Flex - The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences

Introduction

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

—ATTICUS FINCH, IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, BY HARPER LEE

We feel it’s only right to warn you: this book might make you a little uncomfortable. This is a book about differences, a topic that ranges from awkward to scary to strictly off-limits for some people. And as we work more frequently with people who are different from us, we notice that people are still very hesitant to have an open dialogue about what makes us different, sometimes avoiding the topic altogether. But ignoring our differences at work doesn’t make problems go away. In some cases, it exacerbates them—causing employees to ...