How to Be an Ally

The Platinum Rule, established by Milton J. Bennett, says that we should treat people the way that they want to be treated. As more of us leave our screens behind to resume real-world interactions, we do so with better awareness around current social issues and a desire to foster more respectful personal engagements, which gives us a fantastic opportunity to put The Platinum Rule into practice.

Educate yourself

In our blog on Pride month, we talked about LGBTQ+ allyship, but allyship goes beyond one group. It’s about using your personal power and privilege to be an ally to all people in historically untapped and excluded groups. By taking on their struggles as your own, educating yourself about what you don’t know, and amplifying inequalities, you can foster opportunities for change.

There are many online resources available to help you get started, including:

• Creative Equity Toolkit
• Guide to Allyship
• PFLAG’s allyship guide
• Helpful tips from consumer brands Ben & Jerry’s and General Mills
• Our unconscious bias checklist for self-aware leaders
• Harvard University’s Project Implicit

At BMC, we have created an Allyship Toolkit of resources to help our employees recognize and address bias. I’ve also assembled a YouTube playlist of helpful allyship and leadership video resources here. If you’d like to do a deeper dive on the foundational concept of allyship, Dr. Cathy Royal is a must read. You can find content on her Quadrant Behavior Theory here and an excellent conversation with her on the subject is here.

Foster an inclusive environment

Diversity is a fact and inclusivity is an act. While many organizations have worked to correct their hiring, retention, and paths to promotion, inequalities still exist, and creating an inclusive workforce is an ongoing process, as we discussed here.

Building and maintaining inclusive environments can help correct and eliminate unconscious biases, but it can also stoke the fires of those who refuse to accept that diversity. If your organization needs help managing potential conflicts, try CulturePop, a self-paced, micro-learning app that encourages cross-cultural curiosity. Our BMC employees use it within their teams to help expand their cultural awareness. And this is a handy checklist on fostering more diverse and inclusive engagements every time you host a virtual meeting.