Skip to main content

Dear Highroad Community,

2016 has not been the easiest year for many of us. Between the divisive election in the U.S., the tragedy in Syria, and countless other global crises we may feel overwhelmed or powerless to help our world or ourselves.

Considering the amount of email you are likely receiving at this time of year, I am going to keep this short and sweet.

My holiday gift to you is this: The best way to help the world is to do so in a way that is authentic to you, not the way you feel you “should.”

For example, if you are shy, donate anonymously to an organization that speaks to your soul. If you are outspoken, defend a friend who feels disempowered by anti-Jewish comments. If you have a diplomatic personality, offer to mediate a difficult discussion about race.

However you decide to help, however, you must consistently build your self-awareness to be effective. As part of my holiday gift, I would like to offer you two crucial resources to meet this goal.

  1. Every human being is subject to unconscious bias. Our brains are built to quickly categorize things in times of threat. To help the world and ourselves, however, we must assess how these biases affect the way we treat people. Otherwise these implicit gremlins could impact your job performance, your ability to manage a team, and your efforts to build bridges. To find out which biases could be affecting you, take Harvard University’s free Implicit Association Tests. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html 
  2. Facebook, the company, has recently released to the public their employee training on managing unconscious bias. The training consists of a series of short videos which are extremely effective. https://managingbias.fb.com/

In these times we cannot allow unconscious bias to take away from our strengths. The world needs you at your best and most authentic.

I would like to thank each and every one of you for collaborating with me throughout the year. I wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season, and I look forward to working together again in 2017!

All the best,

Vicki

 

Vicki Flier Hudson

Vicki Flier Hudson, Chief Collaboration Officer for Highroad Global Services, Inc. inspires people to leverage the full power of differences. She has helped countless large-sized corporations establish successful operations across the globe and build bridges across cultures, distance, and time.

Leave a Reply