![]() ![]() Seeking positive reinforcement also centers the ally, rather than the community that looks to the ally for support. If our signal for doing good work is rooted purely in the rush of gratification or self-fulfillment, then we will shy away from the moments where the work requires more of us - to push beyond the edge of our capacity and accepted norms of behavior and grow into the moment. Feeling uncomfortable also rarely feels good. Being an ally actually requires getting comfortable with the discomfort of going against a pre-established norm. Sacrifice rarely feels good in the short term, even if we can rationalize the benefit with a long view or strategic vantage point of what matters. The endorphins boost of a "job well done" can easily lull us into the false reality that this work is not easy and also does not come without sacrifice. It can also feel rewarding to live our convictions however, if that is our primary motivation, then we're missing the spirit of the work. These moments can be great achievements, especially if it results in impact or real change. When you speak up on behalf of what's right, does it feel good? Does it make you proud? However, I want to talk about three that feel more pervasive and also lead to the quickest exit from the turnpike that is our journey toward real progress and change. The nature of a red herring makes them both compelling to follow and also hard to identify. ![]() If you want to build inclusion, then don't go chasing red herrings. And it takes a willingness to step beyond what is comfortable when supporting the needs of others. It takes honesty and accountability when those values aren't met. It takes a daily commitment to a set of principles and values at organization and individual levels that help us peel back the filters we see people and the world through. Similarly, as individuals, we may be able to identify unfairness, inequality, and moments to step up as allies however, a red herring may present an alternative way forward that feels more accessible than where we really need to go.īuilding inclusive communities and spaces take consistency and work. A red herring may present itself when taking the right path feels harder, longer, or requires more skill to traverse. Companies may identify a real goal that promises to shift the culture or encourage belonging, but the journey between starting and finishing leaves plenty of room to be led astray. In the work to build more inclusive spaces, red herrings also exist. It invites us to follow it down a pathway to a conclusion that promises to be as compelling as the chase.Īnd herein lies the fallacy, because red herrings were never meant to lead us to where we need to go, but only where we were willing to go. Like the hound chasing the scent, we are compelled by and attracted to the red herring. When I was a boy, we used, in order to draw oft’ the harriers from the trail of a hare that we had set down as our own private property, get to her haunt early in the morning, and drag a red-herring, tied to a string, four or five miles over hedges and ditches, across fields and through coppices, till we got to a point, whence we were pretty sure the hunters would not return to the spot where they had thrown off and, though I would, by no means, be understood, as comparing the editors and proprietors of the London daily press to animals half so sagacious and so faithful as hounds, I cannot help thinking, that, in the case to which we are referring, they must have been misled, at first, by some political deceiver. A fun etymology chasing exercise seems to place this phrase with William Cobbett, a journalist in the 19th century, who used the term for stylistic flair to describe how easily misled the journalists of his time could be (that's not on the nose at all two centuries later). ![]() A red herring, according to Oxford English Dictionary, is something that intentionally or unintentionally misleads or distracts from an important question. ![]()
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