Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, Jonathan Johnson - Dismantling Systems of Toxic Masculinity

Jonathan Johnson is Vice President of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, where his work sits at the intersection of advocacy and operations. His mandate covers internal culture, external community work, and the kind of organizational design choices that determine whether values are real or rhetorical.

On this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, Jonathan walks through what it actually takes to dismantle systems of toxic masculinity at work. The conversation is concrete, not theoretical. He talks about manager behavior, escalation paths, and the way silence reinforces patterns that everyone in the room can see. We have pulled the lessons together below, with patterns from across AllVoices DEI solutions for People teams.

Why Toxic Masculinity Is a System Problem, Not a Personal One

The phrase toxic masculinity gets used loosely. Jonathan is precise about the distinction. The behaviors are individual, but the patterns are systemic. The way meetings get run, who speaks, who interrupts, who gets credit, and how disagreement is named are all shaped by norms the company either reinforces or challenges.

The data on harassment is part of the picture. SHRM's BEAM framework for inclusion and diversity reframes inclusion as a performance-driven strategy, and the framework's behavioral focus matters here. The systems that allow harassment also undermine collaboration, decision speed, and retention. Dismantling them is operational work, not just ethical work.

What Manager Behavior Tells You About the System

Jonathan emphasizes managers as the highest-leverage point for change. The manager's response to a sexist joke or a dismissive interruption is the company's actual policy, regardless of what the handbook says.

What does it look like when a manager interrupts harmful patterns?

The interventions are usually small. Renaming an interruption when it happens. Crediting the original speaker when their idea gets repeated. Pulling someone aside after a meeting to coach. The cumulative effect is the team's understanding of what is acceptable.

How do you tell if a team's culture is shifting?

Through the data, not through self-report. Engagement scores by demographic, attrition trends, and case volume in HR case management software all surface the underlying patterns before any individual will. Teams where the system is working show fewer cases over time, faster resolution, and steadier engagement scores.

What Actually Works in Dismantling Harmful Norms

Principle 1: Make policies specific and enforceable

Generic anti-harassment policies are easier to write and harder to enforce. The strongest policies name behaviors, name consequences, and document escalation paths. Workplace harassment definitions need to be operational, not aspirational.

Principle 2: Train managers on the conversations they are likely to have

Compliance training is necessary but insufficient. Managers also need to practice the actual conversations: how to stop a meeting when something inappropriate is said, how to receive a concern from a direct report without minimizing it, how to coach a peer manager whose team is reporting issues. Skill is the unlock, not awareness.

Principle 3: Build escalation paths people will actually use

Most reports never make it to ER because employees do not trust the path. An anonymous reporting tool creates a documented, fair channel that people can use without fearing retaliation. The data it produces is the most accurate signal a People team can get.

Where Employee Relations Fits in Dismantling Harmful Systems

Strategy without ER infrastructure is theater. Every reported issue is a test of whether the stated values are real, and the test produces evidence that either reinforces trust or undermines it.

Centralized HR case management gives ER teams a single system of record for issues, with workflows that route cases to the right people and surface patterns by team and manager. The platform makes it possible to see whether the system is improving or only the rhetoric is.

How does case data inform manager interventions?

Two ways. Patterns by team flag where coaching is needed. Patterns by reporter flag where retaliation may be happening. The data turns systemic problems into specific interventions. Psychological safety on a team is the lagging indicator of how those interventions land.

Frequently Asked Questions About Toxic Masculinity at Work

What is toxic masculinity in the workplace?

It refers to a set of behaviors and norms that center dominance, suppression of vulnerability, and dismissal of other styles of communication. The behaviors are individual, but the norms are systemic, and the cumulative effect is a culture that is harder for many employees to thrive in.

How can HR teams address harmful workplace norms?

Through specific policies, manager skill training, escalation paths people trust, and continuous data review. Jonathan Johnson emphasizes that policy alone changes nothing. The combination of policy and behavior produces durable change.

What role do managers play in dismantling these patterns?

The biggest role. Managers either interrupt harmful patterns in real time or quietly endorse them. The People team's job is to give managers the skill, the framework, and the support to do the harder thing. Manager development is the operating lever.

How do you measure progress on culture change?

Through a combination of engagement scores, attrition by demographic, internal-mobility rates, and ER case volume and resolution times. Progress shows up in the data first, often before employees self-report it.

Why does anonymous reporting matter for harassment cases?

Because most employees facing harmful behavior never use a public path, especially when the person responsible is more senior. Anonymous channels lower the cost of speaking up, which is the precondition for any culture change to happen.

The Bottom Line for HR Leaders

Jonathan Johnson's argument is that toxic patterns are systemic and the response has to be systemic. Awareness without skill, policy without enforcement, values without escalation paths all produce the same outcome, which is no outcome.

The starting point for most People teams is to look at the systems already in place. Where do reports go. Who hears them. What happens next. The honest answers tell you whether the stated values are real and where to invest.

See how AllVoices supports DEIB leaders with case management, listening, and analytics that turn culture work into a measurable, repeatable practice.