Fostering a Culture of Inclusivity with Fredric Abramson

Belonging at work is where Fredric Abramson starts, and he treats it as the whole definition. Fredric is the founder of Golden Thread Technology, a lawyer admitted to multiple bars including the US Supreme Court, and a Johns Hopkins instructor whose earlier career in mathematical biology produced some of the first large scale health data analysis. He joined hosts Stephen Sakach and Tullio Siragusa.

In this episode we explore:

• Why inclusivity is about belonging rather than demographics

• The difference between hiring differently and behaving differently

• Hearing without listening, and how to tell them apart

• Why admitting your own mistake is the inclusive move

• What a softball team taught him about who gets to play

• ARCAR, a five step method for an inclusive conversation

Fredric moves past the categories immediately. Inclusivity, in his framing, goes beyond race, sex, and national origin to a single test: do people feel they belong. He is equally clear that bringing in someone different is a starting point and not an endpoint, and that the real work is behavioral, which means rewarding honesty and integrity and enabling collaboration without hard judgments or blame.

His teaching example makes it concrete. Rather than lecturing, he would ask one student to describe a reading, then ask another whether they agreed, until the students were learning from each other instead of from him. He reports former students telling him decades later that it is the one course they still use.

The sharpest distinction in the conversation is between hearing and listening. Quoting the Simon and Garfunkel line about people hearing without listening, he argues that listening is only demonstrated when you feed back what you heard and ask whether you got it right. That is also the seed of his method. On vulnerability, he draws the line just as cleanly: the inclusive response is I screwed up and I forgot, and the non inclusive one is how come you did not remind me.

He closes with ARCAR, his own acronym for running a conversation inclusively: Acknowledge, Restate, Clarify, Affirm, Resolve. For any brand trying to sound like it is talking with an audience rather than at one, that sequence is a surprisingly good message test, which is the same instinct behind the way Zero Company builds copy.

Key Takeaways

• (2:38) His working definition goes past the categories: in any group “you can create a sense of belonging,” and “if people feel they belong, then you’re creating a culture of inclusivity.”

• (4:48) Hiring someone different is “really a starting point. But it isn’t the end point.” The question is how you behave with people and whether you reward honesty without blame.

• (9:18) On the difference between hearing and listening, he quotes the line that “people are hearing without listening,” then defines the test: “listening means that I give you feedback on what I heard you say.”

• (12:24) Vulnerability, made specific: the inclusive version is “I screwed up and I forgot to do it.” The non inclusive version is “how come you didn’t remind me?”

• (25:01) The softball rule, 15 players and everyone plays every game, including when the all stars had to sit. One player said he was too good to come out and was told not to come back, “because that’s not part of our culture.”

• (38:58) ARCAR is his practical method for an inclusive exchange: Acknowledge, Restate, Clarify, Affirm, Resolve.

FAQ

What does inclusivity actually mean in a workplace?
Fredric Abramson defines it as belonging. Beyond demographics, the test is whether people feel they are part of the group, are heard without harsh judgment, and are treated as collaborators rather than filed into categories.

What is the difference between hearing and listening?
Hearing is passive. Fredric Abramson argues listening is only proven when you restate what you heard and ask the other person whether you got it right, which is what opens a real discussion.

What is the ARCAR method?
ARCAR is Fredric Abramson’s five step shorthand for an inclusive conversation: Acknowledge what was said, Restate it, Clarify anything ambiguous, Affirm the contribution, and Resolve on a next step.

Inclusion is about empowering each person to feel part of something. Hear the full conversation with Fredric Abramson, watch it on the video page, read the companion essay Inclusivity, Belonging, and the Work Of Real Leadership, and find more on the Bliss Businesses series. Fredric is on LinkedIn and at goldenthreadtech.com.