Come Out at Work: As the Child Within [video]

Haig Chahinian

Don’t scoff! We all were children once, so we hold within us that young kid, or inner child, who wonders about the big world, plays readily, and is excited to figure out what makes things work.

The problem is, so many of us bury that kid deep inside, as if she has no relevance to the adult world in which we live.

Except Eric Schadt, pioneering biologist and chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Listen to how he describes his work environment, starting at about 0:45.

Did you catch that? He describes where he works as a “sandbox.” More specifically, in discussing why he made the move to Mount Sinai, he states:

The simplicity of Mount Sinai is you have a CEO who runs both the hospital and the medical center, and sort of reduce bureaucracy, embed yourself in all of that, and see if in that kind of sandbox you could revolutionize the way this kind of information could impact decision making in the clinic.

Metaphorically speaking, this superstar scientist sees himself as playing in a sandbox during the workday. It suggests he’s exploring, working with his hands, collaborating with others, and having a fun time all the while. As a bonus, playtime is leading him to make all kinds of breakthroughs.

So, do you play at work? If no, how can you find the sandbox in your workplace?

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Fit In, Stay True to Your Self

Haig Chahinian

We were away the last few weeks, and worked to enjoy summer time with family. During our break, we really let our hair down. That is, we stopped shaving (photo near right). The feeling of a fuzzy face was fabulous.

After Labor Day it was time to go back to work, and we typically toil in buttoned-up office environments where conservative, formal appearance is valued.

Read: no beards allowed.

What were we to do? We could remain unshaven, stand firm on our freedom of self-expression, and rebel against the unwritten rules. No corporate culture would dictate how we present ourselves to the world!

Then, the night before our first day back to a hermetically-sealed high rise, we shaved. Did we give in? Worse, did we give up? Yes, and no. We gave in to the “look like the rest of us” dynamic of the places where we often conduct work, yet we did not give up.

We like to practice what we preach, and bring our full selves to work. In making the decision to fit in superficially–meaning, on the outside–we freed up the considerable energy it takes to reveal and engage the full spectrum of our internal wherewithal. Which is what we appreciate the most.

So it was a little humiliating at first to shave off the beard we were growing to love. Yet the trade-off of homogeneity on the outside for diversity on the inside is worth it. We fit in and align ourselves on the surface with people at work, so that we can be free to leverage the less common parts of our selves that truly represent who we are.

How does fitting in at work help you stay true to your self? And what are the benefits?

The Beauty of Different Abilities

Haig Chahinian

Of all the terms that emerged in the 1990s to describe various reference groups in “politically correct” ways, the one we still use is “differently abled,” meant to describe people who need accommodation such as a wheelchair to manage certain physical tasks.

When we think about it more closely, though, aren’t we all differently abled, since no two people have the exact same abilities?

Case in point: Oscar Pistorius, the sprinter from South Africa who’s gunning to compete in the 2012 Olympics. Yes, the Olympic Games, to be held next summer in London, even though Pistorius runs using prosthetics that look like blades. His legs were amputated below the knee when he was an infant, as he was born without the fibula in his lower legs.

Featured recently in the New York Times, not only is he campaigning to race against men without prostheses or other accommodation, he’s now modeling for Thierry Mugler. Do check out these photos where his full hunkitude is on display.

In Pistorius’s own words, from the Times article:

“When people see something that has a stereotype of not being perfect, or that we think is a bit taboo to discuss, it just catches them off guard,” Mr. Pistorius said, “especially in a context where they are so used to seeing what we as human beings deem as perfection.”

We’re in awe of Pistorius’s determination to do exactly what he wills.

Now, what were those challenges you were griping about earlier today? Which of your different abilities can you use to negotiate the obstacles?

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The Whole Wide Work Hall of Fame

Haig Chahinian

We’re loving on Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook Inc., because she knows what we know about professional development. And she’s talking about bringing your whole self to work so much, we’re excited to induct her into the Whole Wide Work Hall of Fame as the inaugural member. Hats off to Ms. Sandberg!

Starting today, the Hall of Fame will distinguish prominent figures who promote the ideals of engaging your whole self at work. Think someone should be inducted? Tell us who, and we’ll investigate, with a shout out to you!

So what’s the fuss about Sandberg? We’ve been wanting to write about her since Brad Stone wrote a profile in Businessweek a short while ago. The article referenced the TED Talk from December 2010 in which she spoke about women and leadership, and still somehow we couldn’t find the hook we were seeking to feature her on WWW.

Until now. In the mid-July edition of the New Yorker, Ken Auletta wrote about her in the context of men in Silicon Valley. The way she manages her self as a worker and what she demonstrates about bringing your whole self to work is pretty brilliant. From the story:

David Fischer, Facebook’s vice-president of advertising and global operations, recounts a performance review of a female executive that he and Sandberg conducted. Fischer says that he told the executive numerous times that she wasn’t assertive enough, but he felt that she wasn’t hearing him. “Sheryl jumped in after I finished and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re feeling, but I can imagine what it might be. Let me tell you about when I was younger.’ ” She recounted her own insecurities, and, he says, “I just watched this woman go from sitting there listening to me but just hearing a bunch of business-type words. . . . It just opened up the whole conversation.”

It gets better: Read more →

How to Compete with the Machines

Haig Chahinian

Since the creation of the wheel, we’ve been in a cycle of developing technology and then competing with it for work. Yes, we use what we invent to make our tasks go more efficiently, and then we’ve needed to compete with our inventions in order to remain productive ourselves.

We’re feeling shortchanged here — wasn’t technology supposed to help us relax more?

Today the cycle of change and adaptation seems to be accelerating, so we’re increasingly being prompted to evaluate our competitive advantage as humans. A preposterous and humiliating prospect, to be sure, yet hope is not elusive. In his Op-Ed piece “The Start-Up of You,” Thomas Friedman writes in the New York Times:

Something new — something that will require our kids not so much to find their next job as to invent their next job — is influencing today’s job market more than people realize.

In discussing the trends of unemployment, and the need to access the full extent of our abilities, he continues:

[Employers are] deploying more automation technologies, software, outsourcing, robotics — anything they can use to make better products with reduced head count and health care and pension liabilities. That is not going to change. And while many of them are hiring, they are increasingly picky. They are all looking for the same kind of people — people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a market that changes faster than ever.

We’ve been freaking out about this idea for a while now; it’s partly what has led us to start this blog. Friedman is talking about how we need to leverage everything we have inside us to solve the significantly complex problems we face as we move into the future.

How do we tap into the universe of knowledge, skills, and abilities inside each of us?  Keep reading Whole Wide Work. As you do, you’ll learn about the specific parts of our selves that we conceal, usually to fit in at work. While we may feel accepted in the short term, hiding creates many problems for us and our colleagues in the long-term.

So to compete with the proliferation of machines around us, (subscribe to WWW, above right, and) show us who you are — warts and all. The less time you spend covering up, the more energy you’ll have to demonstrate your wonderfully human capacities.

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The Goodness of Bad Feelings at Work

Haig Chahinian

During the course of the day, many of us shy away from bad feelings. You know the ones: the day’s coasting when you see, or hear, or remember something and immediately feel embarrassed, or guilty,  or doubt-ridden. “Buck up,” and “soldier on,” you think to yourself, platitudes that fall flat.

Which is why Pooja Nath, founder of Piazza.com, didn’t recite these phrases to herself when she felt bad as a college student studying in the computer lab. Profiled recently in the New York Times, Nath’s story goes like this:

When Pooja Nath was an undergraduate at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, an elite engineering school in India, she felt isolated. She was one of the few women on campus. While her male classmates collaborated on problem sets, Ms. Nath toiled in the computer lab alone.

“Back then, no one owned a laptop, there was no Internet in the dorm rooms. So everyone in my class would be working in the computer lab together,” she said. “But all the guys would be communicating with each other, getting help so fast, and I would be on the sidelines just watching.”

The experience as a young woman in that culture formed the foundation of her start-up in Silicon Valley, Piazza.

About her company, a homework help site:

Students post questions to their course page, which peers and educators can then respond to. Instructors moderate the discussion, endorse the best responses and track the popularity of questions in real time. Responses are also color-coded, so students can easily identify the instructor’s comments.

Although there are rival services, like Blackboard, an education software company, Piazza’s platform is specifically designed to speed response times. The site is supported by a system of notification alerts, and the average question on Piazza will receive an answer in 14 minutes.

You see that? Those crap feelings you sometimes experience on the job can help you find fame and fortune. The task is not to silence your emotions, but rather to tolerate them, and listen to them.

If you can do this, your bad feelings may help you make decisions about your professional path. How great is that?

One last bit that floors us: the average question on Piazza will receive an answer in 14 minutes. What does this mean? Yes, the technological infrastructure of Nath’s business is impressive.

Also, there’s an ever-increasing expectation that we are always in front of a screen. Which makes us feel scared, and anxious as we consider the prospect of being in front of a back-lit screen at all times.

We’ll tolerate these uncomfortable feelings, open to the goodness they may still bring.

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Not Just for 7 Million* Gay People

Haig Chahinian

Hooray for more research! Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Karen Sumberg of the Center for Work-Life Policy have published an article in the Harvard Business Review outlining their study on coming out at work.

They’ve found that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees who reveal their sexual identity are generally more successful. From the article:

Our research suggests that many are hiding needlessly and that “out” workers may stand a better chance than closeted workers of being promoted (although there are still relatively few openly gay senior executives). This appears to be the case largely because closeted workers suffer anxiety about how colleagues and managers might judge them and expend enormous effort concealing their orientation, which leaves them less energy for actual work. Further, LGBT workers who feel forced to lie about their identity and relationships typically don’t engage in collegial banter about such things as weekend activities—banter that forges important workplace bonds.

What good news! That we already knew.

Now let’s do an exercise. For a moment, let’s not only consider the LGBT population; let’s think about everybody at work. Nearly everyone at work struggles in some way to be fully open about who they are. So we’re going to substitute “humanity” for “orientation” in the paragraph above, and omit the terms “gay” and “LGBT.”

So once more, this time thinking about all people:

Our research suggests that many are hiding needlessly and that “out” workers may stand a better chance than closeted workers of being promoted (although there are still relatively few openly gay senior executives). This appears to be the case largely because closeted workers suffer anxiety about how colleagues and managers might judge them and expend enormous effort concealing their orientation humanity, which leaves them less energy for actual work. Further, LGBT workers who feel forced to lie about their identity and relationships typically don’t engage in collegial banter about such things as weekend activities—banter that forges important workplace bonds.

Mostly works, right? Regardless of what specifically you may be striving to conceal about your self, it’s increasingly evident that hiding is detrimental to your career. Seven (7) million* gay people can’t be the only ones to benefit from coming out at work. Clearly there’s opportunity for everybody!

If you’re wondering what parts of your self can be liberated on the job, look no further.

We love how this research supports the broad viability of bringing your whole self to work.

So what are you waiting for? What would you love to reveal about your self at work, that you haven’t already?

* Estimated number of LGBT employees in the U.S. private sector

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