Use the MCOD model, Multicultural Organizational Development
Question: Are there metrics to assess whether institutions are committed to equity?
I don’t have or use a quantitative assessment, but I do use the Jackson, Hardiman, Holvino model, Multicultural Organizational Development (MCOD) to help people reflect on the current state of the organization and where they want it to be. The model uses 6 stages from exclusionary to more inclusive to help people talk honestly about organizational dynamics.
In Stage 1, Exclusionary, there is blatant oppression and discrimination that goes unchecked. In Stage 2, The Club, the same mono-cultural culture is maintained though with less blatant oppression. Privileged group benefit from an unexamined dominant culture and climate that is just “business as usual”.
In Stage 3, Compliance, leaders want to do only do as much as is needed to not sued & to pass accreditation. The website portrays a more “diverse” employee base and the written policies sound good, but just under the surface is an organizational context that is extremely difficult for people in marginalized identities. In Stage Four, Affirming, there is more training people occurring and some attention to hiring from a more diverse pool of candidates, but the focus is on preparing members of privileged group members to help people in their marginalized identities without any attention to having people in our various privileged groups look at how we create & perpetuate oppressive dynamics both interpersonally and systemically, much less holding everyone responsible for creating truly inclusive organizations.
I not only teach the mode in workshops, but I use it as a conceptual frame as I am conducting needs assessments and designing trainings.
Regret over too much sharing from previous session
Question: How to facilitate and process feelings of a participant who think they said too much and regret sharing in a previous session?
So, if I understand, it’s an ongoing group that comes together, somebody in a session felt they shared too much. Now in a subsequent session, they said I’m feeling uncomfortable, nervous, scared because I said too much before
I might use humor as I say, “I’m about to ask you to share more and so, you may not want to. But, I’m curious, could you say more about what you’re feeling now? My guess is from what you’ve shared is before you felt comfortable enough to share, but afterwards, you were wondering if you shared too much. Could you say more about some of your concerns or fears?”
If they’re willing, I then might relate in and say, “I relate, and my guess is other people might be feeling the same thing. So, I’m just going to look around and see how many folks relating. How many people relating to what they’re saying? Have you ever felt too vulnerable after you’ve shared in this group or anther workshop?”
Now, it’s a little risky to do this because if no one puts up their hand, then in fact, that has the chance that someone is feeling even more alone. But if you’re watching the room earlier and you see some people nodding then it is a reasonable risk.
At this point I might say, “I’m really glad you brought this up because what that says to me as the facilitator is we need to reestablish our container for authentic dialogue. The questions that come up in me are, “What do people need to hear from others so that we know this a brave space where we can have conversations? When people share honestly and vulnerably, what do we need to do as a group to let them know we appreciate what they said, and we hear them?”
I’d then ask people to reflect on those to questions and make some notes. Then I lead a large group discussion that essentially helps us reweave the learning container.
Another approach before or after the re-norming, is to say to the participant, “I’m guessing you’re talking about when you told the story about X. Am I right? As I look back, we didn’t spend a lot of time following up and engaging with you after you spoke. I apologize for moving so quickly. I would love to ask the group now to share the impact on them of your sharing that story. Would you be open to that?”
Notice, I’m having them control the whole thing because they’re feeling nervous, scared that they said too much. So, they could feel done and want to move on. But, given the fact that they came back and said that they felt vulnerable & scared, is a clue they are wanting to reconnect with the group. So, I might say, “I personally really appreciated your story and I apologize I didn’t say it last session. I was actually thinking about what you said the next day. And here is what came up for me…. How do others relate to me or their story from last time?”
If they’re feeling vulnerable & exposed, hearing you & other people get vulnerable and appreciate their story can help rebuild trust.
Often when people feel exposed and vulnerable, several things could be going on. One is they shared something they never shared before and like I just mentioned, the group did not meet them. So in real time, if my gut says this is a powerful moment of sharing at a new level for the group, I’ll appreciate them and then ask others, “What’s the impact of hearing them share so powerfully?”
Or you can connect and relate in first to model ways to do this, and then invite others in: “I really appreciate what you just shared. You’ve got me really thinking about myself. I’m full of emotion hearing your story. I appreciate what I’m learning. Everyone just take a moment, and relate in. I’d love three people to talk about what’s the real time impact of hearing their story.”
And then, the second question could be who else relates? Who’s got a story that will build on what they said and bring in some other perspectives?
I do these types of steps if my gut says, whoa, they went further and deeper than someone has yet. We can always slow down to rebuild the container of trust and community in the moment.
Ways to talk about racism and whiteness with whites
Question: “I was asked to do a workshop on whiteness and white fragility by my organization and it was a train wreck”.
Answer: I wish that I could ask this person more about what happened and what could they have done differently. Often when I hear these stories, what happened was that folks come in and talk about what whiteness is, what racism is, and how we’re not doing enough. And the energy is low, and participants aren’t engaged. If it’s a lot of telling and speaking, generally it’s going to be a train wreck.
My book, But I’m Not Racist, has a lot of different tools and strategies that I use when I work with whites. I like to have them come in and talk about their passion for creating an inclusive racially just organization where people of color succeed and thrive just the same as whites.
I ask them, “What’s your passion for creating a racially just organization?” Then we talk about it. After that, I might have them review a list of ten common racist dynamics and microaggressions that happen and talk about which ones they’ve seen. Or I might have them review the unproductive meeting behaviors, and which ones they’ve seen from whites towards people of color and what the impact was. Something to get them to realize it’s more than just an isolated incident, that there are patterns.
I might also have them look at a much longer list of microaggressions that I’ve collected from people of color in the organization about their experience at work and in the local community. I call that the Gallery Activity. You can collect stories live, but you can also collect them ahead of time.
The intent is to get people talking about their passion and where the organization is in terms of equity and inclusion. They may or may not have a realistic view, so helping them hear from the voices of folks of color can help. You can tell some stories, share a quick video, or short handwritten vignettes, but it is important that you make sure they’re generic enough that no one knows where the incident happened. For example, you could say that you collected these this last month from this organization. That can help get whites out of their head into their heart.
The resistance will likely come up when participants start to recognize that these racist dynamics happens. Then the conversation can shift to discussing the impacts of these common dynamics and behaviors of whites. My handouts include a list of common unproductive behaviors and attitudes of whites that are rooted in our socialization. Examples include that we interrupt people of color more than we do our white colleagues, listen more intently to whites than to people of color, when a presenter that we don’t know comes in and one is a person of color and one is white, we assume that the white is the leader. These are just common racist dynamics I’ve heard for over thirty years. I’ve done every single one of them.
You’re in a meeting and a person of color says something, it kind of plops and nobody follows up. Two minutes later a white person says something similar and they love the idea. If you take about twenty of those common behaviors that happen in meetings to discuss, that can help the conversation. Then you might say, “So what are the racist attitudes underneath these that might have whites unconsciously doing these behaviors?”
Notice how many times I have said probably, might, maybe, and unconscious. Most whites are coming in at a readiness and competence level of a two or three on a scale of 1 to 10 and haven’t done their work as whites. So, meeting them where they are, in a way that supports them moving forward with minimal resistance is my strategy. If I come in and say, “You all have racist attitudes, here they are, let’s talk about them, what can you do?” and bring that energy, many will shut down and not want to attend any future workshops of affinity spaces.
I was working with a group this week where I thought that I could move faster, and then I realized that they’re in organizations where folks are actively racist. I knew that if they could get five people to a workshop to look at race dynamics and what we can do with whites to create greater racial justice, that would be a miracle. They were very early themselves, so I slowed down and gave them time to talk about their socialization and I shared about mine. There was no blame or shame, just an opportunity to tell the truth.
In summary, whether you’re facilitating a workshop around whiteness or another kind of workshop, the needs assessment is essential for finding out how willing they are, how ready are they are emotionally, and what their current capacity is around diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Question: “What do you do when people are deep in resistance?”
Answer: If you know they’re going to be in resistance when they come in, you start way before. You would talk to the leaders, and maybe some of your colleagues, so that you can get an idea of what you think the resistance is about. Is it a mandatory session? Those are more difficult, at least in my opinion.
You can try to warm up the participants before they come in by sending them some reflection questions. You might even say, “Thank you for attending the session, I know it’s mandatory and my intention is to make it engaging and meaningful, and to do that, could you think about these two or three questions?”
They could be questions like, “What are some things you all do to create a more inclusive environment, so all people feel valued, engaged in honest collaborative conversations?”, “How do you already keep learning to serve an increasingly diverse customer base that we’re here to help be successful?”, and “What are one or two situations or dilemmas that you noticed your colleagues sometimes have trouble reacting to?”
Even if they’re resistant, they might be willing to say, “Well, I’ve noticed this situation that happened with my colleagues…” or “What happens sometimes in teams here is…” The goal is to encourage some reflection about how we’re not perfect.
You could also ask them from zero to ten, “How inclusive is the work environment for the full breadth of our employees across identities, including race, age, years of experience, sexuality, gender identities, sex assigned at birth, disability status, religion, spirituality, and others? This might be too advanced, but you can still ask them. Some of these questions might help them if they’re triggered and feeling resistant.
Pre-reflection questions and a personal email from you outlining your intentions about engaging, including specific skills that they can take back if they’re in resistance, are useful strategies.
As you think about your design strategy, it might be useful to get people engaged early and thinking about the current climate, the types of microaggressions that happen, the impact of those when no one speaks up, and what you can do. That’s my basic full day that covers breadth of differences, understanding privileged and marginalized, recognizing & responding to microaggressions in very engaged activities.
When people are in resistance, it is preferable to have them in pairs instead of small groups, where they may go off on their way. Another option is concentric circles. This is when you have one circle outside of another. Once in their circles, participants face each other and I’ll ask, “I know this is mandatory, so how are you feeling about being here?” and “Now, that we’re here, is there one or two things you’re hoping we do?” I engage the resistance straight on.
The next questions could be, “When did you matter? When were you marginalized?” These questions allow for a lot of input. Getting feedback from others about a time when they felt that they mattered can help to loosen resistance. When sharing the marginalized examples, I’d get five or six stories in the room, listening for if they’re all about race. Then ask, “What did you notice about the content people shared?” If people say they’re about race, I’d say, “That’s great noticing. Now, let’s get a couple other types of diversity in the room.”
People in resistance often talk about hierarchy. Their pain they typically express will be about their supervisors, the organization not being supportive, and not being paid well. This can be another reason people might be resistant, wondering why we are talking about diversity when we’re treated so badly around hierarchy and class? And that’s a really good question.
If you’re going to have a conversation, say you’re doing a training for a specific unit, you may want to be asking these questions, “Overall, how do people feel they’re valued and respected in general?”; “By hierarchy, what’s the relationship with the supervisor, how is the climate on the team?” Because if the organization starts investing time, resources in DEI, and if they’re bringing in outside people, then people may wonder why aren’t they not raising my salary? So, all those situations could come up in resistance.
How to navigate when a participant takes up more airtime than you’d hoped
Question: When a person of color, in my opinion, is taking up too much airtime or doing something problematic, how do you redirect?
As a white person, if there are folks of color in the room and I start judging that they’re taking up too much time, I first need to ask myself, “What’s under that judgment?” And, often it’s white cultural attitudes, like: time is money, we have to get things done, and a fast pace is good.
And 2nd, I need to examine my beliefs and “shoulds,” like: People should speak quickly, they should speak easily, they should speak in short statements like I do. And I do think these “shoulds” grounded in extroversion and white culture.
So, I breathe, and ask, “Tell me more.” And, I remember that most workplaces and most workshops are not set up so that folks of color, folks who are Indigenous, folks who are multiracial or biracial have the space and the safety to speak their truth. And so, if someone is choosing courage and trusting me to hold the space and they’re sharing longer that I might have hoped, maybe 2-3 minutes, then I need to breathe, choose patience and listen deeply. Now, if it’s ten minutes, that’s a different conversation, in my opinion.
I need to realize that some, whether it’s by race or culture or work style, they may share in different ways than I do as a trained left-brained extrovert. And so, part of it is deconstructing what I believe good participation is and these white cultural beliefs. And if you want to source for that, Google Tema Okun and search for her article, “White Supremacy Culture.” It’s a wonderful, accessible, very practical article about thirteen different characteristics of white culture, including: time is money, you have to move quickly, sense of urgency. I can fall into a lot of these potholes when I’m teaching about equity and inclusion.
When a person of color is sharing, and you hear the passion, emotion, or you hear it’s a difficult situation or microaggression, actually that several moments which feels too much for you could be what helps the group begin to trust that we can speak truth here & we can engage and get honest.
I’m not asking people of color to teach whites, and, I want to create a container where folks can show up and tell stories. After a person of color might share, I might acknowledge and just say thank you for sharing, as I hear you, I’m feeling this. Using the PAIRs tools, I might share the impact, thank them, and I might even stay on race if they’re talking about race. Now, they could be talking about hierarchy, they could be talking about age, & they just happen to be a person of color. And I might say as a white person, “I’m taking away a couple of things you have me thinking about, like how I show up as a white person in these types of situations.” Say something that shows the impact of their comment.
Then, I may want to share with the group ask the group, “What was the impact from hearing their comment?” If this is the first person that has taken a few extra minutes to share something that is more personal, then you might first ask, “Who relates?” Ask them to raise their hand or give a single clap or make some noise so that the person who shared (who might be feeling vulnerable now) can realized they’re not alone. And then, maybe ask one or two people to talk about the impact of the person’s sharing.
As I design workshops, I have a plan and a general idea about how much time I think stuff takes. But, when something real happens in the room, then I often will follow that path because whatever the activity I had planned may no longer matter if we can accomplish the same outcomes: engaged dialogue, deepening authentic conversations, and more understanding of how to shift privileged &marginalized group dynamics in the workplace. And so, if I can get to that end through something real that just happened, even though they “took too much time,” that’s what I intend to do.
Now, early on in my career I’d write very detailed designs with specific times allotted to each activity. I still may do this if I’m expecting others may be leading the session through my consulting group. But mostly, I have a gut guesstimate of what things may take, and then flow with the workshop dynamics in real time.
I’m going to hold the other part of your question: if people of color exhibit problematic behaviors. I’m saying you’re doing this, but I find many whites lead with this issue before they have given me any indication, they have a deep understanding of whiteness, white privilege and racism; much less they have shown up in ways to own their racist attitudes and behaviors. Until whites do, I am skeptical as they want to talk about the unproductive behaviors of people of color.
Question: How do I find a balance between sharing my observations as a white male facilitator and having participants engage? As a white male facilitator, I want to be sure not to take up an unfair amount of airtime.
I agree! What I love about your question is when we have one or more privileged identities, we have to be very careful in workshops to have people teaching each other.
In the course I’m developing, I’ll talk about three ways to think about design. Is the activity coming from the presenter to the whole group? This means I’m directing it and so I’m usually introducing it, debriefing it, and talking in-between participant comments. Having some of this type of engagement is useful, but given all your privileged identities, you may want to minimize these. so you avoid the common trap of people asking you questions, and you answering.
So, (a) when people ask questions, throw it out to the group, “What do others think?” Or you can engage the person who asked the question, “What do you think?” or “Tell me more about what’s underneath the question.” And/or you can have all participants write down a response and share in pairs or small groups before discussing in the large group. This would be a style called participant-to-participant. I’m still holding the learning container, but they’re sharing and teaching each other.
So, you as you intentionally thinking about using small group activities, you may develop a worksheet that folks do individually, and then they share in a dyad before debriefing in large group. This way you can still add a point and highlight key comments as you decenter yourself.
Now, a caveat is when you have them do an activity that may be more moderate risk, like sharing early socialization experiences. In this case, I believe as facilitators we need to model, briefly, what we want people to do and the depth of authenticity we are hoping for. So, early on in the workshop I might have people think about four to six of their group memberships and how they were treated based on their identities.: in ways that may have open doors or created barriers, felt respectful or disrespectful, etc. I encourage people to usually choose some privileged and marginalized identities to discuss. By then we’ve talked about these concepts.
Before they have time to reflect, I quickly model the activity. I’ll give headlines how as a white, middle/professional class young girl I experiences some barriers but also, looking back, now can see how many doors were opened for me, given my privileged identities. I invite them to choose bravery as they then reflect, and then each have 5 minutes to share stories with a partner.
This is an example of how I intentionally use my airtime to set the frame for an activity, and model the depth of honesty I’m hoping for. Think critically about how you use airtime. Are you modeling vulnerability? Are you telling stories of when you messed up and what you learned and what you do now? Are you modeling how to be a white male advocate, ally, accomplice? Through short personal stories and not using the “telling” style.
All of us with 1+ privileged identity need to be careful to not fall into the potholes of taking up lots of airtime, using mostly a teaching/telling style, but instead work to be engaging dialogue and modeling/ inviting short storytelling. To help get participants out of their heads and into their hearts/full body, we can strategically use our airtime to model 1-2 deeper levels of authenticity than we want them to go.
