When Practices are Cloaked, Use The Rooftop Rule

I have long recommended a Rooftop Rule to my clients: If you can't shout a policy or practice from the rooftops, you shouldn't be doing it. Don't have wink-wink, nudge-nudge, policies or practices that cloak the truth.

That said, over the past several months I have been studying practices related to equal opportunity in large organizations and have found many examples of cloaking. These are not inadvertent. They are designed to be deceptive. I'm conducting this review for an organization and cannot cite the examples now, but I recommend looking beneath the surface at the various policies in your own organization - equity policies are especially prone to this - and ask, "What does this really mean? What types of actions does this produce? Is this in accordance with the law?" 

And, of course, "Would we feel comfortable shouting a description of our findings from the rooftops?"

[Photo by Tommy at Unsplash]