The #MeToo trail may seem to be fading from news headlines, but its ripple effects continue to be felt, and talked about. And in April 2018, Sexual Assault Awareness Month no less, where comedian Bill Cosby was finally convicted after decades of sexual assault allegations from dozens of women, a cause-advancing and no less consequential #MeToo conversation took place in Austin, Texas.
WorkHuman, a movement and human resources (HR) conference now in its fourth year, has been a steady and thoughtful voice for the HR profession. Powered by Globoforce, a social recognition software company that empowers employees and teams to recognize and reward each other, WorkHuman champions more human workplaces that truly care about helping employees achieve their fullest potential.
But…that buzzword-filled sentence doesn’t even begin to describe the pioneering inspiration of the WorkHuman experience.
With HR long seen as a backroom cost center for most organizations, I’ve witnessed WorkHuman reignite a deep sense of mission and purpose in their attendees from day one. Since its initial 250+ audience in 2015, this year’s attendee list swelled to include more than 2800 HR professionals and business leaders. They sat on the edge of their keynote session seats, attended breakout sessions across 7 content tracks, and connected with others who also see HR as more calling, less job.
Where many other workplace conferences continue to approach their subject matter in cautious and jargon-heavy silos, walled off from the undeniable social activism outside company doors, WorkHuman decided to call it out for what it was, as early as at their June 2017 conference.
In his trademark pointed humor, Globoforce CEO Eric Mosley had noted, “I don’t know about you. Is it just me, maybe, but has the world gotten a little bit tense in the last year? The amazing thing is that, these are your employees. You’re in HR, you have maybe thousands of employees. They’re going to work, and then after work, they’re marching. And they’re talking about basic human rights. You know, suddenly your employees are talking about the declaration of human rights. And the Dalai Lama said it best, ‘Human rights are of universal interest because it is the inherent nature of all human beings to yearn for freedom, equality, and dignity and they have the right to achieve it.’ And so in today’s socially charged climate, we need to build our inclusive workplace, and we need to recognize that maybe the tension has built, and that your employees are dealing with other things than work. They have a lot on their minds.”
One year later, at WorkHuman 2018, it was the #MeToo movement that loomed large in attendees’ minds. Any doubts that the conference might be getting too political, in elevating the #MeToo discussion, were quashed by Eric Mosley’s opening keynote remarks, “There’s nothing political about sexual assault.”
There were not one, but three influential #MeToo voices to learn from. And they sat on stage together for the first time, to address a curious but tentative crowd. We hoped we’d emerge from the panel session a little more informed and enlightened, but it was hard to know exactly where the conversation might go.
In the deft hands of moderator Adam Grant, a Wharton professor and workplace equality advocate, we shared 70 minutes with Tarana Burke, social activist and founder of the 12-year-old #MeToo movement; Ashley Judd, celebrated actress, tireless social justice humanitarian and current PhD student of public policy; and Ronan Farrow, a lawyer and investigative reporter who was then weeks away from sharing a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct allegations.
Tarana and Ashley shared their respective journeys as survivors of sexual violence, and declared their quietly powerful commitment to keep driving change. Their personal stories and hard-won wisdom, on the path of social justice, resonated deeply with the largely corporate room. There were still moments of nervous laughter, as we navigated the uncharted sexual harassment waters together, but we drank in the insights that they had spent years amassing through trials and tribulations. Ronan recounted the long, and sometimes frustrating, journey of working his early sources for the Harvey Weinstein story. Of how he was driven by his journalistic truth-telling instincts, yet tempered by his compassion for the survivors’ trauma and fear of outing themselves. Above all, we felt like we’d been let in to their inner circle for a moment, to bear witness to the extraordinary courage and resilience it takes to do their world-changing work.
These insights – heartwarming, inspiring, thought-provoking – are but a taste of their collective wisdom and call to action. They can help guide individuals, organizations and even entire countries toward more justice for victims of sexual assault and harassment.
1. #MeToo runs the risk of being sidelined, or diminished, by red herring conversations like “I’m now afraid to mentor women, or be alone with them in a meeting. And, is it still ok to hug a woman at work?” Keep our eye on the core issue, that of rape or sexual assault. And far beyond the sensational headlines of those serial predators, this movement speaks to a public safety issue, and it’s ultimately a community challenge that requires our collective response.
2. There are a wealth of studies and data we can lean on to prove the importance of this work or push for more change in workplaces, like Jennifer Freyd’s work on institutional courage, and how a sexual perpetrator denies their attacks and reverses the victim-offender order; or Shelley Corrrell’s work on gender-blind hiring. By citing studies like these, #MeToo can also be an academic-evidence-based movement.
3. Organizational systems are undeniably broken, for perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein to have gotten away with his actions for so long, and yet we forget that those systems are made up of individuals. Though the stakes can be high, and we risk a lot by speaking up, it is the brave individuals in a chain of command who, in speaking up, create an awkward position for others trying to cover up the abusive behavior.
4. Hurry up, but take your time. We have a golden window, carpe diem, moment to build on the initial momentum of #MeToo. So the time is now. But don’t be in a hurry to institutionalize new processes that may end up being band-aid solutions. It takes time to unpack the layers and nuances of sexual trauma and powerlessness that #MeToo represents. This is a moment for deep listening, compassionate witnessing, empathic collaborating, and altruistic truth-telling for the good of all.
5. Respond to sexual violence with an eye on any privilege differential. As Tarana remarked, “We talk about Harvey Weinstein a lot. We don’t talk about R. Kelly as much.” If we are to tell #MeToo stories, amplify all the stories, not just those we resonate with because they mirror our personal identity in some way.
6. Live your values. As cliched as that may sound, it is in the active practice of individual or organizational values where justice and courage reign for your employees. Tighten up your hiring processes, your gender bias training, and the social de-conditioning we all need in order to release patriarchal patterns at work.
7. This is about the pain of real human beings. In the first 24 hours that #MeToo went viral, there were 12 million engagements with the #MeToo hashtag. That’s 12 million souls who raised their hand as a survivor of sexual violence. The pain behind each raised hand is traumatic, often lasts a lifetime and sometimes causes irreparable or deadly harm. In any other context, that would be classified as a global epidemic that warrants an emergency response. And if we take Eric Mosley’s 2017 Dalai Lama quote to heart, survivors of sexual violence have the right to achieve their freedom, equality, and dignity too.
#MeToo is technically 12 years old but, in many ways, its newfound global fame means that the work has just begun. Its founding principles are still intact, and its founder Tarana Burke has retained her rightful place in the spokesperson sun. Its allies Ashley Judd and Ronan Farrow will keep the flame alive. WorkHuman has gathered us in earnest conversation and exploration of #MeToo’s core issues, challenges and promise.
Now it’s up to us to stand up and banish #MeToo’s raison d’être from our workplaces. For real, and for good.
[Disclosure: Globoforce, host and sponsor of the WorkHuman conference, grants me a free pass to attend and cover the event as an influencer. Unless otherwise sourced or quoted, thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are my own.]