Amplification

Have you heard about Amplification?

In honor of International Women's Day, I want to share this cool workplace technique. I first learned about it in an article in The Washington Post by Juliet Eilperin. The article begins:

"When President Obama took office, two-thirds of his top aides were men. Women complained of having to elbow their way into important meetings. And when they got in, their voices were sometimes ignored. So female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called 'amplification': When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to its author. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own."

I loved this idea and started to use amplification at work where I was one of only two women at board meetings. The other woman at the board started using amplification back, so we were lifting and supporting each other. It was subtle but powerful. I loved it.

So, I started doing it in other meetings, with more people. Yes, I was amplifying women, and I was also amplifying anyone else I noticed who was talked over, or interrupted, or ignored.

Then I noticed that our firm's President, who happened to be a man, had started to use amplification. If he was asking for group feedback and he liked an idea, he would repeat it and give credit. Something like “I think Rachel made a great point. Let’s do her idea to…”

Amplification spread across our culture and became part of how we shared credit and laddered great ideas.

Years later, I try to bring Amplification with me wherever I go. Case in point: Eilperin has two articles about this from the Washington Post. The original, “White House women want to be in the room where it happens” is from September 13th, 2016. Its follow-up, “How a White House women’s office strategy went viral” is from October 25th, 2016. Both are great reads.