Strategies for Taking the Temperature Down Amid Rising Employee Activism and Polarizing Discourse
As campus protests and corporate activism around the Gaza war continue to dominate coverage and conversations, it seems like no organization handled its response properly.
While Google CEO Sundar Pichai attempted to justify the firing of employee activistsa couple of weeks ago, police cleared an occupied building at Columbia Universitylast week and arrested dozens of protestors. As stories of student encampments and ongoing protests continue to make headlines, communication from university leaders has been minimal. In a multifaceted conflict that engages stakeholders at an intersectional level, many leaders seem to take the route of saying less.
Brown President Christina H Paxson’s letter to the community last week seems like a step in the right direction, however, reminding communicators that our rule requires mindfulness for how our words can influence stakeholder behavior. These protests also raise questions over how well-equipped institutional DE&I programs are to address intersectional conversations among stakeholders when neither group involved is a monolith.
To that end, it may be high time for communicators to put on our coaching/ facilitator hats and understand the role we can play in minimizing polarization at work.
