“Radical Compassion”

Leadership, diversity, and inclusion in a time of global crisis.

Leadership, diversity, and inclusion in a time of global crisis.

We are in a time of tremdous stress. In my 1/2 of century of life I don’t think I have been under so much stress ever. That probaby speaks to the realities of a being a raised upper middle class white (even Jewish) straight man.

What is also true is that here in the US many of us were already living in stressful times. I know that since Nov 2016 I entered into a new period of unprecendent in my life of anxiety, depression, and isolation. I know others have as well.

With this in mind, I know I have been struggling at work, and fortunately I work for a corporation and for a function in that corporation that has been promoting a lot of free flowing conversations about our current state, what it means for the people we work with and what it will mean forever in our future.

As part of a conversation about diversity & inclusion in this new work-at-home universe, people started sharing their perspectives on mental health issues and personal isolation. I become inspired and so I wrote the following proposal as a leader in this organization

Working in Crisis Policy

I’d like to suggest we create a Working in Crisis Policy. Not a remote working policy because this isn’t about working remote.

Here are the principles:

1. Prime Directive – Individuals have safe agency to take care of themselves and their families EVEN if this means that productivity (but not quality) of work is to suffer.

2. Mental Health – There has been enough short term research in the psychological field that we can feel confident that regardless of level of emotional functioning everyone right now is living with symptoms of grief, anxiety, fear, and depression.

3. Family Health – Our families are our lifebloods. We work to live, and they are our lives more than anything else. Their wellbeing is equal to our wellbeing and the changes in their situations which impact us all differently requires that we make new agreements on all sides of our lives, including work.

4. Agency – This means that you the employee & contingent worker need to feel safe that you can make the best decisions for YOUR unique situations.

5. Over communicate, even if it is hard – We can only help each other and trust each other to make the right decisions for ourselves and for our employers if we communicate from a position of trust. This means, that we need to be able to speak to managers about our unique concerns no matter how unique (and possibly awkward/personal) we think they are, so that we can create proper plans that balance the business, our families, and our lives together.

6. Compassion over equity – What this looks like will be different for everyone, so our teammates need to understand that this moment is not about consistency or even appearances of equity, but about compassion first.

Here’s an example that should be acceptable based on the above.

A designer or researcher with a child makes the decision that because of childcare obligations they are blocking their calendar all morning, thru lunch. The rest of the day will be prioritized to accommodate meetings. They are then responsible to do their heads down work on their own time during the evening hours if that is what they and their family can figure out.

Alternatively…

Since evening time is also important family time, they make the decision that they limit their meeting openings to only 3 days a week, and will have heads down time the other two days and maybe some evenings.

The goals are not to reach 40hrs/wk total. But rather to keep things flowing in as humane way as possible.

Our partners and stakeholders are going to have to accept blockers even if that means delays on their side. Asking for exceptions needs to be exceptional and not the norm, even among managers and executives. This would never work without enterprise wide support, and executive cover.

Another example:

A single person with anxiety needs to have decompression time during the day and week. They decide that taking 1/2 days off 2x per week is what is required. They are allowed to do this without the need to take paid time off. During their communications w/ their manager, new expectations are set and so long as they are met everything is fine for that person. The person is also given resources to use during those time such as tele-therapy, access to mindfulness subscriptions and courses for free, etc. The manager gives their direct report cover from their stakeholders.

Yes, this will have consequences …

… But there are consequences and ramifications anyway. People and organizations who have put in similar programs at mostly smaller scales have been presenting solid results. Even before this tragic period many organizations were showing the value of a 4-day week to businesses that have implemented them.

To give credit where credit is due, this idea is not without inspiration. One very inspirational organization has been Microsoft who posted this new directive.

Microsoft is giving workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave because of school disruptions
Microsoft is giving its workers an additional three months of paid parental leave to deal with extended school closures…www.cnn.com

Compete to be the most compassionate company of 2020

Let’s make 2020 not the year to see which corporations spend the most money on charities (though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but maybe the best thing to do is to show your own employees how you are the most compassionate towards them compared to any organization out there.

So will you compete in the new competition to be the most compassionate company of 2020 (and beyond)?

Also, imagine if you kept “Radical Compassion” as a principle in your corporation long after this plague leaves our every day memories.