Exploring the Depths of Empathy, Culture, and Bias in the Workplace

What does cultural fit mean? Should we only consider candidates who match company culture or are we limiting ourselves to the possibilities lingering out there in the career space?

Take a look at these recent reads on culture at work.

Here is the 1st roundup of June:

• Embracing empathy as your secret weapon in the workplace: Video time! Everwise sheds light on the complicated topic of empathy. It’s a nuanced skill that gifts employees with strategies to resolve team dynamic issues and approach project management challenges with confidence.
• The pitfalls of dealing with bias at work: Everyone has heard of the fallout at a Starbucks in Philly last month. Bias happens every day in the throes of interacting with customers, coworkers, and employees. However, all the attention on resolving harmful bias has not solved the issue. Are we focusing on the correct aspects? Companies seem to be obsessing about liability instead of solving the core issue: our behaviors and perceptions of other humans.
• The not-so-wonderful side of striving for “culture fit” in recruiting:  When we constantly reinforce the idea of “culture fit” as a prerequisite for an ideal candidate, we consciously exclude candidates that have the potential to bring diverse thoughts to a  team. Finding someone that socially matches a team for Friday happy hours does not breed great results in the long run. Like-minded teams lead to like-minded ideas. Where’s the innovation going to sprout from if thought diversity is stifled?
• We’re ill-equipped to handle experience bias in the workplace: You may have interpreted the contentious “Yanny vs. Laurel” debate of late as a pop culture oddity.  However, Quartz teaches us that it actually was a social experiment evidencing a blatant resistance to considering alternate opinions. If you were throwing shade at the other side of the debate, chances are that you need to relinquish some inherent biases.
• Reacquainting ourselves with humanity at work: It sounds so simple but the missing ingredient at work is not a product tool, marketing strategy, or perfectly diverse team roster. It is remembering that we are humans…and so are our coworkers! Empathy is an easy word to say but the practice of it is proving increasingly challenging, by executives and new hires alike.

Katie

P.S. News flash: In a surprising turn of events, we learned yesterday that Lyft is swerving in (forgive the pun!) on the ride-sharing business with its plans to acquire Motivate.