Diversity Matters on PFLAG-Live
Happy Valentine's Day!
In addition to planning for season two of Diversity Matters, we’ve been busy getting the word out about the show. Last month, I was a guest on the cable access television show PFLAG-Live here in Chicago. If you’re not familiar with Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), it’s a wonderful organization that promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, education and advocacy. PFLAG provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity. PFLAG-Live is the organization’s first cable television chapter, and is hosted by Marc Wigler.
In addition to talking about a range of LGBT workplace issues we had a chance to discuss Diversity Matters. You can see a clip from the show here.
During my visit to PFLAG-Live, Marc and I discussed a range of topics including a question posed by Joe, a caller who asked “In a health care setting, when does one person’s rights end and another’s begin? If a person is a patient and they perceive a person may be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and they don’t want that person to take care of them, what should be done?” This is a great question because it addresses a classic leadership dilemma regarding opposing stakeholder groups – in this case the customer/patient vs. the employee. This is when having a clear and compelling set of values as your north star is important.
As I said to Joe, “If a patient’s request is contrary to the values of an organization with regard to respect, fairness and inclusion, and an employee is providing high quality professional care, and a patient is not comfortable with that care giver based on perceived sexual orientation, race, gender or some other dimension of diversity, it is the obligation of the institution to stand up on that employee’s behalf. Otherwise the espoused values about inclusiveness are simply rhetoric and that will ultimately undermine the effectiveness of the organization.” PFLAG-Live host, Marc Wigler and I then went on to discuss that this issues also speaks to why it’s so important for an organization to have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression PLUS the leadership and managerial courage to evoke the policies when needed.
Marc also ended the show with a very compelling question. He asked, “If you could change just one thing about the workplace, what would you change?” After pausing briefly to reflect, I said, “I would want to build more courage. A workplace where people are willing to stand up and speak with their passion and their heart and feel that they are supported in exercising that sort of courage. Whether that is managerial courage, or leadership courage, or the courage to challenge a boss. For example, one of the types of courage I see today that is fascinating is among transgender people who are transitioning at work and saying ‘I want to stay in my job ‘. Twenty years ago when I worked with transgender people who transitioned, they moved to another city, got a new job and started fresh. Though, when you do that, you lose your resume, you lose your connections. The kind of courage that it takes to say I want to transition, I’m going to transition and I want to keep my clients, I want to maintain my good relationship with my co-workers and continue to build my career on the foundation of excellence I’ve already demonstrated. That’s courage.”
PFLAG-Live is just one example of the opportunities we’ve had to bring the spirit of Diversity Matters to a broader audience. We will keep you posted about additional happenings with respect to Diversity Matters and we encourage you to contact us and post a comment here on the blog, because diversity DOES matter.
Stay Tuned,
Richard Friend, Ph.D.
Co-host
In addition to planning for season two of Diversity Matters, we’ve been busy getting the word out about the show. Last month, I was a guest on the cable access television show PFLAG-Live here in Chicago. If you’re not familiar with Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), it’s a wonderful organization that promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, education and advocacy. PFLAG provides opportunity for dialogue about sexual orientation and gender identity, and acts to create a society that is healthy and respectful of human diversity. PFLAG-Live is the organization’s first cable television chapter, and is hosted by Marc Wigler.
In addition to talking about a range of LGBT workplace issues we had a chance to discuss Diversity Matters. You can see a clip from the show here.
During my visit to PFLAG-Live, Marc and I discussed a range of topics including a question posed by Joe, a caller who asked “In a health care setting, when does one person’s rights end and another’s begin? If a person is a patient and they perceive a person may be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and they don’t want that person to take care of them, what should be done?” This is a great question because it addresses a classic leadership dilemma regarding opposing stakeholder groups – in this case the customer/patient vs. the employee. This is when having a clear and compelling set of values as your north star is important.
As I said to Joe, “If a patient’s request is contrary to the values of an organization with regard to respect, fairness and inclusion, and an employee is providing high quality professional care, and a patient is not comfortable with that care giver based on perceived sexual orientation, race, gender or some other dimension of diversity, it is the obligation of the institution to stand up on that employee’s behalf. Otherwise the espoused values about inclusiveness are simply rhetoric and that will ultimately undermine the effectiveness of the organization.” PFLAG-Live host, Marc Wigler and I then went on to discuss that this issues also speaks to why it’s so important for an organization to have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression PLUS the leadership and managerial courage to evoke the policies when needed.
Marc also ended the show with a very compelling question. He asked, “If you could change just one thing about the workplace, what would you change?” After pausing briefly to reflect, I said, “I would want to build more courage. A workplace where people are willing to stand up and speak with their passion and their heart and feel that they are supported in exercising that sort of courage. Whether that is managerial courage, or leadership courage, or the courage to challenge a boss. For example, one of the types of courage I see today that is fascinating is among transgender people who are transitioning at work and saying ‘I want to stay in my job ‘. Twenty years ago when I worked with transgender people who transitioned, they moved to another city, got a new job and started fresh. Though, when you do that, you lose your resume, you lose your connections. The kind of courage that it takes to say I want to transition, I’m going to transition and I want to keep my clients, I want to maintain my good relationship with my co-workers and continue to build my career on the foundation of excellence I’ve already demonstrated. That’s courage.”
PFLAG-Live is just one example of the opportunities we’ve had to bring the spirit of Diversity Matters to a broader audience. We will keep you posted about additional happenings with respect to Diversity Matters and we encourage you to contact us and post a comment here on the blog, because diversity DOES matter.
Stay Tuned,
Richard Friend, Ph.D.
Co-host
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