9 minutes
Team conditions that keep any colleague's experience a choice, not a job Whatever a colleague's background or practice, using it well at work means neither hiding it nor being expected to perform it. A practical look at team conditions that leave that choice with the colleague.
What you’ll be able to do Describe team conditions that let a colleague choose when and how their own experience comes into the work, without the team assigning them a stage or a role. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the healthiest way for the team to support this colleague? Document a next step for Team conditions that keep any colleague's experience a choice, not a job: If a colleague on your team is often asked to explain or vouch for a community, check with them directly how they would like their perspective to be drawn on, and follow what they say rather than what would be most convenient for the team. Sustaining this well When a colleague's experience is genuinely valuable to a team, there is a real risk of quietly treating it as a permanent resource rather than a part of their own life that they get to decide how to use. Supporting a colleague well includes the ordinary right to set that experience aside on a given day and simply do the job in front of them, without being expected to represent, explain, or translate anything. None of this depends on knowing where the colleague is on this continuum, and the team should not try to work that out.
For a team, supporting this well means checking directly with the colleague about what role, if any, they want their experience to play at work, and revisiting that as circumstances or new teammates change, rather than assuming past willingness is a standing invitation.
What healthy support looks like Asking the colleague directly, rather than assuming, what role they want their experience to play.
Respecting a colleague's choice to set it aside on a given day without needing an explanation.
Passing along preferences to new team members instead of leaving them to guess or over-ask.
Valuing what a colleague chooses to share as a genuine gift, not an entitlement of the team.
Practices that keep this healthy Ask, then revisit
A colleague's preference about sharing their experience can change over time or by context; check in again rather than assuming a past answer still holds.
Pass preferences along
Brief a new team member on what a colleague has already said, rather than letting them independently rediscover the same boundary through trial and error.
Protect the right to set it aside
A colleague should be able to simply do their job on a given day without being expected to represent anything.
Treat sharing as a gift, not a resource
What a colleague chooses to offer is valuable precisely because it is offered, not extracted.
Check directly, and let the answer stand What you can change You control whether your team asks a colleague directly about their preferences, or simply assumes based on past willingness.
What to watch for Do not treat one instance of a colleague sharing their experience as ongoing permission to ask whenever it is convenient for the team.
Your next step If this applies on your team, ask the colleague directly this week how they would like their experience to be drawn on, and share that preference with the rest of the team.
Carry this forward A colleague benefits from choosing when and how to draw on their own experience, rather than having it treated as an always-available resource.
That choice includes the colleague's ordinary right to set it aside on a given day and simply do their job without representing anything.
Teams support this well by valuing what a colleague chooses to share, without either ignoring it or demanding it, and without reading a stage off it.
The healthiest outcome is a colleague whose experience is respected as their own, not conscripted into the team's convenience.
A scenario decision about supporting a colleague in a sustainable way, and a knowledge check on what healthy team conditions look like.
If a colleague on your team is often asked to explain or vouch for a community, check with them directly how they would like their perspective to be drawn on, and follow what they say rather than what would be most convenient for the team.
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Previous lesson Back to course Carry this into practice Integration is the far end of the continuum — more than one cultural frame has become part of how a person sees, so that moving between frames is no longer only a deliberate skill but part of their own identity.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
