Perhaps you have already heard about the recent firestorm created during a diversity training session for city employees in, of all places, Austin, the capital of political correctness. The training was actually held in March, but the uproar followed an article in the Statesman in May. The hue and cry was loud enough to be heard in Washington, D.C., after the Washington Post weighed in. How can diversity training, which is good, go so bad? 
By way of background, I should explain that the Austin City Council now has a female majority for the first time, which may well have been the impetus for the training session. City spokesman David Green said the intent of the training session was to celebrate the female commissioners’ success stories and provide an opportunity to learn from the women themselves. As we all know, however, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
The presentation by a former city manager of Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, which has since gone viral online, contained the following advice to city employees on how to best deal with the female commissioners:
- He noted that he learned the importance of being patient when answering an unending string of questions from his 11-year-old daughter.
- He said it’s important to remember that men have egos and women have wish lists.
- He stated that it would be necessary to change management techniques and communication styles from the ones that were previously used in a male-dominated environment because women don’t process information in the same way.
- For example, he put the important financial data at the top of his agenda when he dealt with a male council. But he opined that when dealing with a female council, it’s best to present such information in a different way because women “don’t want to hear about the financial argument” but first “want to hear about how [it] impacts the overall community, how it impacts the families, the youth and the children.”
- Finally, he counseled that it’s best not to talk about women’s emotions as a factor in their decision-making process.
Needless to say, the training was not well received by the seven female members of the Austin City Council, who individually stepped forth and criticized it in a subsequent news conference. The members called the training troubling and insulting, evidence that Austin needs more women in upper-level departmental management. They also sarcastically questioned the proposition that women can’t deal with numbers.
The presenter has since issued a statement indicating that the comments were taken out of context. The statement went on to say that “any interpretation that we do not support and appreciate the growing number of women executives and elected officials in both the public and private sector is absolutely not true.”
Austin’s city manager, Marc Ott, issued a statement emphasizing that the opinions of the outside speaker expressed during the training session were unexpected and disappointing and did not reflect the views of the city. Ott admitted that the training had not been properly vetted in advance.
Therein lies the lesson in this interesting saga: Make sure to properly review and approve employee training before it takes place. This is one instance when it’s better to first ask for approval than to have to ask for forgiveness later.
Mark Flora is a partner in the Austin office of Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete LLP. He may be contacted at mflora@constangy.com.