Archive for the ‘Multicultural’ Category

The Purple Elephant in Our Country

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

By Dr. Renae Sanders

The election has come and gone.  And thankfully so, on one hand, the airwaves are now free of the barrage of the negative political ads that bombarded the airwaves, especially, in the swing states where the ads had become a minute by minute occurrence. On the other hand, for some reality that their candidate had not won would come another day. The tragedy is that we do not have rules or regulations around political advertising when we are asked to make informed decisions about whom we should vote; but that is a separate article.

Today, let’s focus on the proverbial Purple Elephant in our country. The silent, yet ever-present and dangerous animal, that under writes our beliefs, attitudes, and actions.  Yes, its race. And it continues to fester below the surface of our great country. This is bigger than an apology. It’s bigger than reparations. It’s about our collective courage to face, own, and acknowledge that race is as much a part of our current cultural landscape as the air we breathe.

Emotional intelligence experts tell us that we must first be aware of our own emotions and what they are if we are to self-regulate our attitudes and thereby our actions.   Very simply, this means its o.k. to feel what you feel, but it’s unacceptable to act any way you want to act in response to those feelings; especially, if they are negative emotions.  Of course, this holds true for any negative response to emotions; but today – we talk race. Secondly, our emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) is higher if we then have an understanding of how emotion may affect those with whom we interact and how to leverage our awareness of emotions in our dealings – personally, professionally, or politically.

A rising tide floats all boats. Well, all decently constructed ones.  But you get the point. Therefore, the notion that the strength of America’s growing minority population will somehow erode the wealth and stature of America’s wealthiest is less than rational. Believing that in a global environment self-imposed segregation is beneficial and will help our kids cope with the rapid changes occurring in our country or their ability to compete is a response to beliefs of loss. Providing a superior education to the economically advantaged and then blame the poor for not doing more to take care of themselves is less than rational as well. The answers to curing the ills of our society lie in our collective engagement toward solving problems, self-awareness, emotional and social intelligence.

This election, and the last, exposed to many what they have feared with the growing demographic changes – that the democratic process would change the course of history. Surely, the British felt the same way, which is why the American Revolution occurred. In order for us to become a more perfect union, we must change as our country changes and we must respect what we have always seen in the defining moments in our history, “the minority will be heard, but the majority shall rule”.   This festering of unchallenged ideology has the potential to harm communities and create underperforming businesses, as morale, trust, teamwork, and knowledge sharing are compromised.

Author David Walsh wrote in his book, “Conversations with God”, that at our actions and decisions are based on the two primal emotions, love and fear. If we drilled down to the source of our behaviors, we are either acting out of love or on fear. War, segregation, political spin, bullying, analysis paralysis, and the inability to reconcile our sorted history are all based on fear.

It’s appropriate to quote, now, the lyrics from one of Dianna Ross’ megahits, “what the world needs now, is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of…”

Dr. Renae Sanders is the Managing Director at KRS Consulting, LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational development and relationships. Believing people are the link between strategy and success, Dr. Sanders works with organizations, leaders, and managers to strengthen internal practices and relationships. Email info@krsconsult.com to book an engagement or meeting with Dr. Sanders.

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What Stands in the Way of Inclusion?

Sunday, February 6th, 2011

by Renae Sanders

Over that last three years, thanks to the political environment (in part), we have heard and discussed more issues related to diversity and inclusion. More news reports, documentaries, and television shows seek to show us different aspects of our society’s struggle with social justice issues, cultural relations, generations, sexual orientation, religion, immigration, and what it means to be a part of a global community.

What stands in the way of our progress toward inclusion? Are we a tolerant people?

I am certain those who seek inclusion would want the “perceived exclusionists” to do more than merely tolerate their presence at work, in schools, on playgrounds, as neighbors, as patrons, or as fellow human beings.  Author, Iyanla Vanzant once stated, “We all just want to heard, valued, respected.” Surely, tolerance is not the answer!

In my experience, dominant group members believe change comes too fast and are frustrated by calls for even more change; conversely, subordinated groups continue to experience change as too slow. What informs our beliefs about this movement is our perception of the level of change. Its undeniable, things have and continue to change. But until we fully realize just how interdependent we all are, we will continue to struggle with inclusion. We still have a long way to go and yet, ‘we are the change we seek’.  The work of inclusion starts with each one of us.

By focusing only on our diversity, especially the visual facets, we often fail to see our just how much we have in common with each other. According to Novations Group, Inc., diversity is any dimension that can be used to differentiate groups and people from one another. Inclusion is when we feel a sense of belonging or connectedness and feeling valued for who we are as individuals or as members of a group.

The work of inclusion is like the layers of an onion, once you have one breakthrough; you realize there is more interpersonal work to do.

Related reading

Johnson, K.R. (1999). How did you get to be Mexican? A white/brown man’s search for identity. The Diversity Factor, 7(2), p. 22-27.

Miller, F. A. and Katz, J. H. (2002). The Inclusion Breakthrough: Unleashing the Real Power of Diversity. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Recommended sites

DivesityInc.com

Renae Sanders is the Managing Director at KRS Consulting, LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational relationships. Believing people are the link between strategy and success, Renae works with organizations, leaders, and managers to strengthen internal relationships. You can reach her at info@krsconsult.com.

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Holding Company Growth Hostage – The Role of Stereotypes

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

By Renae Sanders

Stereotypes are the generalized beliefs we hold about the world around us. We hold stereotypes about situations, people, places and things. We are often blind to our views or unaware that do not treat people of other cultures or backgrounds with respect or that we judge others’ value based on media portrayals of beauty, education, intelligence, and ability. We also hold stereotypes about ourselves based on what we are told by others; we judge ourselves to be good or bad, worthy or unworthy, righteous or sinful, all knowing or clueless.

Stereotypical beliefs drive positive (or menacing) affects on businesses. For example, if we hold that the product is great and has value we execute strategy related to the product more passionately than if we did hold a positive perception. If you believe your staff or key members of the team are inept, we treat them accordingly; which leads to lower performance over time.  If we believe entire populations of consumers are poor, under-educated, illegal, or unable to understand English, our marketing and sales efforts to those populations and how we treat employees from those groups will not yield positive results or you may miss a vastly important opportunity to grow. In fact, it is conceivable to say we create an environment of self-fulfilling prophecy when act based on stereotypes.

Beliefs > Attitude / Behaviors > Outcomes

To position the business for success, leaders should find ways to challenge their beliefs. Researchers use triangulation to validate assumptions. Triangulation requires three different sources of information. If you rely on a single source for information (such as friends, parents or television), you might consider reading white papers or research papers on the subject and speak with experts for and against your ideas.  When it comes to dispelling beliefs about people, get to know them as individuals. We often see people of color and other differences as groups; we don’t allow them to be individuals. It’s common for people of color to be asked about the “collective” views of their entire group. Ask yourself, “Why do I feel/think this way? Is there information that supports a different view?”  Another approach is to learn about the contributions all groups have made to our society. As long as we hold one view of history, we remain unaware of a more accurate portrayal of cultural groups as contributing members of society.

Learning to challenge long held beliefs prepares us to make better strategic decisions about the business and challenges our views about the people who work for us and markets we serve. The motto at the University of South Carolina reads, “Emollit mores nec sinit ese feros”, when translated suggests, learning humanizes men and permits them not to be cruel.

Don’t allow stereotypes to stifle your growth or the growth of your business.

Related articles

Workplace Stereotyping: A Silent Productivity Destroyer

Renae Sanders is the Managing Director at KRS Consulting, LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational relationships. Believing people are the link between strategy and success, Renae works with organizations, leaders, and managers to strengthen internal relationships. You can reach her at renae@krsconsult.com.

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Diversity from the Inside Out

Monday, April 26th, 2010

By Renae Sanders

As the world grows smaller, the opportunity to conduct business with or through culturally diverse individuals increases significantly. The days of homogeneous organizations are dwindling among large organizations, but homogeneity is remains common among small businesses. Organizational makeup with standing, the greatest opportunity to succeed in business is the ability to penetrate diverse markets.

According to the US Census, 52% of the U.S. population will be people of color by 2050, with the Latino population representing 25% of the population. DiversityInc (2007) reported foreign born workers accounted for nearly 100% of the workforce growth between 1990-2005. Layer on generational differences, growth of the women’s workforce, increased cultural and ethnic diversity and organization leaders will find themselves facing, for many, an eye opening demographic shift.

Business leaders are increasingly seeing the benefits of entering specific markets represented by businesses and professionals of diverse cultural backgrounds and ethnic origins. Companies that fail to learn about such markets or who resist the need to hire and retain a diverse workforce miss the extraordinary benefits of doing so.

Organizations skilled at harvesting the knowledge and perspectives of diverse groups (i.e. diverse cultures, religions, age, views and experiences) make better choices than those who are stuck in their homogeneous views; who respond predictably to problems. For instance, PepsiCo Inc.’s Hispanic employees were instrumental in helping the company develop the guacamole chip, which sold $100M of the new chips it first year. It also used their diverse employee base to provide insight into the successful launch of Code Red which sold 100 million cases and grew the Mountain Dew brand by 6% (Standford GSB News, 2004). While the size and scale of these examples are huge, the importance of being open to diversity and inclusion should not be lost on small businesses. Diversity and inclusion can help drive innovation, problem solving, employee retention and open doors to new markets. But don’t be confused. Hiring people of color as a silver bullet for entering new markets is a mistake. If employees of any age, gender, cultural origin, or religion do not feel valued or respected for the skills they bring to the organization the benefits of your efforts to grow or change will be difficult.

I come back to this perspective about diversity, “The power and beauty of diversity is everywhere. The challenge with diversity lies within each of us”.

Sources

DiversityInc. (2007). Facts and figures. Impact of immigrants.

Stanford Graduate School of Business. (2004). A more diverse workforce is good for business at Pepisco. Retrieved April 23, 2010 from http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/vftt_reinemund.shtml

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Retrieved April 21, 2010 for http://www.census.gov

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Speaking of English: The Effects of Accents and Dialect in the World of Business

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

By Renae Sanders

As the diversity of our society continues to increase so will multi-cultural business opportunities. Communica­tion across culture will be a critical competency for all parties. However, we still have much to learn about overcoming the multi-cultural communication barrier.

In many cultures, especially those with multiple dialects or even multiple languages spoken in a given region, English is the stan­dard language of business. In the U.S., however, not only is Eng­lish considered the standard, it is often seen as rude for bi-lingual or multi-lingual speakers to speak in their native languages in the presence of mono-linguists. One of the challenges  in cross cultural conversation is the meaning placed on the differences.

In the U.S., whether it’s a language barrier or a regional accent, how you sound signals perceptions of credibility, intelligence, and lifestyle. If your English is difficult to understand or you have a strong regional dialect it can affect the impression you make on others regardless of your Ivy League education, designer suit, or super, savvy portfolio. What you say and how you say it is as im­portant to your success as the experience you bring to the table.

The important thing to remember, irrespective of our beliefs, we cannot assess intelligence based on how someone sounds. Like a runner builds endurance to run a marathon, so can the basic skills of articulation be learned and mastered. Have you ever wondered how a British or Australian actor sounds “American” in movies? It’s training.

Learning how to balance sound so has not to elongate vowels (as we do in the South); over accentuate consonants (a common practice of North­erners); or learning the difference in how sounds are created between your primary language and English will go a long way toward improving inter-cultural and cross-cultural communication glitches.

Here are a few things to focus on to communicate your message clearly and confidently: Relax, inhale and speak on the exhale, not after the exhale. Emphasize key words, such as the company name and your name (first and last). Use inflection to create interest and a lower pitch to create confidence and authority. Communication is like a dance, the first person to speak controls the pace and feel of the dance.

Originally printed in October 2009 issue of Working Charlotte Magazine.

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Demographic Diversity Leading – Cultural Awareness Lagging!

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

The demographic shifts expected over the next 30 years in the U.S. are staggering. The U.S. will continue to be one of the most popular destinations for foreigners who want a better life for themselves and family members. This speaks to the great appeal our nation has across the globe and this is something of which we should be proud.

Regardless of our ancestry, with the exception of Mexicans and Indian Americans, we are all immigrants (forced or voluntary). Yet, our understanding of other cultures is woefully low.  

I teach cultural diversity at a large college in the U.S. and while I cannot divulge comments or statements made by my students what I can say is the stereotypes and biases we hold about ourselves and others are stifling our ability to compete globally and domestically; and the lack of fact-based education about other cultures that have contributed to the “fabric of our lives” leave individuals to make uninformed judgments about themselves, their neighbors, co-workers, business partners and clients. There is one thing I know for certain, the beauty of diversity is all around us but our challenges with diversity lie within us.

Here are a few cultural myths which need attention:
1. Native / Indian Americans were the only group displaced by early Settlers. This is false. Mexicans were resident in North America and populated territories now called Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

2. Arabs and Muslims are the same. Totally false! Muslims are individuals who practice Islam, a religion; just as Christians practice Christianity and Buddhists practice Buddhism. A Muslim can be of any nationality including American. Arabs are a cultural group who may practice any religion including Christianity and Islam.

3. Hispanics are all from Mexico. Ah, false. Hispanic is a U.S. term created to describe all Spanish speaking groups in the U.S. whether they originated in Mexico, Latin America or Spain. However, there are vast cultural differences between Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Brazilians, Colombians, and Spaniards. Most of my students do not know Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.

4. All black people in the U.S. are descendents of slaves. Way false! In America today, there are Americans who were born here and who are black and of African descent, with ties to slavery; and there are African immigrants who are U.S. citizens who have no ties to the slave experience in the U.S. There are also Jamaicans, Haitians, Antiguans and others who are black but whose nationalities are not African.

5. Most blacks and Hispanics are poor, do not graduate from high school, and commit crimes. Again, this is false. According to U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 report on Race and Poverty, the percentage of poor is disproportionately high relative to their size among African Americans and Hispanics but there are more African Americans and Hispanics who live above the poverty line than below it. The same is true for education and crime; there are more high school graduates and good citizens who are African American and Hispanic than African Americans and Hispanics who do not graduate from high school or who commit crimes.

I hope this post will challenge you to assess your own stereotypes, biases, and knowledge about other cultural groups and inspire you to question the passionate and often uninformed comments you hear in the workplace and at home.

Related Articles

Teaching Black History: Thanks Mom

Why Open Immigration is Good for America

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