As a note: I am qualifying “Personal” here, because “Social Awareness” has become a significant conversation in the corporate space. This blog post will talk about the social awareness that an individual has, not an organization. However, these principles do fundamentally apply to corporate social awareness.
The fundamental principle of Personal Social Awareness is very simple:
Personal Social Awareness is the accurate ability to think with another person’s or group of people’s thinking.
Social Awareness, then, is a context defined by the other person or group, not you.
With this, we might say that someone is socially aware of the Christian culture, but not of the Hindu culture. Likewise, someone who is well-versed in all religious cultures might be considered to be socially aware in the context of World Religions.
The ability to do this accurately is absolutely necessary for the constitution of someone’s awareness. This accuracy is not decided upon by the person, but rather by the person or social group by which the assessment of awareness is made.
With a definition of awareness, we may also look at the consequences and breakdowns of having this awareness or not. These breakdowns, ones of being Ignorant, Inconsiderate, and Disrespectful apply to all contexts of social awareness.
The context of these assessments will be between an individual and a “group.” In your own interpretation, substituting an individual for the “group” will maintain the accuracy of the assessment.
Ignorant: When one is not aware of the thinking a group holds. The person may not even be aware that there is a “group.”
Inconsiderate: When one is aware of the thinking that a group holds, and disregards it in their language or actions.
Disrespectful: When one is aware of the thinking that a group holds, and the negative consequences of certain actions. With this awareness, the person then knowingly acts in a way that causes the negative consequences.
The opposite of these assessments are then: Aware, Considerate, and Respectful.
If it is a concern to become aware, considerate, and respectful, what matters is that you design and implement your education and practices in a way that allows you to become aware of what social groups and standards exist, then learn to move effectively within those contexts.
Comments