Managing Eggshell Situations

by R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. | Human Resource Executive Online

The management of such situations is not conflict management, but rather
decision-making in the midst of tensions -- before they evolve into conflict --
in pursuit of organizational and/or personal objectives. The goal is to make
effective decisions in spite of the tensions -- this is the essence of managing
diversity.

Eggshell situations are those characterized by intense diversity tension. If
one defines diversity as the differences and similarities that can characterize
a mixture like the workforce, and further stipulates that tension to some
degree comes with diversity, then the management of eggshell situations becomes
part and parcel of managing diversity.

In the workforce and the workplace, for example, eggshell situations could
involve labor/management relations, exchanges between members of different
races or different functions, interactions between employees working in
different countries, negotiations between representatives of the acquiring
company and the enterprise being acquired, and/or relations between male and
female employees.

In each of these situations, circumstances can be akin to that of walking over
a bunch of eggs: One misstep and you can have a serious mess.

The management of such situations is not conflict management, but rather
decision-making in the midst of tensions -- before they evolve into conflict --
in pursuit of organizational and/or personal objectives. The goal is to make
effective decisions in spite of the tensions: This is the essence of managing
diversity.

That this is not easily done is reflected in the tales of two high profile
eggshell situations that of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge,
Mass., Police Officer James Crowley, and that of former U.S. Department of
Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod and a white farmer.

In the first, Officer Crowley confronted Gates as he struggled to open his
stuck door. As the officer sought to confirm the professor's identity and right
to be where he was, their exchange escalated into a racially charged situation
that received national attention.

In Sherrod's episode, a white farmer approached and asked Sherrod for
assistance in avoiding foreclosure on his farm. At the time served, Sherrod was
a head of an agency set up to aid black farmers.

In a now-well-known speech, Sherrod said she perceived the white applicant as
"attempting to show ... he was superior to me," and that she, therefore,
hesitated to provide assistance. Despite this initial tension and her
reluctance, she did successfully help the farmer and, according to him, went
out of her way to aid him.

Are there any lessons from these incidents that might help us deal with
tension-charged eggshell situations? Below, I offer four:

Lesson 1: Learn to recognize an eggshell situation and its implications.
You might ask, "How can you miss such situations, give the tensions that come
with them?"

Sometimes, the task is not so much simply to recognize, but also to appreciate
the requirements of the eggshell situation in question.

That is, once you recognize you are in the midst of such a circumstance, you
need to proceed quickly and cautiously to diagnostic mode: Why is this an
eggshell situation? What do I need to be aware of as I continue? Are there any
especially challenging aspects for which I need to prepare?

This is analogous to realizing you have cruised into a speed trap. Once you
have this realization, you quickly ask: What is the speed limit? Was I
speeding? Are there any police around? Where are the police likely to station
themselves? For how long do I have to be careful about my speed?

The answers to these questions will allow you to develop an effective strategy
for moving through the speed trap without penalty.

Lesson 2: Examine your motives.
Explore what you are feeling. As Sherrod faced the farmer seeking aid, and
realized that she was in an eggshell situation, she mentally examined her
motives and feelings.

She probably debated whether she should pay him back for a series of racial
transgressions: the alleged shooting of her father by a white neighbor, the
reportedly racist rejection of her and her husband's petition to the USDA for
financial aid to save their farm, or simply all the white-on-black racism she
had seen in her life.

She perhaps wondered why she should, as head of a nonprofit organization set up
to help black farmers, help this white individual -- he was not her
responsibility.

She probably thought about the commitment she had made to bring about change
and make a difference. She also likely thought about her mother's dictum: "If
we had tried to live with hate in our hearts, we'd probably be dead by now."

And finally, she apparently grappled with "What would God have me to do?"

The white farmer probably also examined his motives and feelings: "Isn't this
something? I am reduced to asking a black woman for help."

"Should I try to intimidate her and remind her that after all, I am white?"
"Or, should I go in with humility and utmost respect -- even if it's not real?"
"Can I count on receiving a fair hearing from a black woman?"

Lesson 3: Identify the requirement.
This is not always easy. Preferences (what I would like to do), conveniences
(what I find easy to do), and traditions (what I have always done) -- these
elements sometimes come disguised as requirements. But once requirements are
identified and prioritized, it's easier to determine what actions must be
taken.

Often the first step toward clarity about requirements is to identify an
overarching objective. Sherrod apparently concluded that doing God's will was
her paramount life objective, as opposed to exacting revenge for racial wrongs,
narrowly following the requirements of her job or even challenging traditions
and making a difference.

Accordingly, she reports that, as she dealt with the farmer, God helped her
understand that the requirement was to assist poor folks regardless of their
race or color. I should be clear that others in this situation might have
identified a different priority requirement that might have led to a different
conclusion.

For the white farmer, the overarching motivation was straightforward. Avoid
foreclosure. It was not preserving traditions, maintaining the supremacy of
whites or carrying out a hateful agenda. He desperately wanted to save his
farm.

As one might expect, in situations characterized by tensions, controlling your
emotions can be a key facilitator of examining your motives and identifying the
requirement as Sherrod and the farmer did.

Looking back at the Gates/Crowley encounter and wondering why their
interactions escalated into national conflict, a friend of mine opined that the
causal factor was testosterone more than racial profiling.

Stated differently, he was arguing that testosterone-driven emotions had
prohibited both of these individuals from using their individual and collective
wisdom about historical encounters between black men and white policemen.

Gates possessed enormous knowledge about blacks and the challenges of
discrimination; reportedly, he even had experienced a similar situation in
another city.

Crowley, on the other hand, had provided training on avoiding racial profiling
to his colleagues on the Cambridge, Mass., police force. Yet, they both cruised
into a speed trap (eggshell situation), without even recognizing where they
were, and acted as if they were neophytes.

Apparently, emotions of the moment clouded their individual and collective
judgments. Implicit in Lessons No. 2 and No. 3 is the admonishment that
effective management of eggshell situations requires management of emotions.
That two knowledgeable and competent professionals such as Gates and Crowley
can be vulnerable to the heat of the moment suggests just how difficult
controlling emotions can be for all of us.

Lesson 4: Allow yourself to be driven by the requirement.
We all know how attractive it can be to do what we like, find easy or have
always done. In an organization established to help black farmers, in a
racially divided community, and in the midst of a history of racial pain and
hatred, neither conveniences, preferences nor traditions called for Sherrod to
serve the white farmer.

It required courage, effort and intention to move beyond racial considerations
and to focus on meeting what was "the requirement" was for her.

The four lessons implicit in Sherrod's rising above racial bias can be
generalized into guidelines for dealing with any kind of eggshell situation.
What, then, are the implications for human resource and diversity practitioners
seeking to foster effective management of diversity?

Because eggshell situations are at the core of diversity and diversity
management, the individual's ability to make quality decisions in the midst of
these circumstances becomes the cornerstone of an organization's efforts to
build diversity-management capability. Leaders and executives must, therefore,
equip individual contributors at all levels of the organization with the
concepts, principles and frameworks needed for effective decision-making in the
midst of eggshell situations. This necessity is often missed.

The tendency frequently is to focus on addressing organizational variables such
as culture, policies and systems that can enhance the management of diversity.
This emphasis is good and necessary.

But equally required is empowering individual participants to make quality
decisions in the midst of diversity. Here, individual and organizational
considerations reinforce each other: Organizational variables provide context
for individual effectiveness with diversity, while individual capability makes
real and sustainable organizational progress with diversity possible.

By far, for human resource and diversity practitioners, the need to foster
diversity-management capability at both the organizational and individual
levels is the key implication from these incidents.