A diversity, inclusion and belonging "ally" is someone who is willing to take action in support of another person, in order to remove barriers that impede that person from contributing their skills and talents in the workplace or community.
Being an ally is a verb, this means that you proactively and purposefully take action and is not something forced upon you.
It is not required to be an ally to work at GitLab. At GitLab it is required to be inclusive.
Being an ally goes a step beyond being inclusive to taking action to support marginalized groups. The first step in being an ally is self-educating.
This ally lab will provide you with some of the tools, resources and learning activities to help you grow as an ally.
To be an effective ally it is important to understand some of the skills and behaviours great allies exhibit.
Empathy & Emotional Intelligence
See our Ally Resources Page for more resources on being an ally.
What to say, when you don’t know what to say:
Boot and Sandal Methophor
Imagine you are wearing a heavy boot (represents privilege) and you are stepping on someone’s foot that is only wearing sandals (represents oppression). If someone says, “Ouch, you are stepping on my toes!” How do you react?
Problems with common responses to mistakes become obvious:
Instead, you would respond with the following:
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Recruiting & Hiring
Guidance & Support
Difficult Conversations
Growth & Career Development
TBC
The Ally Lab Learning Group is an initiative to learn to become or be a better ally within a collaborative group of peers who are seeking the same aim of allyship growth. All team members have the ability to be an ally whether you are a part of an underrepresented group (URG) or not, there are URGs that may not belong to and you have the ability to be an ally to them. There will be regular intakes of team members into groups.
The next intake: You can sign up here
To sign up: TBC
The Group:
What you will need:
What you will do:
Create 2-5 values that, as a group, you will hold in your continuous learning in allyship and take into account when situations arise.
Once completed you now have a safe group to discuss allyship with, either to get advice, hold yourself accountable to or run through a situation. Things you can do post the 4 week ALLG:
We held a 50 minute Live Learning Ally Training on 2020-01-28. The recording follows along with the slide deck and agenda.
Anyone can become certified in GitLab Ally Training. To obtain certification, you will need to complete this Being an Ally knowledge assessment and earn at least an 80%. Once the quiz has been passed, you will receive an email with your certification that you can share on your personal LinkedIn or Twitter pages. If you have questions, please reach out to our L&D team at learning@gitlab.com
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There are some essential skills that are required to be an ally, here are a number of trainings that will help you enhance your allyship skills. Some of these are not allyship specific but will sharpen your skills in those important areas.
Equality Ally Strategies Champion Workplace Equality Effective Listening How to engage meaningfully in Allyship Becoming a true ally Building Trust Why trust matters
Allies familiarize themselves with GitLab's general DIB content
Here are additional resources on being an ally