Are we changing minds, or changing behaviours?

……..to change cultures.

“How do we change these people’s minds?” I was asked during some recent training on respectful culture.

I had been sharing some of their people's comments from the gender equity survey I ran with the organisation.

I won’t share the direct comments here but they were along the lines of “women shouldn’t be in our industry” and “males are just better at some jobs more than women” and “women aren’t capable of doing the job. There was more, but you get the flavour 🙄

The survey had positive comments as well, about how respectful and helpful others had been in the workplace, so there was a mixed bag of experiences in this workplace.

So do we want to change people’s minds? Or just their behaviours.

Much earlier in my career I found myself at a Container Terminal observing Stevedores (nearly all male) going through Sexual harassment, Bullying and Discrimination training. To be clear the training was on how not to do it. In many ways not dissimilar to the Respectful Cultures training I have been running recently, 25 years later (which is depressing, to be honest.)

The company had employed actors to deliver the training, which made it quite fun. I found myself part of one of the group activities, and in the company of an older grey haired male stevedore, who was dead keen on telling me that the training was bullshit.

I launched into a Pollyanna-style* explanation to why we needed this training, including asking would he like his daughter to be sexually harassed or discriminated against in the workplace? I was early in my career and thought despite being him being a wizened stevedore, he would agree with my argument.

Hah!

When I was relaying this situation to my manager, who was much more experienced and practical, He said “Lisa, I don’t care if they change their minds. I only care that they change their behaviour”.

Fair enough, I thought, and I have stuck to this view for much of my career. I have definitely developed my cynical muscle.

But what about Leaders?

Leaders who need to hold people their accountable for their performance and behaviour. We also know leader behaviour (what they say and do) makes up to a 70% difference as to whether the people in their team feels included (Deloitte, 2019).

So is it important that leaders change their minds AND behaviour about why it’s important to:

- Build inclusion,

- Drive gender equity, and

- Support respectful cultures free from sexual harassment and discriminatory behaviours?

I think so.

This is the work I do. Kindly and empathetically.

Lisa xx

*A "Pollyanna" is a person who is excessively or blindly optimistic, always believing that good things will happen and finding something positive in every situation.