Episode #12: Sajal Thakkar - Lawyer Against Litigation

What is the connection between ethics and civility?
Can democracy survive without a civil culture?
How do we balance insensitivity against hyper-sensitivity?

These and many other critical matters of human interaction are discussed in this week's episode with Chief Civility Officer Sejal Thakkar.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sejalthakkar/

1:00 Harassment and discrimination vs. civility

Evaluating and filtering our own behavior

What are our core values? What are the guidelines?

4:00 Internal vs. external behavior

A mindset of commitment to standards

Unclear definitions promote inappropriate behavior

Prevention vs. reaction

7:00 Checking boxes vs. addressing root causes

Over- vs. under-reaction

What can individuals do to improve a culture?

3 out of 4 people do not report cases of harassment

11:00 Have we overcorrected in promoting respect?

When leaders set an example of dignity and respect, openness and civility become more natural

15:00 How do we become conscious of unconscious bias?

Create a culture of awareness

Civility = civilization

19:00 Raise awareness so bias becomes conscious

Communication is the beginning of raised awareness

“Ouch!”

23:00 Compliance is the collective response that must be filtered through individual response

Thin-skinned vs. thick-sinned

25:00 Sometimes it’s best to let small affronts pass

When leaders and colleagues can be trusted to intervene, we all feel safer

29:30 Civility includes addressing every form of improper behavior

32:00 How do we manage different perceptions of civility based on personality types and culture

Authentic respect for others and willingness to engage in genuine discourse to find common ground

35:00 A smile and a flame are the only things you can give away without giving up

In healthy environments, we project positivity

38:00 “He stole my property, not my dignity or my manners”

40:00 Can democracy survive without civility?

Civility promotes creativity, productivity and, ultimately, profitability

43:00 Is cancel-culture out-of-control civility

Is shaming consistent with civility?

47:00 Word of the day: verbicide -- killing a word through misuse

Civility vs. political correctness

Political correctness become weaponized civility

51:00 How does a community handle the genuinely or maliciously hypersensitive?

Hiring and retaining the wrong people

58:00 We need more common sense, which is anything but common