EPISODE
How To Be An Ally
This is a special episode I am reposting this week as it deserves to be heard again at this very difficult time in our country. It's a conversation with a great friend of mine in the HR world, Sarah Morgan of @thebuzzonhr. Her Leading in Color podcast, blog and #BlackBlogsMatter challenge are amazing and I appreciate her work to evolve HR practitioners and workplaces everywhere. The topic of our conversation is about a blog she wrote: "What's in an Ally?" and the 5 things that make you an ally and how to deal with tough issues surrounding diversity and inclusion at work.
Resources:
Blog: https://bit.ly/2k25yOG
Book: We Can't Talk About That at Work: https://amzn.to/2kgevnK
Book: Me and White Supremacy: https://amzn.to/2kgeEaM
Latest episodes
117: Why Learned Helplessness Holds Teams Back and Is the Opposite of Accountability
What happens when your team stops trying - not because they can't, but because they've decided it won't matter anyway? Alex Dorr, CEO and host of the Reality-Based Leadership Podcast, unpacks the psychological phenomenon behind stalled accountability: learned helplessness. It's the belief that your actions no longer shape your outcomes. It's contagious. And it's often hiding in plain sight, disguised as "that's just how things are here."
Alex walks through two classic experiments to show how deeply this pattern gets wired in, then turns the mirror on himself with a personal story about a phantom leg cramp that limited him for six years. From there, he offers three practical techniques leaders can use immediately: naming excuses and asking "what else could we try," swapping victim-questions for ownership-questions, and reframing impossible goals into small, doable next steps.
Learned helplessness isn't a character flaw. It's a habit. And habits can be broken. Listen in, then go work on it with your team this week.
Episode Highlights
00:02:27 What learned helplessness actually is
00:04:02 The flea experiment
00:06:38 The five monkeys experiment
00:08:27 Phrases that signal learned helplessness
00:10:03 Alex's personal story: the lunges that haunted him
00:14:04 Technique 1: name the excuse, ask what else
00:15:08 Technique 2: swap why and who for what and how
00:17:41 Technique 3: thinking inside-the-box
117: Why Learned Helplessness Holds Teams Back and Is the Opposite of Accountability
What happens when your team stops trying - not because they can't, but because they've decided it won't matter anyway? Alex Dorr, CEO and host of the Reality-Based Leadership Podcast, unpacks the psychological phenomenon behind stalled accountability: learned helplessness. It's the belief that your actions no longer shape your outcomes. It's contagious. And it's often hiding in plain sight, disguised as "that's just how things are here."
Alex walks through two classic experiments to show how deeply this pattern gets wired in, then turns the mirror on himself with a personal story about a phantom leg cramp that limited him for six years. From there, he offers three practical techniques leaders can use immediately: naming excuses and asking "what else could we try," swapping victim-questions for ownership-questions, and reframing impossible goals into small, doable next steps.
Learned helplessness isn't a character flaw. It's a habit. And habits can be broken. Listen in, then go work on it with your team this week.
Episode Highlights
00:02:27 What learned helplessness actually is
00:04:02 The flea experiment
00:06:38 The five monkeys experiment
00:08:27 Phrases that signal learned helplessness
00:10:03 Alex's personal story: the lunges that haunted him
00:14:04 Technique 1: name the excuse, ask what else
00:15:08 Technique 2: swap why and who for what and how
00:17:41 Technique 3: thinking inside-the-box
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