As horrible as the murder of those innocent people who were just shopping for groceries in Buffalo this past weekend, and as intense as the fear, sadness, and/or anger most of us feel right now, this tragic incident will quickly begin to fade into memory for those of us not directly affected. For Black people, it will linger longer, a stark reminder that any of us could be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the audacity to have Black skin. For many others, it’ll just be added to the list of shocking incidents that expose an ugly reality in our country that is difficult to understand and accept — that people are motivated to kill by hate.
The population’s shift in attention is generally blamed on the media and 24-hour news cycle, but I think it is much more personal than that. It’s hard to focus on someone else’s problems when you have problems of your own.
The United Health Foundation has produced America’s Health Rankings, a comprehensive report on the overall health of the nation’s population. We are not a healthy country. In fairness, the pandemic has accelerated the downward trend in many aspects of Americans’ health, the report points out. However, when compared with citizens of other countries, America has historically ranked unfavorably in these categories. This is not a temporary thing.
The 2021 Annual Report examines 81 measures from 30 unique data sources to understand the impact that social, economic, environmental, and other factors have on health, as well as trends that reflect the nation’s changing health patterns over time. A little over 9 percent of adults had three or more of eight chronic conditions: arthritis, asthma, cancer (excluding skin), cardiovascular disease (heart disease, heart attack, or stroke), chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and diabetes.
More than 32 percent of adults get insufficient sleep. Nearly 1 in 5 adults drink excessively. Thirteen percent of adults have frequent mental distress. Twelve percent of adults used prescription drugs non-medically or illicit drugs (excluding cannabis) in the last 12 months, and a record 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020.
The numbers are staggering. That’s a lot of disruption in people’s lives; the kind of disruption that can shift focus from a cowardly shooting in Buffalo. How can individuals possibly rouse the energy and give their time to focus on other people’s problems, when they are overwhelmed with their own life challenges?
This realization is particularly true for individuals who blame their problems on outside forces. Psychologists describe such individuals as having an external locus of control, a belief that external circumstances like luck, fate, and bias are responsible for their situations in life. If they fail a test, it is because of the teacher’s lack of skill or a poorly constructed exam. If they are unsuccessful in a job interview, it is because of favoritism or a quota favoring other individuals.
Other people fall into the internal locus of control category. Such individuals tend to believe their personal decisions and behaviors guide the achievement of a desired outcome. Generally, it is considered psychologically healthy for people to believe they have control over things they can influence, as it motivates actions to change a situation. If they believe otherwise, why bother?
I was thinking about these psychological divergences recently in relation to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B). People with an external locus of control are unlikely to help others work through their problems, as they are consumed with their own issues. It is implausible to think they have the time and interest to address the challenges that other people confront until they clean up their own messes.
Since people with an external locus of control believe their problems are caused by outside variables, they can be swayed by “fake news” — misleading information disguised as credible news — and bizarre conspiracy theories. Who has time to for such small issues like bias, unfairness, and injustice when a secret cabal of intellectuals, elites, and celebrities is scheming to replace and enslave them?
Is there a way for all people to manage their own problems and be of service to others? The answer is yes, and it is driven by the need to understand oneself first. This explains why, back in my DEI&B coaching days, I didn’t focus on diversity or inclusion — at least not at the start of the engagement. Rather, I trained people to develop skills and competencies associated with emotional intelligence: self-awareness, stress management, empathy, social awareness, and social responsibility. I guided them to use emotional intelligence to identify and overcome logic traps like the belief that something is true because a self-proclaimed expert says it is. I talked about how to apply these learnings to their interactions with all people, but especially with those who are different from them because of the positive emotional charge these encounters generate.
Rather than focus on diversity or inclusion in a DEI&B program, why not focus instead on ways to encourage people to examine their approaches to life and understand how to manage one’s own problems? After all, we all have them.
