Polarity Thinking in a Diverse Workplace
I’ve stopped seeing the world in Black and White. Things exist on a continuum. That’s how we should approach problems because there’s no one right way out and no one person to wrong. Polarity Thinking helps to widen our perspective and presents a snapshot of current situations and how we can be.
I first came across the idea of Polarity Thinking through a conversation with a friend, and I liked it a lot because it helps to widen a person’s perspective beyond the “either-or” thinking. False dichotomies happen when we think that there are only 2 solutions to a problem, and we fail to see alternatives especially in times of crisis which forces us to make quick decisions. It is also too simplistic to see things uni-dimensionally in the company without considering interactions that could take place between seemingly exclusive concepts. It is important for us to always consider interactions more than cause and effect, and remind our executive team to always consider both the trees and the forest when we plan and execute decisions. Polarity Thinking presents another tool we can use as a framework to help us consider the benefits and pitfalls in concepts that are opposites and related.
In Foreword Coffee, we train and hire people from diverse backgrounds, including those who are Deaf/hard-of-hearing, persons with autism, cerebral palsy, and/or people with mental health issues. Our company is small and young; 12 people in the team and our oldest teammate (I emphasize a lot on teamwork in the workplace and semantics help to foster the intended culture) is younger than 50. Our managers are Deaf, while most of our baristas and service crews have autism. As a Director, I deal with everything to help my managers run the coffee kiosks smoothly and the most important of all is Human Relations (my idea of “Human Resource”).
In the realm of Human Relations, things get tricky. I balance between being a Friend and a Boss (capitalizing the letters as they come with pre-conceived notions) and training in the workplace encompasses both Technical Skills and Social Skills. It is not easy to separate Friend from Boss because the hierarchy in the workplace is almost flat. Also, for the young teammates, their social circle in the company might be all that they have. Besides, as teammates, we are interested in each other as friends and I would also open up myself as being approachable should they need any assistance in their personal lives. When dealing with differently-abled persons (a term we use to collectively address persons with disabilities and/or special needs), we have to teach social skills alongside technical skills, especially in the service line where customer service at the front house is very important for good customer experience. We feel good about ourselves when we master new skills but this mastery also contributes negatively to social skills in expectable ways.
Like a balance between Yin and Yang, how do I navigate between being a Friend and a Boss at the same time to my team? The older teammates would understand and can separate work from personal lives. They respect each other and we work as partners — me learning from them when they share their thoughts and experiences in the company. The younger teammates sometimes cross the line by becoming too informal at work or disrespecting authority (e.g. not listening to instructions given out by the manager).
When we are at the negative end of being a Friend, one strategy is to impose stricter work rules, setting the tone in the workplace. For example, the young teammates are sometimes distracted by playing around with each other. A stricter work rule would mean “talk only during break time”. After work hours I can be more relaxed and we can travel home or have meals together.
Another strategy is to conduct formal check-ins with the team so that clear expectations are communicated, and negative behaviours are corrected. It is not uncommon to have weekly (or even daily) check-ins if the teammate is reported to be exhibiting frequent behavioural issues such as failing to be punctual.
It may seem a childish act, but I’ve told a teammate that “I’m no longer your Friend — just your Boss. You have to earn back my trust.” You can’t do that in a regular workplace. It will not work. In our unique environment, our teammates crave the social connectedness and bonds with each other. Work isn’t just work for them and it is important for them to feel accepted too.
When I sense the distance between my team and I (e.g. when there’s too much fear-mongering or when morale is down), I would be friendlier in the workplace and start to engage them on a more personal tone. Already a routine, we have monthly company meetings and company meals together, so that we interact with each other at the informal level regularly. Such a routine has become a culture and everyone looks forward to it.
I first observed the relationship between teaching Technical and Social skills when one teammate started becoming overly proud and used his technical “expertise” to exert authority in the workplace. Soft skills were neglected and he was not a good team player, and the rest of the team were picking him out. Almost no one liked working with him. That’s when I needed to work on his teamwork and manage his ego. I had to slow down the technical training to increase social skills training, compromising on overall company productivity even though he does pick up technical skills such as milk steaming very quickly when taught.
With good attitude from the teammate, technical skills are easy to teach because there is the eagerness to do well and pick up new skills. The teammate shows the greatest improvement at this stage. The challenge is to sustain this motivation and for the teammate to consistently apply the skills learnt. It is a cycle that we experience — helping our team to be better than who they are, and training never ends.
What I’ve shared above may seem very trivial and commonsense in the workplace. It is important to us that we put it out into a framework and remind ourselves of this constant balancing act that we put in for our people.
I’ve asked myself, is it right for me to withhold skills training just so that my young barista learns to be a good team player? To what extent can I tolerate toxic behaviours? What is the threshold?
Culture is like a bonsai; it requires careful pruning for it to grow well. The cohesiveness and familial culture we enjoy in Foreword cannot be taken for granted. We don’t give up easily on anyone we have decided to introduce into our team, and we don’t easily allow our culture to be threatened by internal or external forces :) It’s been a great journey thus far, and all effort is worth it.
This blog post is written by Wei Jie, founder and director of Foreword Coffee. It would be a lie to say that everyday is sunshine and rainbow running Foreword Coffee; it gets emotional and mentally exhausting at times. Wei Jie wishes for limitless emotional strength to deal with what he has to deal with, and cherishes his alone time for his own self-care and introspection.
