Wednesday 20 June 2012

Courage and integrity - a heartfelt thankyou


A true story about my colleagues Olivia and Bob. Not their real names.

We launched a new website yesterday. It's a huge improvement on its predecessor in every way - congratulations everyone involved! Olivia noticed that the homepage inadvertently promoted a problematic message about the organisation's aspirations and views on ethnic diversity (sadly it's accurate about our success tackling internal diversity issues). She sent the site's senior editor, Bob, an email outlining her concerns. Bob invited Olivia round for a chat.

Whereupon he subjected her to a tantrum pressurising her to recant. "The tail wagging the dog" is the most printable part of his tirade.

My point here is not that Olivia was right (she was). It's that in the face of immense pressure she stuck to her point calmly, firmly, politely and consistently. She was exemplary, and it clearly took an emotional toll.

So yesterday Olivia, for genuine integrity and courage, you were my hero. Thankyou.

Guy

1 comment:

  1. I published this yesterday about Alice and Bob. By Alice's request, she's now Olivia :-)

    ReplyDelete