TERRI A. DICKERSON
My breakthrough moments: I directed a voting rights study in 2001, the recommendations of which were included in the 2002 Help America Vote Act. I led a government evaluation of college enrollment
programs; our final report was cited in briefs to the Supreme Court and in its 2003 decision on admissions policies. I studied the government’s honoring of promises to Native Americans; it stimulated legislative proposals.
At other times, game-changers are less obvious but equally determinative. An example for me is the rare party to a workplace dispute who forgoes the typical “win-lose†mindset and instead seeks solutions that benefit him or her and the other side. Parties willing to give and take resolve misunderstandings, and raise productivity by enabling employees to focus away from problems and back on mission. Feds who learn this aspect of dispute management perpetuate it and improve federal workplaces by infusing others with it.
Equal employment opportunity proceedings are at times misunderstood as inherently adversarial. But they are not a weapon for managers or workers, with the aim of punishing one or the other. EEO offers parties a structured process around which to build understanding that fosters resolution.
Dickerson is director of the Coast Guard Office of Civil Rights.