The importance of Standing Up

 Many organisations and businesses are grappling with how to change their culture in the wake of the ‘Me Too’ Movement and Black Lives Matter. Even if they have a strong Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programme, there can still be a feeling that the culture isn’t quite right. The furore at Yorkshire Cricket Club seems to have come as a surprise to the leadership, and to many prominent figures who have been silent since the scandal broke, but the warning signs had been there for years.

What can be done to train, develop and support your staff to create a completely inclusive workplace? What should we advise when bullying, either through micro-aggressions or outright harassment, is happening?

In America there is clear advice for any child witnessing bullying, from the excellent movement stompoutbullying.org. Among other things, it advises ‘don’t laugh, don’t participate, don’t become an ‘audience for the bully, and tell an adult.’

 In the UK, the equivalent development for staff lies in Active Bystander training. Rather than focusing on the Victim (such as Assertiveness training) or the Perpetrator (Unconscious Bias training), Active Bystander training gives everyone witnessing the incident the tools to be active in combatting this insidious behaviour.

Our natural inclination is to think we either intervene directly, and potentially face abuse or subtle discrimination ourselves, or we do nothing. Active Bystander training instead talks about a spectrum of potential actions to help change the culture and gives staff a wide range of tools which are appropriate for any given context. One key message is ‘It’s never too late to be an Active Bystander’ – a message which everyone connected to Yorkshire CC needs to hear.

 For more information about Emailogic’s 90 minute and 180 minute Active Bystander courses click here email enquiries@emailogic.com on call +44 (0)203 154 6611.