Culture the product of many 1:1 interactions

Culture the product of many 1:1 interactions

Victor Soho

Together for Equality and Respect breakfast, 2 Dec 2015

I was privileged to attend a breakfast hosted by Women's Health East celebrating and discussing the progress and issues surrounding the Together For Equality and Respect framework. Victor Soho from the Centre for Social Leadership (CSL) spoke on the long term impact of low level sexual harassment with regard to health and wellbeing.

For me, of particular note was the striking conclusion from CSL's research that the long term health implications of low level sexual harassment are more detrimental than a one off severe event. I don't think this will be news to many women who have the challenge of working in an environment where offhand comments, looks, innuendo and statements such as 'don't tell my wife I said that' are common place and go unchecked. I happened to be filing some of my own medical records last night (doing a tidy before moving house!) and found a health check done during the most stressful period of my employment with Boeing where I was beginning to feel I was overly sensitive to the culture around me. The results were not pretty - elevated blood pressure, low cardiac and respiratory performance, poor skin condition - probably the worst health report I have had. And at the time I could not see how this was related to extreme hours, stress and culture of the place I spent most of my waking hours. Situational blindness - shocking to me in retrospect, yet entirely invisible to me at the time. Now looking back I do not believe I was overly sensitive, rather I was beginning to be able to see the culture for what it was, incompatible with my personal values.

So what does this mean to me as a leader who values diversity and equity and perhaps more importantly what should I do about it. Victor's refreshing approach to how culture is formed and maintained provides a starting point. I quote "Culture is the product of many one on one interactions". I have thought for sometime that it is important to continually highlight and provided feedback on appropriate behaviour, particularly early in a leaders journey with a team. A primary teacher friend once told me 'I'm strict at the start of the year because you can always get nicer, with boundaries come respect and you cannot get progressively stricter, you've missed your opportunity to generate respect". Certainly all advice supports the process of continuous feedback. But now Victor's observations connect, for me, my philosophy of providing feedback as essential to the building and maintenance of culture. Which in turn enables us to all be productive, valued contributors in whatever endeavour we choose.

So what behaviour do you allow to go unchecked? Is it acceptable to you and all those around you?

My request is that next time you get that feeling in your gut that flags inappropriateness, say something, take action to improve the culture you are a part of every day.