Mod. 1 Activity - Implicit Attitudes

Complete 3 different Implicit Attitudes TestsLinks to an external site. that you think are most applicable to you personally as you engage in this work. Share in the supplied Google Doc which three you completed and, as you consider the work of crafting inclusive workplaces, what resonated for you in the results. (Please note: You don’t need to share the exact results, but just your reflection on your results.)

Complete the Inclusify Leadership quizLinks to an external site.. Share in Google Doc what resonated for you as you considered the archetype the quiz assigned you.

Complete the Culture Deck exerciseLinks to an external site., both where your organization is currently and – using 25 “playing pieces” for the 40 piece board – where you’d like it to be in 3 year (or 2 years if 3 seems lightyear away right now). Take a screenshot or photo and insert that into the Google Doc.

While reflecting on the Continuum of Cultural Competence, the Wheel of Power/Privilege, the Inclusify matrix, and the Lovingkingness meditation prompts, stream of consciousness journal about what’s resonating for you when it comes to your own identities in the workplace and how these might help or hinder your ability to show up for the work of re-imagining org design.

Afterwards, in the Google Doc, reflect on themes you observed. Where there is tension? In your professional career, when have you experienced identity “headwinds” (things that have hindered your ability to thrive, and when have you benefited from “tailwinds” (things that have helped you to thrive)?

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Part 1: Implicit Attitudes Tests

What were the three tests you completed? Thinking about the work of creating inclusive workplaces, what resonated for you as you consider the IAT results? (Again, please note: You don’t need to share the exact results, but just your reflection on your results.)

I completed the Disability IAT, Weapons IAT, and Gender - Career IAT.

I found the tests to be of greatest value as an exercise in juxtaposition. I think for many people, when conversations are had around gender, disabilities, race, etc., many people don’t realize that they are included as one of the two forms being placed together (i.e. abled vs. disabled). In that regard, I found the tests to be valuable to bring attention to one’s own identity or intersectionality as it relates to one group or entity versus another. As with most binaries, I personally find their use limiting and reductive. What it showed me was that my own intersectionalities and lived experiences have given me the ability to understand some of these very important truths and facts in ways that I shouldn’t assume others have.

The results themselves were not surprising to me. I specifically chose three tests that I felt I had the least experience with, or ability to distinguish between, to try and challenge myself to acknowledge my own biases. Whether the results of the tests actually challenged my own biases in a severe way, I am unsure. The format of the tests seemed more like an 80s video game that I was trying to beat or out-play, rather than a tool to understand my implicit biases. That said, they did introduce me to a way of framing issues (i.e. weapons vs. harmless objects) in a way that I could see being valuable for other people who may not realize they have implicit biases and associations.

Part 2: Inclusify Leadership Quiz

What resonated for you as you consider the archetype the quiz assigned you?

I am not particularly surprised by the results. I have certainly struggled with over-identifying or taking for granted the contributions, perspectives, or leadership of the women with whom I have worked at the peer level. In general, I have struggled to relate to straight white men in particular, but also straight white women, and people who live in the suburbs. I often feel like I’m the clean-cut urban queer professional that people don’t know what to do with or how to relate to. I take pride in that fact because I am challenging their unconscious social norms and preconceptions about who I am, and I view that as a positive, but I have also seen where it’s prevented me from connecting with colleagues and peers on a deeper or richer level.

Part 3: Culture Deck

Please insert into the document below the image of your completed Culture Deck exercise.

Part 4: Intersectionality Reflections

Reflect on the themes you observed from your stream of consciousness journaling about the Continuum of Cultural Competence, the Wheel of Power/Privilege, the Inclusify matrix, and the Lovingkingness meditation prompts, and your own identities in the workplace and how they might help or hinder your ability to show up for the work of re-imagining org design. Where there is tension? In your professional career, when have you experienced identity “headwinds” (things that have hindered your ability to thrive, and when have you benefited from “tailwinds” (things that have helped you to thrive)?

The most difficult challenge I run into in the workplace is that there are so many values that people have inherited or defaulted into that makes creating or inspiring change very difficult. I tend to be the person who pushes back, asks why, and will challenge assumptions, rather than go with the flow. This tendency to “rock the boat” has been met with ire and in turn, isolation.

Because I work in classical music where there is a large contingency of gay men, specifically white gay men, I certainly benefitted from appearing a certain way while being in the right place at the right time to make good relationships. I’ve also seen where a colleague scolded me far more harshly than the situation merited (because I spoke up in a meeting in which I was an observer, not a contributor, but was not told that I was not allowed to speak), and also where a more passive approach to correction led me to make a mistake again (where I commented on a female colleague’s appearance in a way that I intended as a compliment and thought was acceptable because I identify as gay, but was inappropriate both in terms of the relationship and the professional setting). What it has shown me is that I not only need to be paying attention to the ways in which people communicate (for better or for worse) and also lead by example to show ways in which I would give, or like to see constructive criticism given.

Just recently I found myself in a setting where I would have normally run after specific influential people to connect with them, only to catch myself connecting with a new industry colleague, who happened to be a black woman, and decided that it was a better choice to spend a few more moments connecting and getting to know her better, rather than making a quick exit to try and make a potentially more influential connection. It was not her identity as a black woman that caused me to pause, but rather, a realization in the moment of the tension I was feeling between the game of chasing after an influential connection vs. making a deeper connection with the person in front of me. It is in moments like these where I am striving to be more aware of myself and my learned behavior, so I can become more aware of what is motivating me in that moment, and what I might be missing, what harm I might be perpetuating by running after an “influential person” when that action may actually not only be rude, but hurtful towards others.