At age 87, here’s what Jane Elliot says about her Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes sensitization exercise, which she first delivered to her 3rd grade public school students in Iowa and then to prison workers, police officers, business leaders and anyone else who needs to understand what it feels to live with the yoke of racism, treated as a low-potential subordinate, worthy only of being “dominated” and policed, incapable of contributing something special to your enterprise or to society:
“I wish our Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes simulation weren’t needed anymore – that it could be put on the dust pile of things we used to do ‘back in the day,’ to make students aware of the biases, micro-behaviors and put-downs that used to perpetuate racial discrimination. What’s sad is that it’s still just as relevant today as it was when we introduced it with our 3rd graders, after MLK’s assassination in 1968.”
Of course, you know horror when you see it. Of course, you’re outraged seeing the brutal murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and far too many other victims – as are most police leaders. And you know courageous leadership when we see it. You’re uplifted by Police Chiefs in Flint MI and Camden NJ (pictured above), who proactively reached out to stand with their communities as guardians and advocates, not against them as warriors or dominators.
But this isn’t about what we see in the news. It’s about what we each can do, one factory, one project team, one investment opportunity, one enterprise, one workshop and one blog at a time – to lead from the middle and profit well by doing good. It’s about the high-potential talent who could contribute far more to your business success and to the wealth you generate with a more diversified investment portfolio.
It starts with your empathy. If you can’t imagine what it’s like to feel fear of mortal danger when you’re pulled over for DWB – or moral fear of sending your child to a party in a swanky neighborhood where “he might not belong” – open your heart. While you’re still sheltering in place during the pandemic, rent a movie like Harriet or Do the Right Thing.Watch this video of Jane Elliot’s simulation. Get mad. Cry. Allow yourself to feel what others feel. From the comfort of your own living room, share the outrage that’s been ignited in American cities in 2020.
Become more aware of your biases – and the way you telegraph them. Think about the ways that you telegraph your expectations when you receive threat-assessments, business proposals or requests for your time from people who see as “high-potentials” and from those you see as “a waste of your time.” Think about how you interact when you share an affinity for people of your same gender, race, native language, generation, professional background or Army training – and how you interact with people who are alien, who speak with an accent that requires more effort to understand or who rub you the wrong way. Think about the way you let down your guard with people you trust – and the subtle way you telegraph suspicion or superiority to others. Ask yourself whether you’re doing all you can to Make Courage Contagious, especially with those who need you to PowerUP their potential.
Many years ago, in one of the first leadership workshops we conducted, a large burly tattooed man strode to the podium where we’d set up our lecture materials. When he reached out his hand, I flinched. I was in a place in Pennsylvania where Jews usually didn’t go and where I’d been warned – I didn’t belong. When I looked up, I saw he had tears welling in his eyes and he’d reached out his hand in friendship and appreciation, not as an attack. “I’ve lived in this town my whole life,” he said. “I’ve always been told I’m dumb, I should listen and follow orders, I don’t have any ideas that anyone would ever want to hear. This workshop is the first time the smart people who live on the other side of town have ever asked, listened and acted like what I have to say is worthwhile. Thanks.”
In your factory, lab, store, project team, email exchange, Zoom call – you may have people with this young man’s potential as well. If you PowerUP their potential, it isn’t just good moral leadership. It isn’t just breathing life into your company’s values. As that North-Central Pennsylvania enterprise discovered, it’s also good business. Because you can profit from the opportunities they can bring forward – and help you to seize, before they get away. And from the threat-assessments they bring to your attention, if they raise their eyes and take initiative, rather than look down, stay in their place and wait passively to be told what to do.
Then get active. Revisit your company Credo, Vision and Values, Manifesto – and make sure that you’ve include a statement that affirms your commitment to PowerUP diverse contributions and profit from diversity, not just provide a harassment-free and discrimination-free place to work. Then, walk the talk of the values you’ve affirmed. If you’re sitting in a meeting with an investor, customer, public official, church deacon, synagogue board member – and you hear phrases like “shwartze” or gender-taunts bandied about – don’t fall into risk-averse traps like groupthink or sandbagging. Make your voice heard. “If even one of the other three officers had spoken up,” Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said, accusing the bystanders of being complicit, “George Floyd would still be alive.” If you are a bystander, you have the power to can reshape the culture.
If you’re in America – or watching America on TV – you can seize this moment. You can stand in solidarity. You can PowerUP Brilliance. By 2030, maybe we indeed can make Jane Eliot’s simulation an anachronism. It starts with you, whether you’re the CEO, HR Director, a plant foreperson, a high-potential leader heading an enterprise-critical project team, a member of a Due Diligence team or a Quality Manager. If you Make Courage Contagious.
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Dr Merom Klein and Dr Louise Yochee Klein are co-authors of the new business leadership book, MAKE COURAGE CONTAGIOUS: How the Best Business Leaders PowerUP Brilliance to Profit Through Turbulence. As Principals of Courage Growth Partners,they prepare high-potential business leaders to lead diverse teams to imagine what can be better and profit from innovations that create wealth by making things better.
