More WA employees speak out against 'Outward Mindset' program | FOX 13 Seattle

After a union petition kicked off calling for the Washington Department of Health to end mandatory Outward Mindset training, employees say more colleagues are speaking up against the controversial training program.

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[kstone]

A whole news story and I still have to google Outward Mindset to learn what it's about.

[thomasayele]

After watching this video I couldn't confidently tell you what Outward Mindset actually is.

[FlexWheelernd]

I feel like I just wasted my time watching an old school infomercial. An entire news story and I still have no clue what the issue is about this training course. Modern day journalism sucks!

[blacksunguppy]

I'm sorry but if the supervisor said "you are not thinking outwardly. you need to think my way." They missed the whole point of the program and didn't understand it at all. So I think the program isn't the problem here.

[FoNgThOnG]

Sounds like someones getting paid under the table to put this stuff into effect lol

[LaurieFloodTeacher]

It sounds super Orwellian. These are the same type of techniques and speech that are used by cults and cult-like workplaces (Amazon, for example). I'm glad to hear that the health department employees were and are bucking up against it.

[crystalevans]

Thats how you get rid of staff. It creates a horrible work culture. Look at the days missed in employee files at any Skilled Nursing home and it shows. Chronically understaffed because we dread going to work. Washington state has no staff to patient mandatory ratios. Corporations run a profit model based on numbers and not accuity. The managment teams are abusive, coercive and demeaning.

[Chris-cfkp]

For those asking; google takes 5 minutes. You have the term. Essentially it's a mindset which aims to reduce individuality and create adherence to a specific set of ideals and determined policy. It's basis is putting 'others' before yourself, which is feigned compassion, weaponized to make people less ambitious, confident, courageous, and inquisitive so long as they're not the people determining that corporate narrative. It's a cultish workplace-enforced 'culture' - similar to how companies sometimes try to tell employees they're all 'family' - which ultimately is used to guilt-trip and justify workplace abuse and harassment. It's a good idea to always be skeptical when any institution tries to impose obligated thought or action that ventures outside of the bounds of common decency between people in any setting.

[Tipperary]

What "is" it?? There were never any actual "examples" offered. And I do know that companies can sell a system to corporations or government entities without doing enough checking on detrimental effects to employees. 1 person buys the system and everybody else pays the price. Religious organizations do this all the time. They should have just gotten the book, " Everything I needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten." Offers all the basics of life, good work ethic, courtesy, decency.

[marcellinamartin]

I worked for an Idaho Hospice company that uses Arbinger in their onboarding training and while I can understand the need to weave in DEI and TIC into everything, I think this report does challenge and take it out of context. The idea of "I deserve" is a mindset of entitlement which can be dangerous when disregarding people and using them as "vehicles" to get what we want, it's not about disempowerment. The other in pair with "I deserve" is the "better than" mindset which demoralizes others within any relationship. The "Outward Mindset" is perspective taking and looking outside of ourselves to see others in a better light rather than staying in a fixed mindset and focusing on 'me' but taking an inward look on how we view and treat others. Just like any policy or program can be abused, it seems that these folks were experiencing that. I don't think it's the curriculum of "outward mindset" that is keeping employees quiet but those who are facilitating it sound like they are using it inappropriately, invalidating other's feelings, and shrugging off responsibilities of conflict management. It sounds like their leadership needs more training.
There are four boxes an inward mindset puts people, it is seeing others as Objects, vehicles (that I use), obstacles (that I blame), and irrelevancies (that I ignore). We should be evaluating how we see others because that impacts how we treat them.

[indianatarzan]

This clip really need to explain what the "Outward Mindset" program is really about. I did a quick search and it's just a bunch of buzzwords. I'm very wary of using nice sounding words to do the opposite of what people think the word means. Equality and equity sound similar but one is judging people by their character and the other is judging people by their skin color. They're literally the opposite now, effectively.

[carolynharrison]

Most major employers use programs of this sort. It's very profitable and these companies are ubiquitous.

[Excaliburhope]

They also force people to read How to be an ANti-Racist which is racist and people are shamed into reading anti-white and racist literature.

[cryschanel]

We have it at our credit union. I went through it. We had a very good facilitator, and the practices are not forced onto employees or put into their reviews/expectations. I did find quite a bit of it triggering and 'faked' my way through the training.

[GRYDATH]

forcing one to use pronous is an act of violence against people who do not use any pronouns... move along.

[amr]

She's completely right if they treat the workers like that, that's how they will treat all of us.
I'm not political but this sounds like a Democrat generated problem. And no I'm not Republican. I'm just human and would NEVER attach a political party to my beliefs. I'm just stating simple observations over the last several years.

[parkerholden]

This is an organizational development program. It requires workers getting out of their comfort zone It is exactly what many organizations need. Nice to see State agencies working to improve their performance...about time

[awen]

Living in China is looking better every day?! Either that or learn to goosestep properly!

[rachael_grey]

Outward Mindset is an attempt to bring some humility and mindfulness about *group goals* rather than everybody thinking solely of their own.
Basically, employees are being asked to think of others, not *just* themselves.