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Marshall Cavendish International - Steve Dawson

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49 pages

English

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Since man first harnessed consciousness, we have watched and learnt. Observing the traits and behaviours of every facet in our environment. This means we have an ability to predict what is safe, comfortable and reliable. In our own mind this creates an invaluable safety net for our decision-making processes. But what seems like a useful tool in our head, can be cruel and patently unfair beyond it. Trends in a world driven by the Internet are educating us about how harmful stereotyping can be. And those falling foul of a behaviour seemingly ingrained in our DNA, are paying high-profile prices. Locker Room Talk examines how we got here, why it's so hard to change our mindset and the consequences for us and the brands we represent, if we do not.

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Gestion et management

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Publié par	Marshall Cavendish International
Date de parution	22 février 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789814841375
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

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Locker Room Talk

2019 Steve Dawson Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
Published by Marshall Cavendish Business
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited, 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196.
Tel: (65) 6213 9300. E-mail: genref@sg.marshallcavendish.com
Website: www.marshallcavendish.com/genref
The publisher makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents of this book, and specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Other Marshall Cavendish Offices
Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Flr, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Marshall Cavendish is a registered trademark of Times Publishing Limited
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Name(s): Dawson, Steve.
Title: Locker room talk : a guide to political correctness in the public domain / Steve
Dawson.
Description: First edition. | Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Business, 2019
Identifier(s): OCN 1083727143 | eISBN: 978-981-4841-37-5
Subject(s): LCSH: Political correctness. | Human behavior--Social aspects. | Prejudices.
Classification: DDC 306--dc23
Printed in Singapore
This book is dedicated to the Dawsons who came immediately before and after me. In very different times, they each exemplified how to celebrate differences.
Steve Dawson
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Why Are We Politically Incorrect?
Chapter 2 Aligning With Your Employer
Chapter 3 Religion
Chapter 4 Race
Chapter 5 Gender
Chapter 6 Sexuality
Chapter 7 Education
Chapter 8 The Media
Chapter 9 The Future
About the Author
From Oxford Dictionaries
political correctness (also political correctitude )
NOUN, mass noun
The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalise or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.
From the Urban Dictionary
politically correct
TOP DEFINITION
A way that we speak in America so we don t offend whining pussies. Only pathetically weak people that don t have the balls to say what they feel and mean are politically correct pussies. - By Superior Intellect, 5 October 2004

To paraphrase that evergreen animated sitcom, The Simpsons : Hi everybody, my name s Steve Dawson. You may know me from such television shows as ESPN s Sports Center , Star Sports Formula 1 coverage, Fox Sports Bundesliga matches, Asian Football Confederation tournaments, ONE Championship s mixed martial arts events and the published biographies of Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong and boxer Muhammad Ali.
Pretty sporty, you ll note. I make no apologies therefore when drawing upon examples from the wonderful world of sport numerous times when branching out into a new realm, albeit one that has held my attention for a number of years: political correctness.
From sports TV to a book on political correctness seems like anything but a seamless link; not that I m unfamiliar with those (I moved from tax accountancy to journalism in the 1990s). But in this case, there actually is a logical connection.
A while ago I started a business coaching corporate people in the rewarding art of presentation. It didn t take long before I realised that the breadth of challenges among people trying to present their data and innovations was startling. PowerPoint decks, nerves, structure, body language, vocal clarity, energy, brevity were the initial areas that I worked on with my clients. But first one, then another and then numerous other talented individuals helped me to identify a slightly peripheral challenge; one that had little upside in perfecting, but a huge downside if they didn t. At the same time, the world around us was awash with professionals who were losing their jobs, in some cases their careers, and occasionally bringing their company down with them. They used the wrong term, said the wrong thing, said the right thing but in the wrong place and generally operated without an appropriate filter for the public domain.
As I encountered business people who certainly had the potential to do the same, I realised that an explanation of what political correctness is, why we need to be politically correct and how best to achieve it, was becoming an essential part of what I was coaching. Like presentation itself, the range of obstacles is broad, and writing a book that would cover the basics seemed like a good way to approach it. There are ways to limit your exposure to the kind of meltdowns we see in our news feeds almost every day. But the secret to protecting ourselves from toxic fallout is simply to educate ourselves on this ever-changing and extremely complex environment.
The aim of this book, then, is to serve as a guide - a thorough grounding. It can only be this. There is no catch-all solution to behaving in such a way as to never offend. We know that we can t please all of the people all of the time, and it would be quite impossible not to offend some of the people some of the time. What s required, then, is to minimise the fallout by gaining an awareness of people s sensitivities.
What we must be appreciate from the outset is that we are unique. Nobody is precisely the same as you. We must therefore account for everyone else s differences. We will never be able to walk in everyone else s shoes - the shoes of a person s gender, race, nationality, culture, religion, mind-set, childhood, physiology, biochemistry, etc. But an appreciation that there are other shoes and other feet is the beginning of being the best we can be.
Whether we intend to be amusing, a leader, a visionary, a lover, a philanthropist or a coach, we will constantly encounter sensitivities that we were previously not aware of. If we have a mind to, we can improve our propensity to not offend, every day. The task will never be complete but every day it will get easier, and the awareness - that sixth sense that we might fall foul of the PC police - will become sharper.
I should ask you to note that as a presentation coach, my focus in these pages is political correctness when presenting. That means in a boardroom with colleagues, a ballroom with captains of industry, a cocktail evening with clients and partners, a television studio with millions of viewers or an in-house video with perhaps even more. This largely focuses, then, on the spoken word but will dabble briefly in other areas, by way of illustration and for the sake of completeness.
When considering the pages that follow, we must also consider the maxim of remaining true to ourselves. There is an argument that political correctness is an invalid behaviour, a recipe cooked up by progressive societies, undermining the freedom of speech and paying too much attention to the sensitivities of people who aren t actually harmed by being offended. This stance is put forward persuasively by eloquent people throughout this book. But regardless of your views, offence is taken, whether it harms or not and people lose their livelihoods as a result. Keep your livelihood.
There is always another perspective, and as individuals we can decide on the one that works best for us. In a society, we ought to accommodate other perspectives, and if you are seeking to share your wonderful ideas effectively when speaking in the public domain, you must enable inclusivity, otherwise your creativity will be excluded in equal proportion.
Before I charge on, indulge me in a note of thanks to Sheela Parakkal for kick-starting everything, Matthew Marsh for his generous guidance, and my family for giving me perspective, where so often it isn t there. I like to tell my story and you are all, always, an integral part.
Steve Dawson
February 2019
We used to react to prejudice.
Now we actively seek it out.
- Comedian Tom Walker as Jonathan Pie

If you are a child of the 70s or 80s, you ll be aware that some of what made the icons of that era successful wouldn t get out of the starting blocks today.
Take a trio of British situation comedies, for example: On the Buses (1969-1973), Mind Your Language (1977-1979), Porridge (1974-1977) and frankly most others, all dabbled treacherously in racial stereotypes that would be beaten back by today s politically correct watchdogs, long before they ever got off the ground.
It could be argued that these very successful series should be applauded for including a wider-than-usual racial agenda. Mind Your Language certainly explored cultural differences, while at the same time amusing us with the practical challenges that came as part of the package. It would have been, in a generic way, educational for some. But it is perhaps hard to deny that, much of the time, its stereotyping was gratuitous, with the comic effect more prominent than any role in developing integration.
In Sickness and in Health (1985-1992) and its forerunner Till Death Do Us Part (1965-1975) were more sophisticated productions, satirising those whose philosophy was broadly xenophobic. The more popular Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979) examined the inner workings of the less-cosmopolitan Englishman in a memorable e