It’s Not Easy Being Green!

—— Craig Bourne

Rather than focusing on what NOT to do, it would be more
effective to concentrate on positive things we can do.

I recently attended a mandatory seminar at the company where I work. The subject: Sexual Harassment. The title of the seminar, however, was Creating an Atmosphere of Respect. I thought that was an excellent approach to the issue and looked forward to seeing how it would be handled.

To my disappointment, the word “respect” was not uttered once during the entire 2 ½ hours. Nor were the words “create” or “atmosphere.” The presenter was an attorney and had worked many years as a litigator. Consequently, the issue was dealt with entirely from a legal point of view. Needless to say, we heard stories of how “violators” of harassment laws had been found guilty. From this, I guess we were expected to draw conclusions about what NOT to do.

Even though the focus seemed to be almost entirely on “sexual” harassment, we were told that there are a number of other categories: race, color, religion, age, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, gender, disability and citizenship.

Take Positive Action

Readers of the Care Capsule, those who have attended the International Conference on Care and Kindness, and others who have been exposed to Pastor Jim Kok’s vision of care and kindness know that he stresses taking positive actions. As I processed the information from the seminar in light of my understanding of ‘care and kindness’, I concluded that, rather than focusing on what NOT to do, it would be more effective to concentrate on positive things we can do.

To illustrate what I mean by this, let’s first look at the three categories of behavior that were stressed in the seminar:

Green zone. These are behaviors, actions, and words that are entirely acceptable. No one questions them and no one feels intimidated, threatened, or offended by them.

Yellow zone. These are the questionable words and actions. Some people might think nothing of them, while others would be uneasy. An action or word might indeed be offensive, but if it occurs in isolation and or happens rarely, it may be tolerated and be relegated to the yellow zone.

Red zone. These are things that definitely cross the line and are offensive to one or more participants or observers. These are the things that get
reported and punished.

As I heard these three zones described and illustrated, I had the thought that for most people in the workplace, the Green Zone has seemed to become so small and indefinable that we avoid it also.

Yes, we definitely will avoid the Red Zone. We will try to stay out of the Yellow Zone. But we are fearful that a green-zone conversation or action might be considered to be “yellow”, so we just skip it altogether.

Respect

Returning to the title of the seminar, RESPECT is a synonym for care and kindness, wouldn’t you agree?. As I listened to the offensive things that “violators” had done, it was clear that they wouldn’t have been guilty of of their misconduct if they had been respectful of the other person(s). Any person who has a consciousness of being respectful, of showing care and kindness, will live in the Green Zone. We need more Green Zone activity! That would be something positive we could do. Showing respect and developing an atmosphere of care and kindness would minimize the risk of offending anyone in ANY of the above listed categories.

Create more green zone activity

If we focused on creating more green-zone activity, the by-product would be that we actual try to stay out of the Yellow Zone. And anyone thinking “green” is pretty much immune from ever stepping into the Red Zone, so — problem solved.

Let’s teach the Green Zone to the business world! If we could teach companies and their employees the concepts of care and kindness, we would be helping to create one kind of atmosphere, as opposed to their current focus on avoiding a another kind of atmosphere.

What kinds of things am I talking about?

How about giving co-workers a compliment on their appearance? Uh-oh! Risky. It might be taken the wrong way!

How about a friendly touch on the arm or on the shoulder? Oooo. You don’t touch other people! They might be offended.

At church I feel perfectly free to touch someone on the arm or shoulder as we talk. I can even hug them (both men AND women). I can compliment a woman on her dress, or her hair, or any number of things, but not at work!

Let’s look at some examples:

Situation #1: A new guy has just started work in your department. He is small and looks quite timid.

Yellow Zone: Who’s the new guy? I wonder what idiot interviewed him?

Green Zone: Hi, my name’s Jim. Let me introduce you around to some of the others here.

Situation #2: The receptionist is young and quite an attractive figure.

Yellow Zone: Hey, did you check out Sheila today?

Green Zone: Boy, Sheila sure does a good job, doesn’t she? Calls have been handled so much better since she took over the phones.

Situation #3: You see that a woman on another floor is dressed in ethnic clothes.

Yellow Zone: Who’s the gal on the 4th floor wearing the costume?

Green Zone: Hi, my name’s Jim. I don’t think we’ve met yet.

Doesn’t the vision of care and kindness teach us to work on expanding the Green Zone? Isn’t the world a better place if we can be friendly with each other?

If you think about it, I’m sure you can create an entire list of actions that are safe — actions not seen often enough in the workplace — actions that would make the workplace a nicer place to be.

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