Becoming an Active Ally

00:06 What are some barriers to being an ally? I talked about some good ways to be a good ally.

00:11 But what might some barriers be because I think that most people have good intentions, in terms of wanting to be allies.

00:19 But sometimes certain things prevent us from being able to do that and promote best practices in active allyship.

00:26 One of those things is being blindsided, like we don't anticipate it.

00:30 So I mentioned the fight flight, freeze, or appease, and because of that, oftentimes, when we're blindsided by certain things, then we might not say anything, or we might want to appease people, so that's one of the key reasons why sometimes people don't know because of the shock of it.

00:47 So another barrier, may be person specific.

00:51 Maybe just that day in that moment, you're going through something so you weren't able to really focus on whatever it was, or it didn't just occur to you in that moment, maybe you had time to think about and you like it, you know, that didn't feel right when I saw or heard or experienced whatever.

01:07 So there could be a reason why, doesn't mean that people aren't supportive of you, it just may mean that they're not focused in the moment.

01:15 A big one is fear of retribution.

01:19 Oftentimes, when people speak up, there is retaliation that happens.

01:24 And that prevents some people from doing it.

01:26 Again, we don't want to judge but we do want to offer people some tools.

01:31 And then if there's that environment or the culture, that this is what the organization values, the net fear kind of starts to subside, when people start to see consistency, in terms of support.

01:44 Sometimes there's lack of confidence, and we're all built differently.

01:48 So when people don't have the confidence to speak up in the moment, we want to let them know that there are other ways to speak up.

01:56 So if someone, I say I'm a big mouth, I say it all the time, I'm all about social justice, I'm all about making people feel like they belong in a space, no matter what that space is.

02:08 And so I will offer myself up, so they if there are people who are in your organization who have their confidence and courage to be able to speak up, and especially speaking truth to power, then maybe if you're one of those people that's a little more introverted, then you go to that person and say, you know, I saw this, and I don't know what to do about it, or whatever.

02:28 But there are different ways to be allies.

02:30 So none of these are like hard and fast, permanent barriers that prevent you from being an active ally.

02:37 It's just, it helps you to think about different ways to be an ally.

02:42 And then lack of education on how to be a good ally.

02:44 So it's why I'm coupling these barriers with some options.

02:48 So go and read, whatever it is.

02:51 Practicing is one of those ways to become a better ally.

02:55 And then oftentimes people just diffuse the responsibility.

02:59 There's a slang out, get somebody else to do it.

03:02 People don't want to be involved in what they call controversy or conflict.

03:06 But in this profession, we sign up to do it.

03:11 So if you want to be an ally, you have to understand that awareness is not enough, because awareness without that action piece doesn't promote the culture shifts and the change and definitely requires the action.

03:24 And that looks like so many different things and consistency.

03:28 And then strategies, they promote a more inclusive and equitable health care environment for everyone as long as you know, like we talk about that all the time.

03:36 If you don't have a plan, people say if you plan, I mean, if you fail to plan you plan to fail.

03:42 It kind of goes along with this.

03:44 So if we have strategies, we review them over and over again and we practice them and practice them with consistency.

03:51 We help to promote the culture shift that I've been speaking of the whole entire time, but just do your homework, because our ultimate goal again is equitable and inclusive environments for everyone.