3 Simple Everyday Actions You Can Do To Be A Better Ally And Create An Inclusive Workplace

Karen Catlin, Advocate for Inclusive Workplaces (left) and Poornima Vijayashanker, Founder of Femgineer (right)

Interview with Karen Catlin a leadership coach, and an advocate for inclusive tech workplaces.

, we shared what allyship is and why it can help build inclusive workplaces. Anytime new approaches like these come out our defenses go up because it can be challenging to change mindsets and best practices. Plus there’s some fear around what the unintended consequences will be.

I hear ya!

Here’s the thing about allyship, you don’t need to get the green light from someone at the top or put in a ton of effort to make an impact. Turns out there are everyday actions that can benefit your team and workplace and make you a better ally.

In today’s episode, we’ll be sharing them with you to help you get started as an ally!

To help us out, I’ve invited Karen Catlin, co-author of Present! A Techie’s Guide To Public Speaking, a leadership coach, and an advocate for inclusive tech workplaces. You may recall seeing Karen in a few episodes from last year on mentorship.

I invited Karen back on to the show to talk about the work she has been doing coaching allies.

Given Karen’s rich career in tech spanning 25 years, she has a lot of experience to draw from, and it has inspired her to help other become better allies and create inclusive workplaces.

Here’s what you’ll learn as you watch today’s episode:

• How You Can Get Started Being An Ally
• How Karen went about testing a number of simple everyday actions people can take to being an ally
• 3 simple everyday actions you can start to take immediately
• How Companies Have Benefited From Allies Taking Simple Everyday Actions
• A Best Practice For Being A Better Ally In Your Community

“Start a conversation, see if you can’t connect them with an opportunity, and the reverse might happen to. So diversify our network I’d say is the first one. The second thing is, and this is such an important part of being an ally is, don’t just be a bystander, or like I don’t do these bad things, right. Be an upstander. When you see something bad happening, don’t just say that’s not my problem—see something, say something.”

Karen Catlin — Advocate for Inclusive Workplaces

Listen to the episode on iTunes!

You can listen to this episode of Build on iTunes.

Want to get in touch and learn more from Karen?

• Reach out to Karen Catlin on her website
• Follow Karen on Twitter and follow Better Allies on Twitter to get more simple tips
• Sign up here to be notified when her new book is out, and receive 5 simple actions each week to create a more inclusive workplace

Build is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.