Inclusive leadership advice: Get comfortable with the uncomfortable
People tend to seek sameness, but they can teach themselves to relish in the differences of the human experience. Francesca Gino offers these three principles from improv to anyone who's trying to lead more inclusively
“Difference is an acquired preference,” a colleague once told me. The statement seemed rather strange to me at first. Upon reflection, though, I understood what my colleague was saying: Difference is uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and sometimes even unsafe. Whether it is an opinion that is opposite of our own, a way of working we are not used to, a person who approaches work in a way that is radically different from ours (and maybe also one we disagree with), or someone of a different background or race, differences are likely to bring about discomfort.
Yet as my colleague’s observation implied, we can come to prefer difference, with time—to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. We took on this idea while teaching Inclusive Leadership to first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School last academic year. I teach the course with my remarkable colleagues Frances Frei and Hise Gibson. To help us, we brought on stage a group of performers from Second City, the Chicago-based company that established the first ongoing improvisational theater troupe. Second City is the place where Tina Fey, Bill Murray, and many other comedy greats got their start.
Here are a few things that stood out to me from the day that may be helpful to anyone interested in becoming a more inclusive leader:
1. Not knowing brings about learning
Improv performers trade in the currency of unpredictability. They don’t know what their partners will say next, how others will react, or even when a scene will end. The other players may bring up topics that a performer knows nothing about. That’s okay: The goal is to always react purely in the moment. Consider the strategies required in two popular games, chess and ping-pong. When you play chess, you need to think ahead. You focus on following your own strategy, as well as anticipating your opponent’s. By contrast, ping-pong requires split-second instincts. You can try to anticipate the next volley, but a better bet is to focus on where the ball is moving in the moment. The same goes for improv: You can’t “pong” until the other player has “pinged.” When others think like us or look like us, we are likely able to predict their moves and perspectives. But when they don’t, we need to be open to learning about them.2. Reserving judgment opens us up to curiosity
In improv, you go with the flow. Maybe you’re not crazy about the choices of the person who came before you, but you accept the terms of the scene and add to it, rather than contradicting it. So, if the first player says, “Here’s an apple,” you shouldn’t reply, “That’s actually a small melon.” That might buy you a laugh, but it would kill the scene. It’s much better to follow the “yes, and” principle that lies at the heart of improv: “Yes, and we can fill it with poison before we offer it to the queen.”Last Updated :
January 02, 23 12:31:18 PM IST