The people bringing down the culture of your organization are not necessarily the ones you think they are. In this episode, Michael Baran describes the insidious way that all of us, even with the best intentions, can cause our co-workers to feel exclusion in our attempts to bond, to help, to be funny, or even to give a compliment. Michael and his book’s co-author name this concept “subtle acts of exclusion,” and in this episode he describes why they coined this term to reframe “microaggressions.” He build a deep understanding of what these interactions are, why they are such a problem, how they impact people, and what kind of culture would support addressing them directly.

Sometimes the most damage to an organization’s culture can come not from those explicitly trying to cause harm, but from those who are trying to be the nicest. How is that possible? What harm does that cause? And what can an organization do about it?

In this episode of The Culture Advantage, host Michael Baran provides some deep understanding about something that happens quite frequently in our places of work. People may be trying to connect, to bond, to ask a question, to be funny, or even to compliment someone else. And yet that effort may land with the opposite effect; it may cause hurt, pain, exclusion or stress. Often this happens across lines of difference, whether that’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, age, or anything else. 

For 50 years, people have sometimes called interactions “microaggressions.” Michael explains just how often these are happening to some people in our workplaces and what the impact of them might be, on people and on organizations.  

The term, microaggressions, however, can get in the way of us truly making progress around bringing people together to build more understanding and trust. People react defensively when they hear the “aggression” part of it, as if their intention was to be aggressive, which it usually was not. Others react to the “micro” part of the word, feeling slighted or uninterested because they understand micro to mean small or unimportant. Because of that, Michael, along with his co-author, Dr. Tiffany Jana, coined a new way to talk about these interactions. They call them Subtle Acts of Exclusion, in their work and in their book by the same name.

Using this more straightforward term, they bring people together to be able to have productive discussions when someone makes another feel excluded. People are able to speak up without encountering the same defensiveness. Colleagues can learn about one another and act in more inclusive ways.
This reframing of the concept is only part of the story. Organizations need to develop a speak up culture, where we understand we’re going to make mistakes, but we can build more trust together when we are able to speak up and to be heard. No matter where you sit in an organization, this episode will help you think about inclusive action and the culture that is needed to support all people. Michael provides some practical strategies and promises to provide lots more in an episode coming soon.