Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
The one thing we’ve learned over the past few weeks is that managing change shall be essential for fulfillment in 2025. Laws, policies, procedures, etc. are being modified on daily basis. These changes could have an impact on our personal and skilled lives. Organizations and individuals could be okay with a few of these changes. Others, perhaps not.
The rationale I’m bringing this up is because I listened to a webinar recently that could be helpful in enthusiastic about our role as human resources professionals and helping organizations navigate change. The webinar was titled “Worker Activism and Its Impact as Laws and Politics Rapidly Evolve” and was hosted by Christopher Ward, Patrick McMahon, and Pauline Wizig from the firm of Foley & Lardner LLP.
The webinar jogged my memory of an article I shared recently about employees being organizational influencers. Activism is about creating change and employees could be searching for organizational support in terms of making change occur. Simply to be clear, I’m not talking about change contained in the organization. Consider worker activism as change outside the organization. It may very well be related to social justice, climate change, or politics.
Immediately, I do know many organizations try to keep away from taking sides politically or socially. One in all my takeaways from the webinar was that as much as organizations might want to try this, sometimes it’s not at all times possible. And staying on the sidelines may very well be harmful to the organization. It jogs my memory of theories about power. If an worker perceives that you may have power and also you do nothing with it, that may hurt your credibility as much – if no more – than whenever you use your power and employees don’t prefer it.
Through the webinar, the presenters emphasized how technology is playing an enormous role in worker activism. Employees can use technology tools like social media to amplify their messages. Now, the reply to this isn’t to draft a policy that claims, “no person can confer with anyone about anything”. What could be higher is for organizations to debate how they need to deal with worker activism. The webinar mentioned a resource from Harvard Business Review that may very well be place to start out.
Within the article “A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Worker Activism”, the authors introduce six varieties of responses. I could see leadership using these to debate what’s happening inside their organization and the best way to address matters after they arise. The six types are:
- Non-existent – As in leaders know nothing and do nothing.
- Suppression – Leaders squash the conversation, indicating certain topics usually are not up for discussion.
- Facadism – Leaders are all talk and no motion.
- Defensive engagement – Organizations do what legal counsel tells them, and nothing more.
- Dialogic engagement – Organizations take steps to know the problem and worker concerns.
- Stimulating activism – The organization publicly stands for a selected cause and supports worker activists.
The HBR article goes into more detail about these six responses and is price testing. The takeaway for me within the article and the webinar was that organizations don’t must respond the identical technique to all the things. It’s okay to take a stand on some issues and never others. This doesn’t mean we don’t care. Identical to in our personal lives, we don’t donate to all the things. And that’s okay. Do what you’ll be able to. And another person will do what they will. Together, we’ll create change.
I don’t anticipate worker activism going away. The truth is, it may very well be amplified given the present environment. Organizations might want to think about taking a proactive approach to worker activism. This offers the organization a process for listening to worker feedback and responding in a consistent manner.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Chicago, IL
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