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Microaggressions and How to Manage Them When They Occur

Microaggressions - a term that can send an electric shockwave of contention through any environment. As one of the top hot-button topics over the last few years, just the mere mention brings people to immediate attention, combat-ready. Though for this combat, both parties play a different defensiveness. One person is accusing another of committing a microaggression, though they wouldn’t be in an offensive attacking posture because they are essentially speaking up for themselves - defending themselves.

Then in the other corner, the person being accused becomes defensive of the accusation because, with microaggressions, they’re defined by them being unintentional or done unknowingly. 

What typically results is an automatic fight with everyone pointing fingers at each other. But if we sincerely want to resolve workplace conflict and foster an environment of understanding, communication, and safety, we must...

By: Tyler Dzuba

Have you ever tried to have a conversation, but keep getting derailed for one of these two reasons?

• “They won’t speak up at all! I’m carrying the whole conversation!”
• “I can’t get a word in edgewise! They’re taking up all the air in the room!”

Let me share how some savvy from the world of linguistics can help you communicate better in these cases. (Spoiler: try on the opposite conversational style, even if it feels a little rude to you!)

Did you know that across cultures and languages, people on average notice a silence of only 200 milliseconds—just a fifth of a second!—as a discernible gap in conversation? That’s literally a blink of an eye.

Here’s the thing, though: what we do with those gaps in conversation might get us in trouble depending on who we’re talking with. The research in conversation analysis tells us that individual people fall on a spectrum between high-involvement...