Be Curious, Not Furious

Each week, Karen Catlin shares five simple actions to create a more inclusive workplace and be a better ally.

Better Allies®
Code Like A Girl

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Person, standing in front of trees, holding a flashlight, shining on a question mark to convey curiousity
Illustration by Katerina Limpitsouni of unDraw

1. Be curious, not furious

This week, I had the opportunity to attend the Professional BusinessWomen of California conference and hear Dr. Bernice King, CEO of the King Center, interviewed. One of the topics she addressed was how people can take action to address bias in the workplace. As you might imagine, I was paying close attention.

Dr. King emphasized the importance of getting out of our silos and connecting with coworkers in a real way. She encouraged us to be curious and understand their world. Learn where they are. Give them space and place to have genuine and honest conversations.

As an example, she told us about a woman who wanted to remove the confederate flag from a government building. Instead of getting angry and defensive when a man pushed back, she asked why the flag was important to him. Not to trick him, but to understand him. In turn, he then asked her why it was important to her to remove the flag. They were able to have a genuine, honest, and productive conversation.

While listening to Dr. King, I found myself remembering a zinger of a phrase: Be curious, not furious. I first heard this from Kat Gordon on the Leading with Empathy & Allyship Show. It’s a perfect mindset for those times when someone disagrees with us or points out when we’ve made a mistake on the journey to be a better ally.

Give it a try.

2. Change “click here” links to be more descriptive

Last week, I learned something new about website accessibility: “Click here” links can be problematic for people using screen readers.

In What’s wrong with using “Click Here” links? on the UC Berkeley Web Access site, the authors explain:

“Using descriptive link text is one of the easiest ways to make your website content more accessible and usable for everyone! … Using ‘click here’ is not considered descriptive and is ineffective for a screen reader user.

Just like sighted users scan the page for linked text, visually-impaired users can use their screen readers to scan for links. As a result, screen reader users often do not read the link within the context of the rest of the page. Using descriptive text properly explains the context of links to the screen reader user.”

I’ve since updated betterallies.com to have what I hope are more descriptive links. For example, I changed “Read past issues of the newsletter here” to “Read past issues of the newsletter”. (I’m embarrassed that there were many such links, and I’m sure I’ll find even more when I review my other website, karencatlin.com.)

Now it’s your turn. Take a look at your organization’s website. If it has any examples of non-descriptive link text, you’ve got work to do.

Thank you to newsletter subscriber Rahel Smith for recommending this article and pointing out how I could make my link text more descriptive.

3. Abolish racist language

While I’ve addressed using inclusive language in past newsletters, I’m bringing it up again. This time, I’m focused on adopting anti-racist language in corporate writing. Think of customer-facing communication, internal policies, process documentation, comments in software, and other kinds of content.

I recently discovered Intuit’s Abolish Racist Language guidance. It is part of their Content Design guide, which they give to anyone writing for them. Here’s just one example:

“We don’t use black, white, dark, or light as metaphors. Language that puts a positive connotation on white/light and a negative or mysterious one on black/dark reinforces anti-Black and colorist stereotypes. We choose more direct language to get our point across. We only use these words as literal visual descriptors, not value judgments.”

So, if you’ve ever wondered if terms such as “dark mode,” “black hat hacking,” or “white glove” are racist, be sure to check out Intuit’s guide.

Thanks to Caroline Chavier for sharing this resource in The Allyance newsletter.

4. Don’t require “recent experience” in job descriptions

Jack Humphrey, an Engineering Director at Google, sent me the following:

“Someone recently pointed out to me a job posting for an administrative job that required ‘5 years recent experience’ in related work. This manages to discriminate against older people who are returning to the workforce as well as parents (most often women) who took time off for child-rearing. What’s more, the recency of experience has little or nothing to do with one’s potential to learn quickly and excel in a given role.”

Definitely. Humphrey’s concern reminded me of the inclusive way Change.org welcomes candidates to apply:

“All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, physical disability, or length of time spent unemployed.”

To be inclusive, we shouldn’t require recent experience or ding candidates for having periods of unemployment in the past.

5. Be transparent about your job application process and timeline

Newsletter subscriber Clara Salter at Future 500 reached out to tell me about a job description from Uncharted. It stood out because it’s transparent about the application process and timeline, giving potential applicants a sense of how involved the process will be and when they might know whether they’re still in the running.

As Salter pointed out,

“This is a great way to reduce barriers for people who might be juggling a lot and who might not be able to afford to pass up the first opportunity that comes their way (even if there might be something more exciting to them down [the] line). And really, it’s just the decent thing to do — why make applicants play a guessing game when they’re trying to showcase how they can add value to your team? That doesn’t benefit anyone.”

I love it.

That’s all for this week. I wish you strength and safety as we all move forward,

— Karen Catlin, Founder and Author of Better Allies®

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Everyday actions to create more inclusive, engaging workplaces: the Better Allies® approach from Karen Catlin.