What Is The Difference Between A Master Of Science In Education And A Master Of Arts In Education?

There is a big difference between a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Arts in Education. In a nutshell, a master’s of science degree focuses on practical skills while a masters of arts degree focuses on theoretical research.

The Master Of Science In Education :- A Master of Science in Education is best for educators who want to work in the field, improve their pedagogical skills and possibly move into academic leadership roles. In fact, this degree prepares the student to move into educational system leadership positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A Master of Science in Education provides students with career opportunities inside and outside the classroom. Possible career paths include instruction, curriculum, leadership and special education. This degree focuses on practical, hands-on experiences that enable the student to evaluate education practices and create feasible solutions and strategies. Students will study advanced educational theories, perform in-depth research and explore educational psychology.

Sample Coursework for a Master of Science in Education :- Students will learn groundbreaking teaching techniques, best practices and academic strategies. They will also learn advanced classroom management models and associated assessment tools for student behaviors and achievements. Curriculum coursework will prepare them to design, evaluate and personalize the education experience. Educational leadership teaches best practices for managing change and participating in collaborative decision-making. Student assessment training will empower the student to perform both formal and informal growth and achievement assessments. Specializations for a Master of Science in Education include Special Education and Teaching Literacy and Language. The first specialization provides tools and strategies for helping students with behavior disorders and learning disabilities. The second teachings advanced approaches to literacy.

The Master Of Arts In Education :- The Master of Arts in Education is focused on the scholarly aspects of the education system. Therefore, this academic degree centers on contemporary theories and research. The curriculum often emphasizes the fundamental theories related to learning, educational research, curriculum development and student testing and assessments. Graduates are prepared to become teachers in PK-12 schools and higher education institutions. Therefore, they may be required to obtain state licensure. Additionally, a Master of Arts in Education opens the door to becoming a curriculum designer or instructional coordinator. This degree also prepares the graduate to pursue a doctoral degree in education. It is the ideal choice for graduates who wish to pursue instructional or administrative careers in higher education. Clearly, the difference between a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Arts in Education is a focus on practical skills over theories.

Sample Coursework For A Master Of Arts In Education :- Coursework will cover child development, language learning, community services, reading literacy and curriculum and instruction. For example, students will learn how culture and individuality affect a student's learning experience. Students will explore different assessment tools and instructional strategies. They will be trained on how to take incorporate technology into classroom instruction. Specializations for a Master of Arts in Education include Child Development, Assessments and Diversity. For example, a development specialization would focus on the social, cognitive and linguistic development in young children. The assessment specialization would revolve around developmental concerns and intervention strategies. The diversity specialization would center on multiculturalism and inclusive educational methods.

In the end, the difference between a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Arts in Education comes down to two specific areas of focus: practical skills or abstract theories.

Thanks to BestMastersDegrees / Best Master's Degrees
https://www.bestmastersdegrees.com/best-masters-degrees-faq/what-is-the-difference-between-a-master-of-science-in-education-and-a-master-of-arts-in-education

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A New Model For Integrating Behavioural Science And Design

Nudging has rightfully earned its place in public policy as an effective, efficient, and relatively low-cost lever for addressing knotty challenges grounded in very human “irrational” behavior: Which message encourages citizens to get out the vote or pay their taxes on time? What mix of social norms, commitment devices, and prompts increases medication adherence? These kinds of behavioral interventions are primarily designed to achieve efficiency and cost savings within current processes and structures, through solutions to known, discrete behavioral challenges. Think of it as process improvement, nudge-style.

Life, however, is full of complexity and adaptation that can’t be tested with a randomized control trial. While field experiments and pretests can bring us closer to the intricacies of real life, nudging’s natural habitat of well-defined, present-tense inputs and processes may be at odds with the introduction of new to-the-world contexts or the ambiguity of the future. Nudges, and behavioral science more generally, can absolutely help people save more for tomorrow, today. But tomorrow may be characterized by a completely different set of life-stage or employment norms and conditions that upend our current conceptions of retirement above and beyond the mechanics of saving into 401(k) accounts.

This leads us to wonder: to what extent is a focus on evidence-based solutions of testable hypotheses contributing to a form of confirmation bias, inadvertently limiting our sense of which problems and spaces are ripe for behavioral attention and confining our ability to imagine new applications and definitions for what “good” could look like? Thaler and Sunstein knew that nudges were a piece of the behavioral change puzzle but not the only piece. So what’s missing?

Part of the solution, we suspect, is hiding in plain sight: behavioral science can and should continue to make important contributions through nudges and its other methods, but we believe it can contribute at an even greater scale by turning outward to partner with other disciplines—in particular, with the field of design.

Behavioral Science Can Contribute At An Even Greater Scale By Turning Outward To Partner With Other Disciplines—In Particular, With The Field Of Design.

Design is a strategic lens with a history of grappling with ambiguity and embracing user context, recognizing the need to solve at the level of systems while also keeping one eye on the future by building solutions that are designed to adapt. To do this, design uses a combination of generative, participatory, and evaluative modes to expand our notions of what we should even be solving for, as well as how to solve for it—with outcomes that are viable and sustainable, desirable for all stakeholders, and technologically feasible to build. Organizations as diverse as the Mayo Clinic, Proctor & Gamble, IBM, and the United States government have successfully integrated a design mindset into how they conceive of, build, and deliver services, experiences, or even new businesses.

There’s already increasing buzz about how applying “design thinking” can add value to behavioral interventions, but the value of applying behavioral insights to design problems is equally clear. Struggles with uncertainty, helping users achieve what they value, confirmation bias, time discounting—all of these concepts are inextricably embedded in the challenges that design sets out to solve. By coming in fully armed with a knowledge of behavioral tendencies and levers, we can vastly improve our chances of designing more robust and effective solutions.

Consider the model below. In this conception, the bottom left corner is where behavioral science thrives and design supports. This is where understanding behavioral challenges and pitfalls helps us improve existing choice architecture, like redesigning forms and setting smart defaults. Here, design ensures that the behavioral solutions are focused on helping (or redirecting) people to complete particular actions by taking their context into account.

The top right corner is where design takes the lead and behavioral science plays a supporting role. Here, the landscape consists of larger, more complex systems and scenarios, some which may not even exist yet. This is where design can help us envision what could be, while behavioral science provides insights into cognitive shortcuts and tendencies that might derail people from acting in their own best interests. Solutions in this space might take shape as a new welfare system like universal basic income or a new way to choose, negotiate, and manage health insurance.

A New Model For Integrating Behavioral Science And Design, Reid & Schmidt. … Pic 1 (Top)

This new model draws its inspiration from Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff’s Innovation Ambition Matrix, introduced in 2012 as a means to guide organizational investment in innovation. The matrix was itself a riff on a framework by management theorist H. Igor Ansoff, and consisted of a simple 3×3 matrix defined by two axes: “Where to play,” defined as a continuum of playing in existing markets with existing customers on one end, to creating entirely new ones at the other; and “How to win,” which ranged from existing products up to entirely new offerings.

Innovation Ambition Matrix, Nagji and Tuff, Harvard Business Review  … Pic 2 (Top)

This visual representation and line of thinking helped companies reframe innovation in two important ways.

First, it provided a new language to describe the nature of innovative solutions as core (optimizing current processes and offerings), adjacent (reaching adjacent customers, developing incrementally new offerings), and transformational (achieving market disruption), according to their position within the matrix. This was not only descriptively useful but also provided a shared set of definitions to help people talk about innovation with greater consistency.

Second, the model also introduced a way to reconceptualize innovation as a landscape, in which one could gauge how individual innovation initiatives within a company sat relative to one another—in other words, taking a portfolio, or systems, view. This allowed organizations to clarify their innovation goals more holistically and helped them better plan and measure the collective success of innovations.

The frame of “where to play” and “how to win” provided businesses with new ways of describing and thinking about of innovation, thinking that allowed them to be both more precise and more strategic. Transplanted into a behavioral context, the structure has the potential to help us imagine a broader landscape of challenges to address, and it arms us with a new syntax to coordinate our efforts.

Where To Play: Individuals -> Multi-Stakeholders -> Systemic

Nagji and Tuff’s “where to play” axis focused on the “stretchiness” of potential audiences and markets in the context of gaining a competitive advantage. In our reimagined behavioral version, we translated this strategic focus on audience as “in whose best interest” the behavioral interventions are designed for—individuals, multiple stakeholders, and entire systems.

Individuals. Examples where nudges focus on an individual’s best interest abound. Richard Thaler and Shlomo Benartzi’s “Save More Tomorrow” plan, which in its initial rollout nearly quadrupled 401(k) contributions compared to prior rates, is a classic case; health care interventions aimed at habit formation such as medication adherence also sit here.

Multi-Stakeholder. These interventions multiply the impact of solutions by solving simultaneously for several answers to “in my best interest.” As an example, consider blind auditions, in which orchestras improved the gender balance of their hires by hiding the physical traits of auditioners behind a screen. First adopted by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the 1970s, this solution benefitted the individual women who received job offers based on their merit, but also rewarded orchestras by attracting the best talent. Job-application software, like Applied and GapJumpers, are digital versions of the same concept. They blind cues like names, gender, and ethnicities from evaluators, and emphasize candidate aptitude and task-oriented competencies that more tangibly link to prospective performance and merit. Other efforts in this space include simplifying labels, using social-comparison framing to reduce energy consumption and increase recycling behavior, and using short-term incentives in government-backed energy efficiency programs to boost greener consumption habits.

Systemic. Systemic solutions benefit not just individuals, or even specific organizations, but overall systems. The well-known opt-out and prompted-choice approaches for organ donation are two such examples, in which recognizing the power of default options has been shown to be highly effective in increasing both the base of potential donors and the likelihood of their organs being used, to the benefit of the entire system.

Voting is another arena in which behavioral insights have had a significant systems-level impact. Oregon’s automatic voter-registration system, launched in 2016, uses Oregon motor vehicle registration information to auto-register citizens to vote. This system has not only significantly increased the number of registered voters but also increased their diversity—participants were more likely to be younger, live in lower density areas, have lower income and education, and represent higher racial diversity—and boosted their likelihood to vote. Other recent “get out the vote” campaigns using behavioral prompts such as social nudges and precommitments have been shown to help people, especially those who live alone, establish a plan for how to get to polling stations. Solutions like these have not only stretched the impact of organizational budgets but also arguably improved systemic representativeness in the democratic process.

How To Win: Shift Incoming Inputs -> Shift Existing Processes -> Create New Solutions

Nagji and Tuff’s “How to win” is grounded in the newness of the offerings provided by an organization; in our version, we’ve substituted in the nature and scale of behavioral interventions—from adjusting current inputs and processes up to developing entirely new solutions.

Shift Incoming Inputs. The examples provided above are primarily instances of shifting incoming inputs, in which interventions are aimed at influencing the range or definition of what currently exists. This approach focuses on countering the biases that may limit our perceptions of viable options or, in default and opt-out situations, reducing or even eliminating the need to choose at all.

Shift Existing Processes. Sometimes, targeting processes, rather than inputs, is a more effective way to remove barriers to action or reduce implicit bias. A simple, yet highly effective, example is the checklist. Checklists used by John Hopkins Hospital to guide blood clot prevention protocols turned a 50 percent disparity in the treatment of men versus women into an even playing field. By simply externalizing personal judgment, treatment became far more equitable.

Streamlining processes to remove even small points of friction has also proven fruitful, especially with low frequency, low motivation tasks like filing taxes. The Behavioural Insights Team nudged better tax filing behavior by sending a form directly to participants rather than sending them to a website to download the form. Removing this one click increased use of the form from 19 percent to 23 percent, at virtually no cost.

Create New Solutions. The insurance product Lemonade flips traditional business models and customer experience on their head by realigning incentives for action. With flat fees, quick payouts, and unused premiums going to the social cause of one’s choice, solutions like this suggest an exciting direction for products and services that incorporate behavioral insights into their design, rather than creating interventions to address strictly behavioral challenges. Other familiar examples include Uber or Amazon Prime’s One-Click. These leverage behavioral insights within broader offerings, by reducing user uncertainty, providing immediate feedback, and simplifying actions to make their services almost too easy to not use.

In a public-policy vein, recent experiments in universal basic income provide a current illustration of the potential for new, systems-level solutions that could have profound effects on health and well-being, financial stability, entrepreneurship, and even social inclusion; as Johnny Hugill and Matija Franklin note, embracing a universal basic income could diminish the social stigma that makes people less likely to use other income-benefits programs.

Putting The Model To Use

Expanding the terrain of behavioral problems to solve is not the same as advocating to only swing for the fences. On the contrary, its intent is to broaden our view of what is possible rather than declaring what is in or out, good or bad. So-called “small” interventions can be enormously powerful in their own right, and in some cases a cluster of individual efforts can create the conditions for large-scale impact and long-term change.

In fact, Nagji and Tuff’s article suggested that only 10 percent of innovation efforts should aim for transformation, compared to a whopping 70 percent in the core, and 20 percent toward adjacent efforts in between. Nudges that focus on inputs and target individual behaviors, like process improvement efforts, are and will continue to be critically important tools in public policy. Our argument is that in the same way that many individual adjustments to the hotel experience would never have yielded Airbnb, expanding room for behavioral design to inform new policy may yield other benefits, and a focus on aggregated small wins may be insufficient if it is the only model we rely on.

By Partnering With Design And Framing Behavioral Science As A Speculative Tool, In Addition To An Evidence-Based One, We Can Collectively Better Envision The New, In Addition To Testing The Known.

A new book, co-authored by Tuff, bolsters the case for stretching beyond “core” behavioral interventions. His updated model parallels the structure of our proposed bottom-left and top-right triangles, labeling them “known/knowable opportunities” and “unknown/unknowable opportunities,” respectively. The former is the terrain of identified challenges, which can be addressed with known insights and tools. This is largely where behavioral science has played so far. The latter, by contrast, requires new approaches to identify those challenges, let alone solve for them and gauge the success of solutions—exactly the conditions that play to the strengths of design.

It’s also worth noting that the 70-20-10 ratio offered in the 2012 version has been updated to 50-30-20 today, with the recommendation of using 50 percent of innovation budgets for core improvements, 30 percent toward adjacent areas, and 20 percent toward transformation. While the worlds of innovation and behavioral design are not precisely equivalent, we can’t help but agree that it’s valuable to look beyond traditional problem-solving boundaries when it comes to behavior.

Framing the power of behavioral insights within a design-led perspective amplifies our ability to navigate complexity and uncertainty and create effective and adaptive public policy at scale with the future, as well as the present, in mind. Of course, the one thing we absolutely know about the future is that we’ll be wrong. But despite a bias toward testable, empirical hypotheses that deliver present-tense proof of efficacy, behavioral science is actually unusually, if not uniquely, qualified to shine a light on designing for the future. Our ancestors were just as “predictably irrational” as we are, and cognitive heuristics and biases will persist into the future even if they manifest differently as contexts change. By partnering with design and framing behavioral science as a speculative tool, in addition to an evidence-based one, we can collectively better envision the new, in addition to testing the known.

About the Authors :-  Sarah Reid directs the leadership and organizational change research portfolio at the Conference Board of Canada. Prior to this role, she worked at the Ontario Securities Commission helping to establish a behavioral insights unit and at Doblin, an innovation consultancy within Deloitte. She earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Toronto.

Ruth Schmidt is an associate professor at the Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Her work sits at the intersection of behavioral economics and humanity-centered design, combining strategic design methodologies and behavioral insights to inform effective, ethical solutions for complex system challenges.

Thanks to Sarah Reid & Ruth Schmidt / Behavioral Scientist / BehavioralScientist Org
http://behavioralscientist.org/a-new-model-for-integrating-behavioral-science-and-design/?ck_subscriber_id=1151773770

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How To Write A Cover Letter

Summary :- Perhaps the most challenging part of the job application process is writing an effective cover letter. And yes, you should send one. Even if only one in two cover letters gets read, that’s still a 50% chance that including one could help you. Before you start writing, find out more about the company and the specific job you want. Next, catch the attention of the hiring manager or recruiter with a strong opening line. If you have a personal connection with the company or someone who works there, mention it in the first sentence or two, and try to address your letter to someone directly. Hiring managers are looking for people who can help them solve problems, so show that you know what the company does and some of the challenges it faces. Then explain how your experience has equipped you to meet those needs. If the online application doesn’t allow you to submit a cover letter, use the format you’re given to demonstrate your ability to do the job and your enthusiasm for the role.

No one likes job hunting. Scouring through online job listings, spiffing up your résumé, prepping for grueling interviews — none of it is fun. For many, the most challenging part of the process is writing an effective cover letter. There’s so much conflicting advice out there, it’s hard to know where to start. Do you even need one, especially if you’re applying through an online system?

What The Experts Say :- The answer is almost always yes. Sure, there will be times when you’re submitting an application online and you may not be able to include one but whenever possible, send one, says Jodi Glickman, a communications expert and author of Great on the Job. “It’s your best chance of getting the attention of the HR person or hiring manager and an important opportunity to distinguish yourself from everyone else.” And in a tight job market, setting yourself apart is critical, says John Lees, a UK-based career strategist and author of Knockout CV. Still, as anyone who’s ever written a cover letter knows, it’s not easy to do well. Here are some tips to help.

Do Your Research First :- Before you start writing, find out more about the company and the specific job you want. Of course, you should carefully read the job description, but also peruse the company’s website, its executives’ Twitter feeds, and employee profiles on LinkedIn. This research will help you customize your cover letter, since you shouldn’t send a generic one. It’ll also help you decide on the right tone. “Think about the culture of the organization you’re applying to,” advises Glickman. “If it’s a creative agency, like a design shop, you might take more risks but if it’s a more conservative organization, like a bank, you may hold back.”

If at all possible, reach out to the hiring manager or someone else you know at the company before writing your cover letter, advises Lees. You can send an email or a LinkedIn message “asking a smart question about the job.” That way you can start your letter by referencing the interaction. You might say, “Thanks for the helpful conversation last week” or “I recently spoke to so-and-so at your company.” Of course, it’s not always possible to contact someone — or you may not get a response. That’s OK. It’s still worth a try.

Focus It On The Future :- While your resume is meant to be a lookback at your experience and where you’ve been, the cover letter should focus on the future and what you want to do, says Glickman. “It can be helpful to think of it as the bridge between the past and the future that explains what you hope to do next and why.” Because of the pandemic there is less of an expectation that you’ll be applying for a job that you’ve done before. “There are millions of people who are making career changes — voluntarily or involuntarily — and need to pivot and rethink how their skillset relates to a different role or industry,” says Glickman. You can use your cover letter to explain the shift you’re making, perhaps from hospitality to marketing, for example. Think of it as an opportunity to sell your transferrable skills.

Open Strong :- “People typically write themselves into the letter with ‘I’m applying for X job that I saw in Y place.’ That’s a waste,” says Lees. Instead, lead with a strong opening sentence. “Start with the punch line — why this job is exciting to you and what you bring to the table,” says Glickman. For example, you might write, “I’m an environmental fundraising professional with more than 15 years of experience looking for an opportunity to apply my skills in new ways, and I’d love to bring my expertise and enthusiasm to your growing development team.” Then you can include a sentence or two about your background and your relevant experience but don’t rehash your resume.

Chances are the hiring manager or recruiter is reading a stack of these, so you want to catch their attention. But don’t try to be funny. “Humor can often fall flat or sound self-regarding,” says Lees. Stay away from common platitudes, too. “Say something direct and dynamic, such as ‘Let me draw your attention to two reasons why I’d be a great addition to your team….’

If you have a personal connection with the company or someone who works there, also mention it in the first sentence or two. And always address your letter to someone directly. “With social media, it’s often possible to find the name of a hiring manager,” says Glickman.

Emphasize Your Personal Value :- Hiring managers are looking for people who can help them solve problems. Drawing on the research you did earlier, show that you know what the company does and some of the challenges it faces. These don’t need to be specific but you might mention how the industry has been affected by the pandemic. For example, you might write, “A lot of healthcare companies are overwhelmed with the need to provide high quality care while protecting the health and safety of their staff.” Then talk about how your experience has equipped you to meet those needs; perhaps explain how you solved a similar problem in the past or share a relevant accomplishment. You want to provide evidence of the things that set you apart.

Lees points out that there are two skills that are relevant to almost any job right now: adaptability and the ability to learn quickly. If you have brief examples that demonstrate these skills include those. For example, if you supported your team in the shift to remote work, describe how you did that and what capabilities you drew on.

Convey Enthusiasm :- “When you don’t get hired, it’s usually not because of a lack of skills,” says Glickman. “It’s because people didn’t believe your story, that you wanted the job, or that you knew what you were getting into.” Hiring managers are going to go with the candidate who has made it seem like this is their dream job. So make it clear why you want the position. “Enthusiasm conveys personality,” Lees adds. He suggests writing something like “I’d love to work for your company. Who wouldn’t? You’re the industry leader, setting standards that others only follow.” Don’t bother applying if you’re not excited about some aspect of the company or role.

Watch The Tone :- At the same time, don’t go overboard with the flattery or say anything you don’t mean. Authenticity is crucial. “Even if you’ve been out of work for months, and would take any job at this point, you want to avoid sounding desperate,” says Lees. You don’t want your tone to undermine your message so be professional and mature. A good rule of thumb is to put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager and think about “the kind of language that the hiring manager would use with one of the company’s customers.” Of course, it can be hard to discern your own tone in writing so you may need to ask someone to review a draft (which is always a good idea anyway – see advice below). Lees says that he often cuts outs “anything that sounds like desperation” when he’s reviewing letters for clients.

Keep It Short :- Much of the advice out there says to keep it under a page. But both Glickman and Lees say even shorter is better. “Most cover letters I see are too long,” says Lees. “It should be brief enough that someone can read it at a glance.” You do have to cover a lot of ground — but you should do it succinctly. This is where asking a friend, former colleague, or mentor to review can be helpful. Ask them to read through it and point out places where you can cut.

Get Feedback :- In fact, it’s a great idea to share your cover letter with a few people, says Lees. Rather than sending it off and asking, “What do you think?” be specific about the kind of feedback you want. In particular, request two things. First, ask your friend if it’s clear what your main point is. What’s the story you’re telling? Are they able to summarize it? Second, ask them what’s wrong with the letter. “Other people are more attuned to desperation, overselling, over-modesty, and underselling,” says Lees and they should be able to point out places where the tone is off.

When You Can’t Submit A Cover Letter :- Many companies now use online application systems that don’t allow for a cover letter. You may be able to figure out how to include one in the same document as your résumé but that’s not a guarantee, especially because some systems only allow for data to be entered into specific boxes. In these cases, use the format you’re given to demonstrate your ability to do the job and your enthusiasm for the role. If possible, you may try to find someone who you can send a brief follow-up email highlighting a few key points about your application.

Principles To Remember

Do:

• Have a strong opening statement that makes clear why you want the job and what you bring to the table.
• Be succinct — a hiring manager should be able to read your letter at a glance.
• Share an accomplishment that shows you can address the challenges the employer is facing.

Don’t:

• Try to be funny — too often it falls flat.
• Send a generic cover letter — customize each one for the specific job.
• Go overboard with flattery — be professional and mature.

Advice In Practice

Case Study #1: Demonstrate An Understanding Of What The Company Needs :- Michele Sommers, the vice president of HR for the Boys & Girls Village, a nonprofit in Connecticut, recently posted a job for a recruiting and training specialist. “I was looking for someone with a strong recruiting background who could do everything from sourcing candidates to onboarding new hires,” she says. She also wanted the person to hit the ground running. “We’re a small team and I can’t afford to train someone,” she says.

More than 100 candidates applied for the job. The organization’s online application system doesn’t allow for cover letter attachments but one of the applicants, Heidi (not her real name), sent a follow-up email after submitting her résumé. “And it’s a good thing she did because she would’ve been weeded out otherwise,” Michele says.

Heidi’s résumé made her look like a “job hopper” — very short stints at each previous employer. Michele assumed she was a poor performer who kept getting fired. She was also the only candidate who didn’t have a four-year college degree.

But Heidi’s email caught Michele’s eye. First off, it was professional. Heidi stated clearly that she was writing to double-check that her application had been received. She went on to explain how she had gotten Michele’s name and information (through her husband’s boss who was on the board) and her personal connection to Boys & Girls Village (her father-in-law had done some work with the organization).

What really stood out to Michele, though, was Heidi’s understanding of the group and the challenges it was facing. She’d done her research and “listed some things she would do or already had done that would help us address those needs,” says Michele.

“The personality and passion she conveyed in the cover letter came through during her phone screening,” Michele says. Heidi ended up being more than qualified for the job. “I wanted this role to be bigger from the get-go but I didn’t think that was possible. When I met her, I knew we could expand it.” Three weeks later Michele offered Heidi the job and she accepted.

Case Study #2: Catch Their Attention :- Over the past four years, Emily Sernaker applied for multiple positions at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). She never gave up. With each application, she sent a personalized cover letter. “I wanted my cover letter to highlight my qualifications, creative thinking, and genuine respect for the organization,” she says.

Sarah Vania, the organization’s regional HR director, says that Emily’s letters caught her attention, especially because they included several video links that showed the results of Emily’s advocacy and fundraising work at other organizations. Emily explains, “I had prior experience advocating for former child soldiers, human trafficking survivors, vulnerable women, and displaced persons. It’s one thing to make statements in a cover letter, like ‘I can make a pitch, I am a creative person, I am thoughtful,’ but showing these qualities seemed like a better way of convincing the recruiter that the statements were true.”

This is what Emily wrote to Sarah about the video:

Here is a short video about my story with activism. The nonprofit organization Invisible Children made it for a youth conference I spoke at this year. It is about four minutes.

As you’ll see from the video, I’ve had a lot of success as a student fundraiser, raising over $200,000 for Invisible Children. I’ve since gone on to work as a consultant for Wellspring International and have recently concluded my studies as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar.

In each of the cover letters, Emily also made clear how much she wanted to work for IRC. “To convey enthusiasm is a vulnerable thing to do and can come off as naiveté, but, when it came down to it, my enthusiasm for the organization was genuine and expressing it felt right,” she says.

This is how Emily conveyed her interest in working for IRC:

You should also know that I have a sincere appreciation of the IRC. I have enjoyed learning about your programs and have personally visited your New York headquarters, the San Diego New Roots farm, the We Can Be Heroes exhibit, and the Half the Sky exhibit in Los Angeles. The IRC is my top choice and I believe I would be a valuable addition to your fundraising team.

Emily learned throughout the process that the organization had hundreds of applicants for each position and it was extremely competitive. “I appreciated that I wouldn’t be the best for every opening but also remained firm that I did have a significant contribution to make,” she says. Eventually, Emily’s persistence paid off. She was hired as a temporary external relations coordinator and four months later she moved into a permanent role.

Editor’s note: The author updated this article, which was originally written in 2014, to reflect the latest advice from the experts and the reality of job-seeking during the pandemic.

About the Author :- Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict. She writes and speaks about workplace dynamics.

Thanks to Amy Gallo / Harvard Business Review / HBR Org
https://hbr.org/2014/02/how-to-write-a-cover-letter?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs

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Good Leadership Is About Asking Good Questions

Summary … Especially when they find themselves in the midst of crisis and uncertainty, leaders should ask powerful and inspiring questions. Asking questions well can put you on the path to solving intractable problems and will also help you connect with others and, counterintuitively, to earn their trust. Those questions should be big in scope: What new opportunities have emerged that we don’t want to miss? How might we use new technologies to change our business model? And you should involve others in answering those questions —employees, stakeholders, and even customers. Doing so can not only help you generate better answers, it can also help you to change your organization’s culture.

Leaders today need to revisit an overlooked skill: asking questions. In my 40 years as an executive and advisor in Silicon Valley, I’ve often seen leaders assume that people look to them for answers — bold assertions that build people’s confidence in their competence. But in reality, that kind of approach erodes trust, especially at a time when so much is manifestly uncertain. You think you have the answers to all important questions? That suggests that you are either clueless — you have no idea how rapidly the world is changing — or that you are lying. In either case, you won’t find that trust that you’ve been looking for.

Instead, leaders should ask powerful and inspiring questions, convey that they don’t have the answers, and solicit others’ help to find them. The leaders I talk to tend to be nervous about this approach: Won’t it look like they don’t know what they’re doing? On the contrary, however, research has shown that expressing vulnerability and asking for help is a strong signal to others that you are trusting, and you’re more likely to be trusted in return. In fact, if you can learn to ask questions well, it can help you connect with others. Thinking together can put you on the path to solving intractable problems and sparking innovative thinking.

Ask Big Questions

To be clear: I’m not saying you should ask pointed questions that put others on the spot, like “How can you deliver 10% higher productivity?” or “Are you missing anything here?” The kind of questions leaders need to ask are those that invite people to come together to explore major new opportunities that your organization hasn’t identified yet. Here are some examples:

• What is a game-changing opportunity that could create much more value than we have delivered in the past?
• What are emerging unmet needs of our customers that could provide the foundation for an entirely new business?
• How could we leverage the resources of third parties to address a broader range of the needs of our customers?
• How can we move from standardized, mass-market products and services to personalizing our products and services to the specific needs of each customer?
• How can we develop supply networks that would be more flexible in responding to unanticipated disruptions in production or logistics?
• How could we harness sensor technology to create more visibility into how our customers are using our products and use this information to deliver more value and deepen trust with our customers?

Focusing your questions on these kinds of new and big opportunities rather than on the existing activities of the organization can also help you to sidestep your fear that questioning will be seen as a sign of weakness, since there’s no way you could be expected to know the answers.

These broader questions also communicate that you have a sense of ambition, that you want to take the organization way beyond where it is today. And you can bolster your credibility by providing evidence of those long-term trends that underlie your question – for example, emerging technologies that are likely to offer new opportunities, or demographic shifts that will create some significant unmet needs among your customers.

Involve Others

These questions also invite collaboration. To make the most of them, don’t ask them in closed leadership meetings. Instead, broadcast them throughout your organization and even beyond it. It’s not just you posing a question to your people, it’s your brand reaching out to learn from its consumers. Reaching out beyond the institution to connect with expertise and perspectives from a broader set of more diverse sources will help your company learn faster.

For example, take Domino’s Pizza. About 10 years ago, Domino’s was hearing from customers that they did not like the company’s pizza. Many organizations might have tried to hide this information or work behind the scenes to correct the problem. Domino’s Pizza did something different. They made public the feedback they were receiving and asked for suggestions on how they could improve the quality of their pies. This open question generated an avalanche of suggestions that proved very helpful in improving the pizzas.

But beyond an open innovation success, the impact was even more fundamental: by expressing vulnerability, I believe that the company built trust with customers. Here was a company that was willing to acknowledge they had a problem and to ask for help in addressing the problem. If more organizations were willing to ask for help from their customers and other stakeholders when experiencing a problem, they would likely have much greater success in re-building trust.

Change Your Culture

Anxiety can run high in volatile times, and by asking these kinds of questions you can help people overcome some of their fears. It’s well established in the psychology field that coming together with others can reduce anxiety — that’s the idea behind group therapy. And achieving real impact can also help overcome feelings of being overwhelmed. Thus by helping people to focus on short-term actions they can take together, your questions can provide a focusing and calming effect during a crisis. .

By asking questions as a leader, you also communicate that questioning is important. You’ll inspire people to identify new opportunities and to ask for help when they need it. These behaviors lead to a culture of learning, which is critical, since the institutions that will thrive in the future are those that encourage everyone to learn faster and more rapidly expand the value that they deliver to their stakeholders.

This will be especially true if you encourage exploration that can generate new insights into potential answers to your questions, rather than simply expecting complete answers and nothing less. This will encourage people to make small moves initially that can quickly help to increase excitement about the question since participants can quickly begin to see progress. As early answers to your question begin to emerge (as a result of experiments or research, for example), share them, even if they are not groundbreaking. They’ll contribute to your culture of learning and show your stakeholders that your questioning is generating new insights, increasing their confidence in your methods.

Leaders who ask powerful questions have the greatest success in both seizing new opportunities and addressing unexpected challenges — and they build cultures that will carry these benefits into the future.

About the Author :- John Hagel III  recently retired from Deloitte, where he founded and led the Center for the Edge, a research center based in Silicon Valley. A long-time resident of Silicon Valley, he is also a compulsive writer, having published seven books. His eighth, The Journey Beyond Fear, will be coming out this spring.

Thanks to John Hagel III / Harvard Business Review / HBR Org
https://hbr.org/2021/01/good-leadership-is-about-asking-good-questions?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs

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Worried You’re In A Dead-End Career?

Every sector is vulnerable to disruption or obsoletion. The good news is that industry-level shifts don't happen overnight. If you anticipate that your career is on a sinking ship, here's how you can chart a new course. Of course you can look for a new job. If you're updating your resume, don't just focus on your achievements. You should also identify all of your transferable skills. Can you bring people together to work toward a common goal? Are you good at taking abstract problem statements and turning them into an actionable game plan? Make sure your resume includes your capabilities, as well as your successes. Another approach is to adopt a different mindset and think about how your company could evolve. What are its biggest vulnerabilities? If you were a competitor, what would you do to steal market share? Can you capitalize on — or better yet, invent — the next trends in your industry before they capsize your company? Most industries will undergo radical change at some point. Instead of lamenting what's coming, face those changes head on. Your career depends on it.

This Tip Is Adapted From "Worried You Might Be in a Dying Industry?," by Art Markman

Thanks to Art Markman / Harvard Business Review / HRB Org / Today's Tip / The Management Tip Of The Day
https://hbr.org/2021/01/worried-you-might-be-in-a-dying-industry?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs

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What to Do After A Final-Round Job Interview

You made it through the final-round job interview, and now you’re waiting to hear whether or not you’re hired. This stretch of time can feel like agony, so what should you do in the meantime? Is it appropriate and expected to send handwritten thank-you notes? Or is email better? If you thought of the perfect answer to one of the interview questions after the fact, should you reach out to the hiring manager? How long should you wait before following up to see if they’ve made a decision? And how do you avoid ruminating about the job while you wait?

What The Experts Say

This waiting period between your interview and the company’s decision is so stressful because often, “you and the organization do not share the same sense of urgency,” says John Lees, the UK-based career strategist and author of Get Ahead in Your New Job. While you’re singularly focused on whether or not you got the job, they have plenty of other things to deal with. Lees warns that during this time, you’re at risk of “counterproductive” behaviors, including doubting your own abilities, coming across to your prospective employer as desperate, and — perhaps worst of all — not pursuing other jobs. While the hiring decision is out of your hands at this point, you’re not powerless, according to John Sullivan, a professor of management at San Francisco State University and author of 1000 Ways to Recruit Top Talent. There are some “immediate actions after an interview that can provide a candidate with a competitive advantage,” he says.

Say Thank You. 

Your most pressing post-interview duty is to thank the people who took the time to talk to you. According to Sullivan, the message should communicate that you’re even more excited about the job and confident that you want it. He also recommends personalizing the message by “mentioning something positive that happened during the interview.” If your interview took place at the company’s office, you could send an old-fashioned, pen-and-paper thank-you note, which Lees says offers a classy personal touch. If your interview took place virtually, it’s best to stick with digital communication. If you don’t have your interviewers’ contact information but communicated with someone else at the company to arrange the meeting, you can send that person an email letting them know how much you appreciate theirs and the interviewers’ time. Make sure to mention the people you spoke with by name and write your message with the assumption that it could be forwarded to them. You could also connect with your interviewers on LinkedIn and send them messages of thanks there.

Send Follow-Up Materials.

In addition to a thank-you note, Sullivan recommends sending supporting material, including samples of your work that might’ve come up in the interview. “Sending additional information could strengthen your case and help sway their decision,” he says. Along those lines, Lees recommends sending a news article that’s pertinent to the organization. It could be about a technology the company is considering adopting, how the pandemic is impacting their business, or some other relevant trend. By doing so, “you’re subtly saying, ‘I understand your needs.’”

Resist The Urge For A Do-Over.

It’s natural to mull over mistakes and questions you didn’t answer well after the interview, says Sullivan. “Everyone comes out of a job interview thinking, ‘I wish I had said this instead of that.’” The French expression, esprit d’escalier, which means thinking of a witty remark in hindsight, is apt, says Lees. And while it’s tempting to ring up the hiring manager to re-answer the interview question you flubbed, it’s wise to exercise restraint. While Lee concedes that your polished response might provide helpful information for the hiring manager, “the danger is you sound too needy.” Because that perfect reply is unlikely to be the thing that makes or breaks their decision, it’s best to leave it be.

But Occasionally Make An Exception.

According to Lees, the only exception to this rule is when you have something particularly useful to add to the conversation. If, for instance, you can connect a piece of relevant evidence about yourself to an organizational need, then it might be worth speaking up. Your tone is critical here. “It mustn’t sound like criticism of the process,” says Lees. Don’t imply that the interviewer neglected to ask you about a particular thing. Instead, go with something like, “‘I really enjoyed our conversation, and here’s another piece of information that’s come up since the interview you might you like to know about me.’” Lees emphasizes the importance of being “warm, professional, and brief.”

Seek Positive Distractions.

Waiting to hear whether you got the job can be stressful, but try not to dwell on it. While you wait it out, seek positive distractions. Cultivate your hobbies. Get some exercise. Dig into that juicy novel that’s sitting on your nightstand. Lees also recommends spending time with friends and colleagues who “elevate your self-image.” Talk with people in your professional network about how to generate ideas for different job possibilities. Ask them about mistakes they’ve seen other candidates make during the interview process. You can learn a lot about how not to “sound needy or over-communicate,” says Lees.

Do Due Diligence.

Another way to pass the time productively is to figure out whether or not you actually want the job should it become yours for the taking. Even without an offer, Lees says there’s information-gathering you can do in the meantime. You can “work your industry contacts to learn more about the job and the organization” behind the scenes, he says. Of course, “if you’re offered the job, you will scale that up” by doing even more due diligence since you’ll need to decide whether to take it. According to Sullivan, this is also a good time to “finalize your job acceptance criteria.” Set your minimum salary requirements and develop a plan for how you’ll negotiate other important details. The goal, he adds, “is to be prepared for the call that says they want you,” but be careful not to get your hopes up.

Keep Your Options Open.

You also need to prepare yourself for negative news, says Lees. “There are dozens of arbitrary reasons that the job will not be offered to you. The organization might change direction; it might have a hiring freeze, or some senior manager could decide they don’t want to fill the position.” That’s why you need to continue to explore other opportunities. “Anticipate the flattening effects of rejection,” he says. “If you’ve got other conversations going, the rejection will have less impact. If you’ve put your life on hold, though, it’s much more of an emptying experience.”

Be Judicious About When You Follow Up.

Deciding how long to wait before following up to see if the hiring manager has made a decision is tricky. “You don’t want to be in job-beggar mode,” says Lees, and checking in frequently could put you in a worse bargaining position. At your final interview, Sullivan recommends asking the hiring managers how long they anticipate it will be before an offer is made. “And if they say a week, double it, because things always take longer than planned,” he says. Still, it’s worth following up within the time frame they gave you to show that you’re still interested in the job, but “be respectful and don’t push.” An email that says something along the lines of, “No response necessary, I just want to let you know that I’m still interested,” could help you stand out from other candidates.

Principles To Remember

Do

• Offer gratitude to the hiring manager, with either a handwritten note or an email.
• Provide backup support material, such as samples of your work, to strengthen your case.
• Spend your time productively by doing due diligence on the company and finalizing your personal job acceptance criteria.

Don’t

• Ask for a do-over on a question you flubbed — unless you can offer highly relevant information that speaks to an organizational need.
• Let the stress get to you. Distract yourself during the waiting period by spending time with positive-minded friends.
• Stop looking for other jobs. Keep your options open by exploring other opportunities.

Advice In Practice

Case Study #1: Avoid Ruminating By Continuing To Look For Other Jobs

Per Ohstrom says that he usually feels “a little bit nervous after that final round of interviews,” but that he does his best to remain calm and stay focused on other things.

He tells himself that he did his best. “I remind myself that I showed the interviewers how my background and experience are a good fit for the job,” he says. “Once it is out of my hands, there is nothing more I can do about it.”

Last year, Per interviewed to be the vice president of marketing at a Midwest-based B2B manufacturing company. After several rounds of interviews, Per was told that the job was between him and one other candidate. Per was excited about the opportunity, and he liked the people he interviewed with.

“The job was in my wheelhouse, and the company was well poised for growth,” he says. “I had a good feeling about getting an offer,” he says.

After his last interview, he wrote a thank-you email to the hiring manager reiterating his interest in the position.

Per says he avoided thinking about the job while he waited because he was in “active job-search mode” and too busy to ruminate. “I kept exploring other opportunities as if nothing had happened,” he says. “I kept sending CVs to recruiters, and I also went out for other interviews. It was an excellent way to keep myself occupied.”

A week later, Per found out that, unfortunately, the job offer went to the other candidate. “I felt a pang of disappointment,” he says. “But I reminded myself not to take it personally.”

Per kept networking for the right job, and earlier this year he joined Chief Outsiders as a fractional CMO, sharing his time between several industrial and B2B companies. “It is a great situation,” he says. “I get to use my deep marketing experience every day with customers that really need help.”

Case Study #2: Try To Stay Positive And Keep Your Options Open

Jack Garnier,* a financial industry veteran, has been looking for a new position during the pandemic, and he’s had his fair share of final-round interviews. He hasn’t been the chosen candidate yet, but he understands that the job search is a numbers game.

“It’s a recruiter’s market right now, and I accept that,” he says. “Most of the time, I may not be a fit, or there’s a [better] candidate, or the organization decides to go in a different direction. But it comes down to the pipeline: The more people I speak with, the more jobs I apply for, the more interviews I go on, the more likely I am to get a job. And all it takes is one.”

Two recent experiences with final-round interviews stand out in his mind. A few months ago, he was in the running to join a Bay Area hedge fund as COO. As a candidate, he was asked to take a series of online automated tests, create videos of himself to present to other employees, and interview with four members of the executive team.

“I invested quite a bit of time in the process,” he says.

He received positive feedback about his performance throughout, and he felt confident. At his last interview, the hiring manager told him that he was a finalist and intimated that Jack would hear from the company within a matter of days.

After those days passed, Jack sent a follow-up email expressing his interest in the job and asking whether a final decision was indeed imminent. In the meantime, he kept networking and looking for other jobs. “I wasn’t sitting by the phone all day long, though it was certainly on my mind.”

He never heard back from the hiring manager. “Clearly I had my answer,” he says. “Their silence was saying it all.”

Now, a month later, Jack is once again a finalist for a CFO job at a nonprofit. He sent thank-you emails to the executives he interviewed with and politely inquired about the organization’s timeline for making a decision. He was told that the decision would be made in a week.

“It’s not my MO to keep following up. I try to sway the recruiter during the interview stage and then accept [that it’s out of my hands],” he says. “It’s a balancing act: I don’t want to seem insecure, but I do want them to know that I want the job.”

For now, Jack is doing due diligence on the organization in case he’s offered the role, and he’s also applying for other positions. He wants to keep his options open.

He admits that the process can be frustrating at times. “Everything seems to be going in the right direction, and I build up my hopes,” he says. “Then the bubble bursts — it’s like getting your heart broken.”

But even when he feels dispirited, he remembers the odds: All it takes is one.

About The Author :- Rebecca Knight is a freelance journalist in Boston and a lecturer at Wesleyan University.  Her work has been published in The New York Times, USA Today, and The Financial Times.

Thanks to Rebecca Knight / Harvard Business Review / HBR Org
https://hbr.org/2021/01/what-to-do-after-a-final-round-job-interview?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs

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U.S. Businesses Must Take Meaningful Action Against Racism

The United States is in crisis. As we write this article, videos of racial violence and racist threats toward Black people in America flood social and news media channels. Public demonstrations against injustice are happening in at least 30 localities. During non-violent protests, other parties have engaged in vandalism and looting, spurring varied and often disproportionate police response. Several cities are burning, while Covid-19 continues to rage throughout the country, hitting minority communities the hardest.

In a week that focused on “reopening the economy,” everyone has become keenly aware that there is more than one pandemic affecting U.S. lives and local economies. As the American Psychological Association has declared, “we are living in a racism pandemic” too. World leaders are weighing in. The United Nations has urged action from U.S. authorities.

No matter your racial, political, or other identity, these events are almost impossible to escape. In particular, millions of Black people and their allies are hurting. And these issues are not ones that organizations or their leaders — from CEOs at the top of the hierarchy to team managers on the frontline — can ignore.

While conventional diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives focus on employee engagement and belonging, today’s challenges reach far beyond marginalization in the workplace. We now see and hear Black people who are suffering from the weight of dehumanizing injustice and the open wound of racism that has been festering for centuries. Black leaders like Robert Sellers, the University of Michigan’s vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, are openly sharing their feelings of exasperation. Blogs like Danielle Cadet’s caution readers that “Your black colleagues may look like they’re okay – chances are they’re not.” Another social media message that has gone viral really struck us: “There are black men and women in Zoom meetings maintaining ‘professionalism,’ biting their tongues, holding back tears and swallowing rage, while we endure attacks from a pandemic and police. Understand and be mindful.”

The psychological impact of these public events — and the way it carries over into the workplace — cannot be overstated. Research shows that how organizations respond to large-scale, diversity-related events that receive significant media attention can either help employees feel psychologically safe or contribute to racial identity threat and mistrust of institutions of authority. Without adequate support, minority employees are likely to perceive their environments as more interpersonally and institutionally biased against them. Leaders seeking to create an inclusive environment for everyone must find ways to address these topics.

Avoiding Missteps

First, we’d like to outline three common missteps to avoid.

Keeping Silent. For people not directly impacted by these events, the default response is often silence. Many Whites avoid talking about race because they fear being seen as prejudiced, so they adopt strategic colorblindness instead. We know that many managers also think they lack the skills to have difficult conversations around differences.

But no one has the perfect words to address atrocities in our society. It is the leader’s responsibility to try, conveying care and concern for all employees but especially targeted groups. As Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in the situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” You might be tempted to rest on the laurels of your organizations’ diversity statements and active employee resource groups. But that is not enough. The words of Dr. Martin Luther King remind us: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Becoming Overly Defensive. Another common misstep when approaching uncomfortable conversations about racial injustice is to react defensively, especially when our world views, positions, or advantages are questioned or challenged. Robin DiAngelo’s research on white fragility highlights this phenomenon. For instance, when learning about police brutality against unarmed Black people, one reaction might be to search for evidence about what the victim did to deserve abuse, rather than demonstrating compassion and empathy. Another example is diminishing protesters by focusing on and judging those who engaged in looting instead of discussing the unjust act that drove people to the streets. Leaders must resist such reactions because they do not allow for constructive engagement. Instead, they make members of targeted groups feel even more alienated. Remember that comments on systemic inequalities are not personal attacks.

Overgeneralizing. When triggering events occur, there is a tendency to make sweeping generalizations about groups of people involved in the public conflict. Though individuals of the same race, gender or other identity often have shared experiences, there is diversity within groups that should be recognized. Instead of presuming that all members of your in-group or out-group think and feel similarly and talking about what “everybody knows,” how “all of us feel,” and what “none of us would ever do,” leave room for dissenting points of view. When in doubt, ask employees about their individual experiences to honor their uniqueness. Think about how you can allow your employees to discuss what’s happening without putting them on the spot or asking them to speak for everyone in their identity group.

Best Buy’s senior leadership team offered one of the first corporate statements acknowledging the death of George Floyd under a white police officer’s knee in Minnesota, the harassment of bird-watcher Christian Cooper by a white woman in New York City, and the death of jogger Ahmaud Arbery at the hands of armed white gunman in Georgia, while also paying service to the fact that the Black experience in America is not monolithic: “We write about these … events … not because most of us know what this fear must be like. We are as a group, by and large, not people of color. We write this not because most of us have known anyone personally in a situation like this. Thankfully, most of us do not. We write this because it could have been any one of our friends or colleagues at Best Buy, or in our personal lives, lying on the ground, struggling to breathe or filming someone as they threatened us.”

Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat acknowledged that many employees have experienced racism in their everyday lives in overt and subtle ways. “I want you to know that your colleagues and I will always stand with you,” he said in a memo to employees. “While I can try to empathize with what it must be like to be a black person in America, I haven’t walked in those shoes.”

Taking Meaningful Action

Next, we’d like to provide a framework for meaningful action. Leaders must not only offer physical and psychological safety. They also have the power and platform to lead change. Statements from the top are valuable, but they are just a start. Anyone, at any level of the organization, can take small steps to exercise greater compassion and initiate action that provides needed support and promotes racial justice for Black workers as well as others who are marginalized. Managers have a particularly important role in connecting with their employees on these issues.  Here’s how:

Acknowledge. It’s important to acknowledge any harm that your Black and brown coworkers have endured. This means committing to lifelong learning about racism. Seek the facts about racist events, as well as the aggressions and microagressions that your minority coworkers have most likely faced inside and outside of your organization.  We suggest the following steps:

• Do the research to fully understand events, using data from reliable sources. Take the initiative to search beyond social media.
• Do give your Black and brown employees the space to be angry, afraid, disenchanted, or even disengaged from work.
• Do seek out support from your human resources team or office of diversity and inclusion. Books and articles can also be good resources. Three we recommend are: Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience , which one of us edited and to which we both contributed, as well as the related HBR article series “Toward a Racially Just Workplace”; The Person You Mean to Be by Dolly Chugh, and How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. There are also free resources such as the “Talking about Race” web portal from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
• Do not rely on Black and brown people to educate you about what happened in order to justify their hurt and outrage or counter “colorblind” rhetoric.
• Do not ask your Black and brown leaders or employees to comfort or advocate for colleagues or justice initiatives.

In the organizational setting, you have the power to step up. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and the company’s diversity chief Brian Lamb wrote a memo to U.S. employees stating: “This week’s terrible events in Minneapolis, together with too many others occurring around our country, are tragic and heartbreaking. Let us be clear — we are watching, listening and want every single one of you to know we are committed to fighting against racism and discrimination wherever and however it exists.”

At Georgetown University, president John DeGioia wrote a heartfelt message to the community acknowledging the harm of a series of racist events: “On too many occasions over the years, there has been cause for me to share reflections with our community, as we grapple with the devastating impact of racism and hatred in our nation.  In August 2014, following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; in December 2015, following the grand jury decision in the killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York; in August 2017, following the march of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia.  In these moments, which encompass far from the full extent of experiences of racism and racist violence, I have tried to frame the work in which we must engage within the mission and purpose of the Academy.”

Affirm. People are looking for leaders to affirm their right to safety and personhood and help them feel protected. When presidents, governors, mayors and sheriffs aren’t doing so, corporate, university, and non-profit leaders can. This means offering continued opportunities for reaction, reflection, conversation, growth, development, impact, and advancement. Affirmation can start with creating a space for employees to share. For example, when asked, “How are you today?” many people of color respond in a scripted manner, instead of answering honestly. Instead, use more thoughtful prompts and questions.

You might say something like this: “I’ve been thinking about the harm of racism in our country, especially considering recent events.” Next, describe your personal reaction and concerns, then make a commitment. “I’d like to help in promoting equity, so here’s one thing I plan to do to help prevent future tragedies like these.” Explain those intentions. Then, offer to engage. “Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do to be supportive, even if you just want to talk about what’s happening. I understand if you don’t, and I won’t be offended. But I just want you to know that the door is open, and that I care.” The last line is important. Not everyone will be interested in or comfortable with discussing racism at work, especially if they haven’t built a solid foundation of trust.

Act. Think critically about how you can use your power to effect change. Employees value words of understanding and encouragement, but leaders’ and organizations’ actions have a more lasting impact. We have witnessed some courageous steps, such as Joan Gabel, president of the University of Minnesota, ending contracts with the Minneapolis Police Department after George Floyd’s death. Franklin Templeton Investments fired executive employee Amy Cooper after her interaction with Chris Cooper in Central Park.

Georgetown president John DeGioia’s statement went on to say: “Our role in society — to pursue the truth — through the methodologies and disciplines through which we establish knowledge in our world, demands our engagement.  In our response, we have sought to accelerate our academic commitment to addressing racial justice and to address our own connection to the institution of slavery and the enduring legacy of racism and to undo the structural elements that sustain this legacy.”

More examples include YouTube pledging $1 million to the Center for Policing Equity, Glossier giving $500,000 to support racial justice organizations and another $500,000 to Black-owned beauty brands, and Peloton not only donating $500,000 to the NAACP but also calling for its members to speak up for and learn ways to practice anti-racism.

What can you and your organization do in your community? What would promote equity and justice and activate meaningful change?  Whether you are a senior or junior leader, how can you advocate for such action?

Racism isn’t just Black people’s problem; it’s everyone’s problem because it erodes the fabric of society. Leaders at every level must use their power, platforms, and resources to help employees and communities overcome these challenges and build a better world for us all.

Laura Morgan Roberts is a professor of practice at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and the co-editor of Race, Work and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience (Harvard Business Press, 2019).

Ella F. Washington is a professor of practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the founder of Ellavate Solutions, which provides executive coaching and diversity and inclusion strategy and training for organizations.

Thanks to Laura Morgan Roberts & Ella F. Washington / HBR / Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/2020/06/u-s-businesses-must-take-meaningful-action-against-racism?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod_notactsubs

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