Stop Sabotage with Science: The Behavioral Approach to Real Inclusion

Inclusion doesn’t fail because people disagree with it. It fails because it gets quietly sabotaged.

You’ve probably seen it — the subtle resistance. The eye-rolls. The “concerns” cloaked in civility. The way momentum dies, not with confrontation, but with passive-aggression. The result? Good people give up, culture stays the same, and real inclusion never takes hold.

This isn’t just a messaging problem. It’s a behavioral problem.

And that means it has a behavioral solution.

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The Real Barrier: Sabotage Is Behavior

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, we focus a lot on values — and that’s important. But values don’t change behavior unless we understand how behavior works.

The truth is: many people who sabotage inclusion efforts do it subtly. They exploit group dynamics, use manipulation tactics, and rely on the fact that most people don’t know how to push back effectively without escalating conflict.

That’s where behavioral science comes in.

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Why Behavioral Science Works

I teach behavior-shaping methods grounded in reinforcement psychology — the same science used to train dolphins, raise resilient kids, and build new habits in adults.

The core principle is simple:
👉 What gets reinforced, continues. What gets ignored and not reinforced, extinguishes over time.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s practical. You can train your workplace culture to resist sabotage. You can teach your team how to respond strategically, not emotionally. And you can stop bullying and manipulation before it takes root.

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Learn the Tools. Change the Culture.

At Humanist Learning Systems, my online courses combine ethics, compassion, and science to teach you and your team:

✅ How to stop bullying and harassment using behavioral tools
✅ How to identify and neutralize passive-aggressive sabotage
✅ How to reinforce inclusive norms — and make them stick
✅ How to build cultures rooted in dignity and humanism

Inclusion can’t thrive if you’re fighting behavior with good intentions alone.
You need strategy. You need tools. You need science.

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Ready to Make Inclusion Real?

Explore my online courses at Humanist Learning Systems.
Let’s stop the sabotage — and build the future of work with purpose, clarity, and compassion.

How to help kids/people learn

My friend Amanda is a teacher – and she’s running for political office. She shared this – and I want to share it with you.

“I'm reading my students' bellwork answers from the week and I'm loving some of their answers. I asked them to write a list of 10 ways I can take care of them this year. Here's a sampling of what they wrote...

-Do a back flip every time we get a question right (do they EVEN know me?!)
-Take us outside
-Show us courage
-Help us not be failures
-Tell us jokes and make us laugh
-Be real
-Keep being you
-Tell us stories
-Help me be a better writer
-Make me comfortable
-Listen to me
-Go slow with me. I want to learn, but I need your help.
-Give us treats/snacks/candy/mints (SO many of this response!)
-Be there for me
-Dance around the classroom
-Be easy to talk to
-Help me learn English
-Teach me to pronounce words correctly
-Be open to stupid questions”

I think this is applicable to all people everywhere.  How awesome would it be if we treated – everyone this way?

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To learn more about Amanda - here is her linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-v-linton/

Her book: https://amzn.to/2O5bVx8

And - because it's seriously awesome that a friend of mine and a teacher is running for office and you should totally support her - here is her campaign website - https://www.amandaforflorida.com/

What to do when an employee doesn't fit your culture

Question: 

Culture fit is important these days. But what do you do if an existing employee is just not a great fit? Or, if your culture is shifting for an employee doesn't seem to be able to shift with it? I'm looking for input from HR and business professionals on: 1) how to spot a mismatch 2) steps to take to get the employee aligned 3) what to do when your best efforts don't work?

Answer:

Culture fit is a term that has an unclear meaning.  We think we know what it means - but we also need to make sure we don’t use “cultural fit” as a way to exclude people and avoid diversity.

To really answer these questions I would need to ask a bunch of questions to find out what exactly the underlying problem is - you are trying to address by talking about culture fit.

But first a word on cultural shifts.  

Culture shifts within an organization take time to occur. Especially if the shift is intentional.  When people struggle with the shift – it doesn’t mean anything bad or that the person is not a good fit. It just means, change takes time.  I did a talk on this for HR professionals just last week.  Resistance to change is predicted to occur, so people orchestrating cultural change should be patient with people resisting – to a point.  I have found that the people most resistant, often become the biggest champions once they make the change themselves.  It’s actually really rare for someone to just be toxic.  But if someone is toxic – they eventually need to go – but you won’t know that until the 3^rd change wave has occurred.

To answer your questions.

 1.    How to spot a cultural mismatch.  

This should be done in onboarding and dealt with.  This is often less about culture than it is about motivation. I used to do volunteer management for an animal welfare organization. We would occasionally get people volunteering who were interested in animal rights. This was a mismatch, or what I would call other motivation.  We were not an animal rights organization and anyone wanting to volunteer in an animal rights organization would be problematic because they would spend all their time trying to get us to work on animal rights and the organization was set up to do animal welfare.  It’s not that one motivation is better than the other. It’s just that – they had different motivations, goals and purposes. Hence – other motivation.  If you had a hot dog shop and were looking to hire someone and that someone really wanted to sell hamburgers, but you don’t sell hamburgers – then they would not be a good fit – because they would be other motivated.  Motivated to do something “other” than what your organization does.  Whenever this happened, I would refer them to another organization whose goal and purpose aligned with the prospective volunteer.   When you interview, it’s good to get a sense of what the person wants to do and why they want to work for your organization. This will help weed out any other motivated people.  It is ok if someone just wants a job. But it’s not ok if they really really want to do something other than what you are asking them to do in this job.

As for culture – I rarely see mismatches.  Most people value the same things everywhere in the world, so most people are capable of getting along just fine with each other regardless of their “cultural background.” This is why my first instinct when I hear the term cultural fit in an HR context is to wonder whether this requirement will end up excluding people that would otherwise make great employees. This is why maybe you need to better define the term “culture fit” to help us understand what exactly the problem is you are trying to address. 

Why does culture matter? What do you really mean by culture? What is different – if the culture fit is good among the employees?

The one big difference that I do see is how autonomous people like to be. Some people need a lot of autonomy. Others want a lot of oversight. But again – that’s a matter of onboarding properly so that each employee gets placed in a work environment that works for them.

2.    Steps to take to get the employee aligned. 

Well – why? Why do you want them aligned?   If the problem is motivation and understanding of work roles – then clarifying work roles can help.  If there are interpersonal problems, then those need to be addressed.   If you want everyone to get on board with an ethical culture of giving?  Why?  Isn’t it ok for someone to just do the job.  I interviewed Manuel Guillen of the University of Valencia last fall on ethical culture in work. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHurPInnC7o)  He said that the only obligation the company can have is to lay the groundwork for ethical values to grow within the organization.  It’s like laying a flower bed. You nourish it and seed it – but the individuals decide how much to embrace of the values and vision. You can’t force people to work from a higher order motivation in their work and it would be unethical to demand that of employees.  The bigger concern is – is the work getting done and is it getting done in an ethical dignified manner? Yes – Great. No? What do you need to change to create space and encouragement for that to occur. But that’s a management issue and a management failure – not a matter of employee fit.

  

But to answer the question – I would go into interview mode to find out why there is a disconnect and get the employees perspective on things. What do they need?  Normally though, when the fit is bad – it’s because there is a problem with the manager.

3.    What do you do when your best efforts don’t work? 

Question whether you are the problem.  I seem to have to say this in every presentation I do, but if you are not getting the results you want – then you are doing something wrong.  Often, it means our rewards and reinforcements are out of alignment.   Or – worse, we are providing perverse incentives to our employees and so we accidentally reward behavior we don’t want and disincentivize the behavior we do want.  99% of the time, this is the problem.  Occasionally though, you do get someone who is truly toxic and if you identify someone who is unethical – lying for instance – and doing it pathologically – you do need to get rid of them.  When I took over the volunteer management job at the SPCA I worked for – I had 10 volunteers and toxic employee volunteer relationships.   I reset the relationships and all, but one got on board and were very excited about the changes we made. Staff responded well too. After about 6 months, I had to fire the one volunteer who did not want to get with the new way of doing things.  But she made that choice for me by refusing to abide by the new rules and procedures – well after everyone else had adjusted.

Rebuilding a Toxic Culture

I have done this and am an expert on how to use behavioral conditioning to make it happen. What follows is both an explanation of how I did it, what to expect when you do and the science of why this works. If you like what you read and need help at your company - contact me! I provide training on how to do this.

I used to work at the LASPCA. We had a toxic volunteer and staff volunteer relationships were beyond horrible. We had 10 volunteers who thought their job was to spy on staff and report them behaving badly. The result was no staff wanted to work with any volunteer. I was brought on board to change that dynamic.

The first thing I did was meet with staff to find out what they wanted help with and would allow volunteers to do. I then wrote volunteer job description for those jobs. These included what exactly was expected, who they reported to. Standard stuff. I then spoke with each of the 10 volunteers to find out if they were willing to volunteer in these new roles working with staff on work the staff needed help with. All but one were excited as they wanted to be helpful. Those volunteers were placed with staff mentors to work with them and alongside them. There were only a few staff members willing to take this on at this time. That was fine. The volunteers were now considered assistants to a staff member.  Once those relationships started flourishing most staff members began asking for help.

I created a volunteer recruitment process where people wanting to volunteer were interviewed, oriented and onboarded and then placed into work. As staff/volunteer relationships improved, I started getting more requests for help from other departments. The process was the same. Create a job description. Recruit in volunteers, orient them, train them and then pair them with a staff member/supervisor. I spent as much time training staff on how to work with volunteers as I did with recruiting in new volunteers.

Within 3 years we went from 10 volunteers and toxic staff/volunteer relationships to 500 volunteers donating ~20,000 hours of time each year. That’s the equivalent of 10 full time staff members.  That’s how much productivity a toxic environment was costing us.

Now – this process wasn’t without it’s hiccups. The one volunteer who did not agree to the new system and new roles had been “in charge” of the volunteers and she did not take kindly to losing her power and being excluded from the shelter. But since she did not agree to the job description, she wasn’t allowed to work with us. She fought it. Recruited in some allies, who were other directors in the organization. She tried to get me fired, failed. And eventually she gave up and went away. It was a rough first year as I got accused of all sorts of really horrible things, none of which were true.

Let’s move on to why this worked.

1. I created clarity. I wrote down actual job descriptions and made it clear – they worked for and supported staff. 
2. I made it clear that anyone who didn’t follow the rules would be fired – even if they were a volunteer and I followed thru on that.
3. I had the support of upper management who hired me in to create this change and when things got nasty – and they got REALLY nasty – I had their support so that the person trying to maintain the old toxic system – would fail.

It’s this last bit that is key and it has to do with how behaviors are extinguished which is the realm of behavioral psychology.

How behaviors are extinguished

When a behavior has been rewarded for a while, in this case a toxic volunteer wielding power over an entire organization, getting that behavior to stop follows a very specific pattern. There have been over 70 years of research on behavioral extinction and every single study shows the exact same thing. There are no counter examples. This is established science.

What happens is that when you remove the reward or withhold the reward, the individual will escalate their behavior in an attempt to get their reward back. If you continue to withhold reward, they will escalate more and more. How bad it gets depends on how long the behavior has been established and how naturally aggressive the individual is.  If the reward does not materialize after this period of sometimes rather intense behavioral escalation, the individual gives up.

This is exactly the pattern that played out in my organization. I removed her ability to get rewarded for her toxic behavior. She was given an opportunity to find a place in the new system, but she refused and fought it. This ‘fighting’ is predicted to occur in the behavioral model. She fought more and more and even tried to get me fired. This is again, consistent with what we expect to see using a behavioral model. But because I had the support of upper management she failed. Upper management did not give into her demands and she was not allowed to regain control over the organization. Upper management treated her with dignity. They investigated all her claims about me diligently. Found they lacked merit and in this way allowed her behavior to “blow out.” And as is predicted when an individual fails to get their reward, she eventually gave up and went away. This took a little under 6 months to accomplish.  From then on – we experienced exponential growth in our volunteer programs adding in a youth volunteer program, a program for people with dual diagnosis, and we even had volunteers working with our law enforcement arm and fundraising and donation processing unit. Basically – all areas of the organization were using volunteers within 3 years.

Rebuilding Expectations

If you want to rebuild a toxic culture, you have to be clear about what your behavioral expectations are. This can be done with job descriptions, but it can also be done with behavioral agreements. What are the behavioral expectations. What is the behavior you want, what is it you don’t want. Make it clear and make it clear that inappropriate behavior won’t be tolerated.  Then, you start enforcing the rules and it is absolutely critical that upper management be ok with letting the people who don’t want to change – go. If they don’t leave – you won’t succeed.

From there – if I am doing a cultural transformation – I actually do it in stages and do it work group by work group. I insulate my first work group so that individuals who do not like the changes in that first group – can’t derail it. And they will try. Once that group is behaving according to the ethical norms I have set, I bring in another work group and help them transform. And again, they have to be protected against the people who are going to try and derail it. Those people might come from within that group, or they might be from outside. Often, it’s outside the group. Once my 2nd group is going well – you usually then get groups asking to be next and asking for help as they see the success that has occurred in the initial groups and the rest becomes easier as a new cultural norm is established.

But again – there are going to be people who fight this and try to derail the process by accusing the change agent of – some pretty horrible things. Those must be investigated to provide clarity and dignity to the process. But if the change agent is acting ethically then the change process must not be derailed by those attempts to stall it. Eventually – the hold outs will either change and adopt the new processes and ethical norms or they will be asked to leave or they will leave on their own accord making accusations about everyone else being brainwashed or whatever the complaint is.

It is absolutely critical that the change agent has the support to ride of upper management. They become the point person for all the negativity that is thrown at the process and they must be supported to get through this. Failure to do that will cause the change process to fail.

Learning more:

To learn more about me and what I teach - check out my bio and courses offered at: https://humanistlearning.com/jennifer-hancock/ and do contact me if you need help with this.

Positive Employee Experiences When Company Culture Changes

I was recently asked by a reporter about to create positive employee experiences when a company culture changes. Here are my answers to their questions.

In your opinion, why do some employees view a change in company culture as a negative? 

Resistance to change is instinctual. It involves unlearning and unlearning in all animals, including humans, follows a very specific pattern and that pattern involves initial resistance to change. The key for leaders is to understand that resistance is not necessarily a reflection on employee desire. Though it can be if the culture is changing for the wrong reasons on in a less ethical direction.

How do you communicate those changes to keep employees on the same page? 

It can help involve the employees directly in the planning. If a manager says – we are doing this differently – without input – they risk creating changes that make things worse for employees. When employees are involved in the discussions on WHY changes are being made – they are less likely to resist.  It’s the difference between dictating change and co-creating change.   If you want to establish new rules for handle interpersonal disagreements for instance, telling people – here is the new complaint process yields very different results from having conversations where individuals agree on a new process together. When people co-create new social rules, they are accountable for the rules they helped co-create and agreed to.  If they didn’t agree to the new rules, they aren’t accountable to them – as much as a manager might like them to be.

How do you help employees remain positive as the company culture evolves?

Positive reinforcement and support through the process and regular check ins to make sure the new culture being co-created is still moving in a good direction – so that course corrections can occur quickly and that people are rewarded for pointing out the problems with implementation – will help employees remain positive. It is when people don’t feel like they are being heard – that they get really negative. Culture must be co-created. It cannot be dictated and people who don’t like where the culture is going, have a right to be heard. But the process through which these conversations take place – should be positive which is why appreciative inquiry works so well.


I teach both humanistic management approaches and behavioral science based approaches to change management. https://humanistlearning.com 

How to Successfully Manage Cultural Change in the Workplace

At my first job, I was tasked with changing the culture of a nonprofit organization specifically with regards to the volunteers we had. When I started, staff volunteer relations were horrible. We had 10 volunteers who thought their job was to spy on staff and report them for bad behavior. Within 3 years, we have 100s of volunteers and a waiting list to join our volunteer corps and every department was using volunteers successfully.   What I created was not just a volunteer program – but a cultural shift within the organization so that all contributions were valued and the work that was being done, regardless of who did it – was professionalized.

1.    What are some challenges you've faced when attempting to change company culture and how did you overcome them?

Because cultural change requires changing people’s beliefs about how things work, it is probably the hardest type of change to create within a work group. You have to nurture people and encourage a shift in how they think about themselves and their co-workers.  It is not simply a matter of implementing new policies or creating a new system for people to use. You have to change hearts and minds.  Behaviors are fairly easy to change, changing minds is much much harder.

 

2.    What are some universal principles that every company should abide by when it comes to culture change?

People want to do good and be good, so you can harness people’s innate sense of self and morality to help create the culture you want.  Human morality – is pretty universal regardless of location and or religion or lack of religion. Most people value compassion, responsibility, justice and fairness. You can use those moral constants to help encourage people to not only rise to the challenge of being a good person, but how to implement that within their interpersonal work relationships. 

A great way to do this is – appreciative inquiry – where you focus on what is working and build upon that.  It helps people see the good in each other and get past some of – the problems they were focused on before. And it helps bring everyone together into a single tribe so that they can work on improving the culture together.

 

3.    What motivated or caused a shift in company culture at your business?

At my first real job out of college, I was hired to create a cultural shift with the volunteer staff.  There was a desire at the top levels of the organization to fix things and things were really quite toxic when I arrived.  I create that change by professionalizing the work and making explicit what the responsibilities were at all levels and between people, so they would know what to expect and what their roles were in relationship to one another. Again, most cultural problems are a result of bad interpersonal dynamics and these tend to self-reinforce. By creating clarity of responsibilities and chains of command, I was able to help bring some reliability to people’s expectations so that they could work together productively and deal with any disagreements professionally instead of floundering. Over a very short period of time, as people learned they could in fact trust each other, the culture shifted dramatically.

 

4.    How do you motivate employees to actively accept a company's culture?

A friend of mine, Manuel Guillen, Founder and Director of the Institute for Ethics in Communication and in Organizations, says – you can’t force people to accept a company’s ethical culture. All you can do is create the environment so that ethical culture can flourish and that people who want to be ethical, have the space and support to be ethical. Morality is very motivating and people who are motivated by it – will be motivated by it. But not everyone will be and really, it’s not worth worrying about. At a certain point, cultural change within an organization is self-reinforcing. People join the new culture when it is right for them and they see the benefit it in. Some people never do and so will leave the organization. That is fine.  The key is to protect the first wave of culture change ambassadors so that they have space to be the ethical people you want them to be and any pushback by people who are used to controlling dynamics through aggression or whatever other behaviors and mindsets they have – are not able to dominate any more.

I want to emphasize a couple of things. First, cultural change is almost always motivated by ethics. There is something unethical or amiss about the existing ethical culture of an organization and we want to fix it to make it more ethical. Cultural change is entirely about ethics and to not talk about ethics or make it central to the change process is a mistake. If there wasn’t a need to be more ethical, change would not be required. So make the ethics of what you are trying to do and why you are trying to do it – explicit.

Second, because you are looking to create an ethical cultural shift, you need to recognize, identify and eliminate individuals whose ethical basis is NOT consistent with the new norms you want to create.   My friend Adam Cox, at the London School of Economics, said that corporate culture is determined by the last person promoted.  If you promote unethical people, your culture will become unethical. If you want to create a more ethical culture, you need to get rid of the unethical people in your organization and promote and celebrate ethical people.

If you want to learn more about how to approach cultural change within an organization from both a scientific and ethical perspective - contact me or take one of my courses. https://humanistlearning.com/

I am the founder of Humanist Learning Systems and teach behavior-based approaches to change management, cultural change and humanistic business management