Keynote Speaker at Michael Page’s Lunch & Learn
On March 21st, I was the keynote speaker at Michael Page’s event in Hong Kong.
The topic was inclusive language and the event was hosted at Madame Fu, in Central.
I talked about the power of words and how they can make people feel included or excluded.
We discussed the role unconscious bias plays in our day-to-day decision-making and how it also impacts our language.
I provided a framework with guiding principles that can help to speak in a more inclusive way:
- Neutrality: speak with terms that remove judgment, bias, and discrimination.
- Accuracy: favor words that reflect the reality for all, e.g., under-represented instead of minority, neurodiversity instead of mental disability.
- People-first language: emphasize the human denominator by talking first about the person and then about the descriptor, e.g., a person with autism instead of an autistic person.
The session incorporated various group discussions to give the participants the opportunity to discuss their own experiences and insights.
There were 50 guests, mostly senior leaders from HR, DEI and People who are deeply vested in the topic of inclusion.
