“find out before you freak out”

„Find out before you flip out”*

At one of the trainings on microaggressions I’ve run, a participant shared a story where she got an email with feedback about her presentation from a colleague that said: “Your presentation was great, I noticed though that on one of the slides you forgot to put a dot at the end of the sentence”.

“Dora, was this a microaggression?” – she asked

What would be your first thought? Was this a microaggression?

Before I disclose my response, let me say that I find this rule “find out before you flip out” really helpful in the context of DEI.

What I think should be considered?

🔍 Definition clarity: knowing what microaggressions refer to and knowing how to differentiate them from direct communication or unkindness.

🔍 Situational awareness: recognizing if there is a connection or pattern of being signalled out with criticism because of a marginalized identity.

🔍 The influence of culture on the way people communicate

...which actually in this case was the key insight that helped me to untangle what happened in that situation. The colleague who provided the feedback was German and in German cultural context, such corrections are generally viewed as a sign of collegial respect.

Ignoring culture as one of the aspects of diversity in DEI trainings and focusing e.g. only on power dynamics and identity characteristics, can easily skew the perception of the situation and lead to confusion, frustration and conflicts on your team.

In my work as an intercultural and DEI trainer, I help teams to “find out before flip out”, enable them to navigate through the challenges of diversity on their team and work more collaboratively, which results in improved communication with their colleagues and greater feeling of belonging.

If your team needs a hand in that, let me know, I’d be happy to take a look on how I could support you.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation when understanding the cultural background changed your perception of your colleague’s behavior completely?

Quote from ”Ted Lasso” one of my fav series that seems to be about soccer but is actually about leadership