with singer/song writer Barry Manilow during his concert. The producer sees me and walks over to our director and says, “He can’t sing.”
“What do you mean?” the director asks. “He’s one of our basses.”
“He can’t sing because he’s blind!” the producer states.
“What does being blind have to do with his singing?”
“The choir must run on and off the stage at a fairly fast clip. There are lots of cords on the floor and he may trip and knock over the microphones and lights.”
Knowing that I am a rather outspoken person the director said to the producer, “You tell him.”
What followed was a rather heated discussion between the producer and me as to whether or not I would be allowed to sing. I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere so I asked if he would be willing to let me try it during practice. If I messed up, then I wouldn’t sing during the performance. He agreed. Practice went well so I was allowed to sing with the Ensemble during the performance.
To his credit, the producer came up to talk with me after the show. “Steve”, he began, “I’m sorry about what happened. You see two days ago we had a blind woman in Los Angeles who didn’t know how to teach her sighted guide how to help her get on and off the stage. She bumped into the lights, knocked over a microphone and we had to stop the performance.”
Dr. Roosevelt Thomas, talks about the importance of focusing on the necessary requirements of the job and not emphasize what groups people come from. In this case the producer had a previous bad experience with a blind individual who couldn’t meet one of the requirements for participating in the concert. The impact on me was that the producer now had an assumption that all blind people were incapable of getting on the platform without affecting the performance. This attribution almost cost me the opportunity to sing with the group at the Barry Manilow concert.
There are many other examples of how attributions of an individual based on the group they belong to impacts perceptions, possibilities and the ability to be included in a job. People for whom English is a second language and speak with an accent are considered as not smart. We can’t give direct feedback to people with disabilities because we are afraid of hurting their feelings. We are hesitant to promote African Americans because they tend to be angry. Gays and Lesbians cannot bring their partner to a company party for fear of retribution.
One of the definitions of inclusion we sited in a previous news letter comes from Dr. Bernardo Ferdman. He says inclusion is individual and collective. Both are important for creating conditions in which everyone has the opportunity to be authentic, appreciated, to feel safe, valued, engaged and excited to be in the workplace.
When attributions are made about people based on groups they belong to it may have the following impacts:
You are denied opportunity to participate on a job regardless of your capability
You assimilate so as not to appear different
You can’t compete with the “superstar” in your group
You withdraw or shut down
You are thought to be good at something whether you are or not
An example of the last attribution happened when our oldest son was a sophomore in high school. His math teacher was Japanese American and one day as the teacher moved about the classroom returning test papers, he came to our son last. The teacher slammed his paper on his desk and said, “You are an embarrassment to us!” Our son had gotten a “C” on his test and the teacher was making an attribution that all Asians should be “A” students in math. The impact on our son was that it was not okay for him to be a mediocre student since he was Asian.
There are some things each of us can do to break through to inclusion. First, say “hello.” I am baffled by all the research that is being done when some basic tenants of human interaction are ignored. While conducting an organizational audit, a colleague and I had to make a recommendation to a group of executives to “say hello to the employees in the elevator.” In our last newsletter we introduce the five dimensions of inclusion. The first of these was to create connection. You can’t even begin the inclusion process until you have connection. Sometimes this connection begins by saying “hello.” People with disabilities often talk about this as a puzzling social phenomenon, but no one mentions this in research terms.
Secondly, seek knowledge. Sometimes the knowledge you need will come in the form of employees who are already in your places of work. Ask them questions that will help the educational process to become more adept at relating with people who are different. If appropriate, read books, articles, periodicals, etc. to learn about general tendencies of particular culture groups.
Third, make sure you understand that diversity and inclusion are a part of the overall business conversation. This will help you avert the concern that “we are just adding one more thing to our plate of an already busy work flow.”
Fourth, examine your own prejudices and biases that may be getting in the way of your ability to connect with a certain group of people.
And fifth, examine your threshold for managing change when it comes to dealing with human behavior. Sometimes change forces us to enter territory where we don’t feel confident about what needs to be done.
Remember that diversity is not a program, but a process that includes dialog, vision and respect.
Steve Hanamura, president of Hanamura Consulting, Inc., and author of I Can See Clearly: A Different Look at Leadership, has 30 years of experience working with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to regional not-for-profit institutions. He is widely sought after in the areas of leadership development, building effective teams, leading diversity initiatives and managing generational differences.
He can be reached by phone at 503-297-8658 or by e-mail at sh@hanamuraconsulting.com
