Expert Forum

The transgender community had a tumultuous 2017, featuring several affirmative events that illustrated the public’s growing acceptance of people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to them at birth. The election of eight transgender individuals to public office on November 8 is extraordinary evidence of a new open-mindedness evinced by the American public. At the same time, we saw the rise of barricades blocking the community from genuine inclusion in society and the workplace. President Donald Trump’s tweet that no transgender people should “serve in any capacity in the U.S. military” was perhaps the year’s biggest obstacle, threatening to prevent these individuals from achieving their full potential. Read more

When the words “Black Lives Matter” are spoken, some people hear, “Black Lives ALSO Matter”, while others hear, “ONLY Black Lives Matter.” To some, the expression is an appeal for understanding, justice, and equal treatment, but, to others, it is a threat, a rebuff, and an antagonistic assertion of racial superiority.

This extreme difference in understanding is symbolic of the magnitude of one of the most significant problems facing our society: the struggle between the communication of collaboration and the discourse of division.  This is a conflict of great concern to human resources professionals who rely on effective, honest, and credible communication to promote collaborative workplaces. Diversity and inclusion professionals, in particular, need to understand how people speaking the same language can be so split over their reading of three simple words. Read more