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 do DEI when a state is hostile to Diversity

 I recently gave a talk on how to prevent saboteurs from killing your diversity initiative.  I was asked what to do when your company - or your state is hostile to diversity. I am in FL - it's illegal in many companies to do DEI training.  DEI is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The solution - is to focus on inclusion.  

In this blog post, we'll explore the transformative power of inclusion, shedding light on its benefits in problem-solving, company culture, and productivity. More importantly, we'll delve into the vital role inclusion plays in preventing workplace sabotage and bullying, offering practical insights into using behavioral psychology to create a truly inclusive workplace.

1. The Power of Inclusion in Problem Solving:

Inclusion brings together diverse perspectives, providing a wealth of viewpoints crucial for effective problem-solving. When individuals from varied backgrounds contribute to discussions, a rich tapestry of ideas emerges. This diversity of thought is an invaluable asset in navigating challenges and driving innovation.

This framing avoids some of the triggers of DEI framing yet makes the business case for diversity through inclusion. 

2. Creating a Bully-Free Culture:

One of the most significant obstacles to a diverse and inclusive workplace is the presence of bullying and exclusionary behavior. Inclusion acts as a powerful antidote, fostering a culture where every individual feels valued and respected. By actively preventing bullying, organizations can create an environment where employees are free to collaborate without fear, ultimately enhancing overall well-being and job satisfaction.

Most DEI initiatives fail because they are actively sabotaged by employees.  It isn't enough to recruit for diversity, you also have to make sure diversity isn't sabotaged. By focusing on how to stop bullying, you create an inclusive culture. And this culture - prevents sabotage. 

Again - in an environment hostile to DEI - the problem of bullying - effects everyone and you can use this lens to address the root problems while avoiding some of the more - divisive topics that have been outlawed in certain places. 

3. Boosting Productivity Through Inclusion:

Inclusive environments boost productivity. When employees feel included, they are more engaged, motivated, and invested in their work. Exclusion, on the other hand, hampers productivity by creating unnecessary roadblocks and obstacles. In essence, inclusion is not just a feel-good concept; it directly correlates with enhanced work output and efficiency.

Everyone wants to feel like they belong in the workplace.  While it is true that certain groups experience more - sabotage and exclusion than others, if the discussion of that sabotage and exclusion creates a legal problem due to the regulatory environment - you can focus on inclusion as a way to boost productivity as a way to address the holistic root of the problem in a way that makes everyone feel - included. 

4. Recognizing the Sabotage Factor:

Diversity initiatives often face resistance, and a significant reason for this is workplace sabotage. Exclusionary practices and bullying can undermine the very foundation of diversity efforts. Addressing these issues head-on is crucial for the success of any inclusion initiative.

By focusing on eliminating employee sabotage - you give employees and the organization the tools to see and effectively deal with - exclusion and sabotage - which is the big a** root of the DEI problem. 

5. Using Behavioral Psychology to Stop Sabotage:

Behavioral psychology provides valuable tools to identify and curb bullying, harassment, and passive-aggressive behavior. Through targeted interventions and education, organizations can empower employees to recognize and mitigate these negative behaviors, creating a safer and more inclusive workplace.

The goal here is to prevent employee sabotage and exclusion. All employees experience this.  Some - more than others. By providing the scientifically validated tools to stop sabotage and exclusion - you will improve diversity and create the conditions in which a diverse workgroup can thrive without being sabotaged or excluded. 

6. Humanist Learning Courses for Skill Development:

My company offers specialized courses in behavioral psychology to equip individuals with the skills needed to foster inclusion and eliminate workplace sabotage. These courses delve into the nuances of human behavior, providing practical strategies for creating a positive and inclusive work environment.

https://humanistlearning.com 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the journey towards a diverse and inclusive workplace begins with a laser focus on inclusion itself. By emphasizing the tangible benefits of inclusion in problem-solving, company culture, and productivity, organizations can lay the groundwork for lasting change. Additionally, addressing the challenge of workplace sabotage through behavioral psychology is a crucial step in ensuring the success of diversity initiatives. Together, let's build workplaces where every employee is included, valued, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives.

Finally - you don't need anyone's permission to do this. You just decide - I'm going to be inclusive and I'm not going to tolerate exclusion.  Is this easy to do? Nope.  It's worth doing though. My courses will help you learn the science behind how to top unwanted behaviors like exclusion and sabotage behaviors like passive aggressive behavior and help you start rewarding inclusion in your workgroup or group situation. 

Facilitating Diversity? Focus on Inclusion - REAL inclusion.

 A reporter asked me: Companies around the world are rapidly changing their work environment and organizational culture to facilitate diversity. How do you see organizational culture changing in the next 3 years and how do you see yourself creating that change?

For me, the question is less about how we create diversity and more about how do we create inclusion. Even in homogenous organizations, there are people who are bullied and excluded.  

If we want more diverse yet cohesive work groups, we need to eliminate bullying and other behaviors that sabotage inclusion efforts. There is a reason why most of these efforts fail, and that is because – people sabotage them! We need to be more proactive about addressing and eliminating the sabotaging behavior so that people recruited in – are actively included in the group, so that they CAN create the working relationships and trust required for everyone to be productive. 

If all we ever do is try to recruit in diversity, regardless of the metrics we use, we will continue to fail. We must learn how and actively use the techniques we know work to eliminate bullying.  Why? Because bullying is all about creating exclusion.

Ending Exclusion

Humans are a tribal species. Our brains tend to see the world as our group and "others."  Bullies bully because it allows them to control who is in and who is out and that gives them a tremendous amount of power over any group. If you want diverse yet cohesive groups, you CANNOT allow bullies to exclude people and other them. 

The Future

What I hope for the future, is that we start applying the science of how to get unwanted behaviors to stop and we use that to stop bullying behavior so we can final wrestle control away from the office bullies and finally create inclusive support work groups where fear of being ostracized no longer dictates what happens or how problems are solved – or not solved.

Learn More

If you want to learn more - take one of my courses at: https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/

You don't know what you don't know - Disney edition

Was talking about diversity and inclusion this morning and then this popped up in a Disney fan group I'm in. And it's spot on. You don't know what you don't know.

 Problem solving is benefited from including people who know things you don't know. #humanisticmanagement  #humanisticleadership #disneywisdom 

Diversity, Inclusion and Social Impact

 There is a LOT of debate about the value of diversity and inclusion initiatives these days.  I am a big fan of diversity and inclusion. I view D&I as both a moral and a pragmatic good. I just don't see how anyone can solve problems effectively without an inclusive process. The reality is, we don't know what we don't know and getting input from others improves our problem solving process.

As a professional, I teach how to create inclusive workplace cultures by eliminating bullying and harassment. I teach a combination of humanistic philosophy combined with behavioral science. 

I understand some people have soured on the idea of diversity because they've been subjected to crappy diversity training that doesn't work. And there is plenty of evidence that says, our current approach to diversity training, doesn't work.  The fact our current approaches don't seem to be working, doesn't mean we should give up. Diversity is both a moral good and a pragmatic one.

So, how do we accomplish this?   Well, I'm glad you asked.  I was recently named an Expert for Social Impact.  They interviewed me about my work and my approach and - gave me an opportunity to opine on the question: If you could change one thing in terms of DEI, what would that be? 

My interview is here: https://diversity.social/jennifer-hancock-humanist-learning-diversity-florida/ 

While I encourage you to read the whole article - because it will tell you more about me and my work - and maybe convince you and your company to hire me, I do want to include my answer to this question here:

If you could change one thing in terms of DEI, what would that be? 

Hoo boy. Ok – here it is. There is a flawed assumption that underpins all diversity and harassment training. And that assumption is – if we just tell them it’s wrong, they will stop.

Harassment training is basically two hours of – it’s illegal – don’t do it. The same thing happens with diversity training. Here’s how historically this has hurt people, we need to change. Never, in the entire history of humanity, has asking bullies nicely to stop, ever worked. Never. Not once.  Bullies bully because it works. In order to make them stop, we have to make it stop working. Changing hearts is important, changing behaviors is even more so.

In order to make bullying stop, we have to learn how the behavior is rewarded and consciously change the rewards and responses to their behavior to trigger behavioral extinction.  

Often, this requires a complete rethinking of the systems we operate in. When I teach people here is how behaviors are reinforced and what is required to make them stop, only then can I help them look at the individual elements of the system and discuss how each element either serves to reinforce the unwanted behavior, or whether it helps to extinguish the unwanted behavior. Having learned this, we can now discuss how to tweak the system to create effective change.

A few years back I gave a talk about how to create happier more inclusive workplaces in India. One of the executives asked me about whether this works for a specific situation in their company. But he was framing the problem in an ineffective way. I kept telling him – nope. You have it upside down. What you are suggesting won’t work because your entire framework on how you think about this is upside down. You are concerned about outputs when you should be concerned about inputs and how your structure and systems is responding and rewarding the inputs.

Whether we are talking about how schools deal with bullying or whether we are talking about how government agencies respond to harassment in the workplace, the problem is the same. The reason we haven’t been able to extinguish the unwanted behavior is because the system itself is rewarding those behaviors. This is ALL fixable. But we have to take a systems approach to the problem and to do that effectively, we have to educate ourselves on the science of how behaviors are learned and more importantly unlearned so that we can start addressing the systemic nature of the problems.

Why is Inclusion so hard?

 I have recently been asked by a few reporters to talk about my work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion projects.  To be honest, I work less on the topic of diversity and focus almost exclusively on how to proactively create inclusion by preventing and eliminating exclusion.

I am not an expert in diversity issues.  I am passionate, however, about equity. Part of my practice as a Humanist is to view everyone I meet as a unique individual with dignity and worth. It hurts my heart when I learn that someone was abused because of something as stupid and arbitrary as race or gender or whatever stupid metrics are used to divide people.

What I am an expert in though, is how to stop harassment using behavioral science techniques.  Basically, I focus on the – how to actually create inclusion part of the DE&I equation.

Inclusion really is the challenge. For those of us who see all humans as: humans with dignity and worth – the challenge is what to do about the people who don’t. How do we fight back against the people who seek to exclude. It's clearly not enough to want to include people. We need to actively learn how to prevent exclusion. 

The question I seek to answer is – how do we actually create diverse yet cohesive workgroups? The answer is, we must make sure that the people who don’t want inclusion, aren’t able to derail the inclusion project. In other words, how to we make sure that bullies and let’s be honest racists and sexist and other otherists, don’t kill the diversity initiative.   

The next question is how do we make sure that people are actually actively included so that vulnerable people protected by the team and allowed to bring their unique perspective to the problem-solving process and yes – so that the problem solving process is fully collaborative and … inclusive? That is why I focus on inclusion. How to create it and how to make sure it isn’t derailed by bad actors.

The behavioral science on how to stop unwanted exclusionary behaviors is critical to the success of these initiatives.  

The good news is that we have 70 years of behavioral science to know not only how behaviors are learned but also how to cause them to be unlearned. The good news is that the only way to make these techniques work, is to implement them with love and to at all times, validate the dignity of the people we are working to stop.  We can actually do this if we use science and compassion.

It’s long past  time for us to start using these tools and teach ourselves how to actually be the change we want to see.

If you want to learn these skills, visit my course website at: https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/

The business case for more diversity

 The 20 most diverse companies in the WSJ study had an average annual stock return of 10% over five years, versus 4.2% for the 20 least-diverse companies. - BRIAN STAUFFER

One of my investment banks just sent me a notice that included a link to this WSJ article. It's about the business case for more diversity. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-business-case-for-more-diversity-11572091200

The followed by saying that they now demand companies they invest in show them their EEO data and that they actively have a diverse board of directors.  They are clearly taking this very seriously.

You should too.

The Benefits of Inclusion

The biggest benefit of inclusion is improved decision making. We all have blind spots. No one knows what they don't know and they don't even know they don't know it.

Inclusion policies make sure there are enough people with enough diverse experiences in the room so that when decisions are made, they benefit from the collective knowledge of the group. 

The Challenge of Inclusion

The challenge is creative diverse yet cohesive work groups. We humans are tribal by nature and we don't like not getting our way and one of the ways we ensure that we can dominate a tribe, is by excluding the people who don't agree with us. This is often done through bullying or harassment or even passive aggressive sabotage.

This is one of the main reasons why my Certified Humanistic Leadership Professional program has so much information on how to stop bullying, harassment and discrimination, even when it's in the form of passive aggressive sabotage.  

Challenging assumptions

The problem, honestly, isn't diversity. The problem is exclusion. Even if you took a homogenous group of people, someone will still try to exclude someone else from the group.  The challenge isn't how to embrace diversity. The challenge is how to stop social exclusion. 

I teach a LOT of EEO  programs. Often, I get asked to do a diversity training. They want someone to provide information on - diverse groups of people. But that request includes an assumption. The assumption is, if we just teach people that other people are human, they will start treating each other with dignity and include them.  Spoiler: it won't.  

If you want to change the culture and you want to create an inclusive culture, then focus on teaching people HOW to be inclusive and what to do if/when someone is actively excluding a member of the team. Because, it's going to happen. 

That is why my programs are about how to stop unwanted behavior, like bullying and harassment. Bullying and harassment are done to exclude people. That's why bullies do it. If you want an inclusive culture you MUST stop the bullying otherwise you will NEVER address the root problem you have, which is that some people get power over others by excluding people from a group.

Let me help you:

Most of your staff is sick of the bullying. They are sick of the exclusion that occurs. They are terrified that they will be next. If you want to change things, hire me to teach them how to stand up and make it stop using behavioral science and compassion. Your employees will thank you.

And yes, I can provide your Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) training for you.

https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/