Are White People Albinos?: A Provocative Video

On September 13, 2008, In Race Relations, cultural diversity, By admin

A friend of mine called me today about his son’s soccer team being called “Albinos” by a rival team. My pal didn’t know what the word meant, but knew it had something to do with being white. Frankly, he was the first to inform me about it. When I found out that the opposing team was primarily children of color, my first comment was that his son is experiencing the shift to children of color outnumbering white Americans in California public schools. At the same time, I was surfing the internet to find out more. That is when I came across this very provocative video.

Two white males explore what they believe is the origins of the white race and the term albino is used repeatedly. I am against the use of any derogatory words about racial and cultural groups. My studies lead me to believe that they are divisive and maintain the perception of racial hierarchies. This is also true when African Americans use the word nigger to label each other.

This provocative piece is so interesting I am still trying to get my head around it which will require more research and discussion. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Navigating the Landmines of Diversity Leadership—Part 3

On September 8, 2008, In Consulting & Training, Diversity Initiative, cultural diversity, By admin

Diversity professionals must navigate the rugged terrain of uneven support, hostility, and apathy. Doing their job well takes political savvy that some people are born with, but most of us must find a way to learn it. The human resource officer and organizational development professional typically enjoy comparably little resistance in their work because it is perceived as less political. But, where would diversity professionals have learned the skills needed to manage social politics? Most of them do not have a degree in diversity leadership, cultural competence, or organizational development. Most have learned how to succeed in the diversity business from the School of Hard Knocks. A few can get by with this trial by error approach, but most will struggle along unless they take continuous education seriously.

In installment two, I pointed out that you can take the political issues concerning a diversity initiative by linking it to the organization’s purpose and return-on-investment. I emphasized the point that even the most politically savvy diversity professionals succumb to the pressures of nonsupporting leadership and limited authority when it comes to the diversity initiative.

This third article in the series continues the discussion about the top ten things diversity leaders need to know to navigate diversity politics. The full list includes the following:

1. Become a cultural diversity leadership expert and actively pursue continuous learning
2. Be clear about your own diversity lenses
3. Take the sting out of the diversity program in your business case
4. Be clear about the diversity and inclusion ROI
5. Have a really clear plan based on the big picture of the organization
6. Get the leadership on the front lines of promoting diversity and inclusion
7. Become part of a diversity professional network
8. Establish allies within your organization
9. Align the steering committee
10. Request the authority needed to do your work effectively
11. Neutralize diversity trouble makers
12. Hold managers accountable
13. Work with unit managers individually
14. Avoid personalizing criticism of the diversity program
15. Pat yourself on the back

The entire summary of the is too lengthy for a single article. I covered the first six items in the first two installments, which can be viewed by following this link. In this installment, I cover diversity politics items 7-9 which are shown above in red font.

Become Part of a Cultural Diversity Professional Network

Too many cultural diversity professionals are isolated. They may be the only in-house expert or consultant on the job. I learned from my mentor, Judith Katz, Ed.D., that we should always find a way to work in partnership with at least one other professional. Our work is too tough and we are under too much scrutiny to work in isolation. Even when you have a staff, this does not always translate into a support system. I know diversity professionals who have acquired their staff by default. One Chinese American human resource officer in a large accounting firm announced that she was ready to quit her job when her boss offered the diversity professional position in order to retain her. She did not have a clue about what the position required. A related point is that the most qualified person for a new diversity resource role is seldom based on cultural competence. How long you have been with the organization typically trumps diversity expertise. Yes, the person knows the organization’s culture, but that does not directly translate into being able to manage social politics.

The in-house diversity expert may be someone who has been hired from the outside as the “new” diversity officer. No matter how much homework you do in making a decision about whether or not to take such a job, inevitably you will find that the place is not as inclusive as you were led to believe. I often hear clients say that while the leader said all the right things to appear sincere about her or his diversity commitment during the job interview, it was absent in everyday reality on the job. In fact, most new hires for a new diversity position feel isolated, lonely, and poorly understood.

A common story I hear from diversity officers is that the first staff member they acquire is someone who is “appointed” by their supervisor. The supervisor protects an employee who has lost her or his position by requesting that the diversity officer accepts the individual. All too often the “new” hire brings with him or her very limited cultural competence and many of the deficits that led to dismissal.

One of the best ways to deal with isolation is to hire a diversity coach. This is someone who is an established expert. The individual basically champions the diversity professional, assist in problem solving, and keep the diversity professional motivated. Most diversity professionals find solace in attending professional conferences. I have personally attended the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) for more than ten years. I am also fortunate enough that they request me to offer a workshop or presentation each year. I have grown fond of professional relationships I have established over the years of attendance—especially exchanging stories. This is one of the conferences that offer me opportunities to refresh my commitment to the profession.

Conferences and seminars are great, but they are for limited time periods. I also recommend an online community for diversity professionals. I conducted a Google search to look for a diversity professional organization I use to belong to, but it appears to be out of existence. The only one I came across was The Diversity Trainer and Professional Network, which DTUI.com sponsors. Click Here to check it out.

Establish Allies Within Your Organization

Allies are people who support your organization’s diversity initiative and you. They can assist you in concrete ways even if they choose to forgo being active members of your diversity steering committee. This is especially important for the diversity professional who has been hired from the outside because these diversity champions know the organization’s culture.

1. Make a list of people in the organization that would support the diversity initiative and recruit them as allies.

2. Set a goal to recruit a specific number of new allies. Then tell them that you need their support and be clear about what you are asking of each individual. For example, wouldn’t a member of the leadership team be a value asset in making certain that the diversity initiative is consistently part of the agenda? Will a long-standing diversity champion go to lunch with you on occasion so that you can use her or his knowledge of the organization in strategy development? How can you partner with the human resource officer to make the diversity initiative part of the solution to a range of HR processes? These are the questions you ask in determining who would be a good ally and how he or she may be supportive.

Branch out and stretch a bit. Most of your potential allies will be obvious to you. But perhaps you have not considered the compliance department or the finance office. The compliance department has a lot of data, for example. They can help you make your case for the strategy you want to sell to the leadership.—especially in terms of talent management and succession planning. The finance department has a clear view about budgetary matters. Learning about how they view organizational processes from a budgetary perspective can provide insight into how to make the best case for your budget.

Align Your Steering Committee

You may have heard me talk about this in the past. Few things bog down a diversity initiative more than diversity steering committee members having different assumptions about why their work is important. If one member, for example, believes that diversity means people look different on the outside, but everyone must buy into the organization’s existing culture while another member believes the culture must change to accommodate different identity groups, you have a potential lack of alignment. Lack of alignment is not due to their differences, but to the potential for conflict. The savvy diversity professional will have the competence needed to harness differences among committee member assumptions in the service of designing and developing the best diversity initiative.

Alignment work involves taking the time needed to learn about different assumptions among team members and understanding the possible consequences for group decision making. Again, the goal is not to get everyone to agree on the same set of assumptions. That is a recipe for disaster. Instead, the focus is on using the differences among team members as microcosm for the larger organization. Working towards becoming a model of cross cultural team work will serve the organization as a whole.

Summary

The cultural diversity professional role is too often political and controversial. Add the limited resources and lack of leadership support and you have a role that requires a considerable amount of endurance and savvy to succeed in the work. Membership in an online diversity professional network and conference attendance provide support groups to manage isolation and feeling undervalued. Establishing allies within your organization can also be a source of support, especially when mentoring is involved. You may also consider a diversity coach who will champion you and provide support during the trying periods. While a diversity steering committee may offer some support, it can be a source of stress as well. It is best to align the committee in order to get the most out of it. Otherwise, you will spend a considerable amount of time trying to get the members to agree on goals and objectives. Even if members go along with the proposed goals and objectives, alignment work will make certain that they are on board instead of quietly waiting for opportunities to resist the program’s implementation.

It is not easy being a cultural diversity professional. The tools we provide in this set of lessons can make work life less challenging. I will discuss gaining the authority needed to do your work effectively, neutralizing diversity trouble makers, and holding managers accountable in Part 4 of this lesson.

Navigating the Landmines of Diversity Leadership—PART 2

On August 21, 2008, In Consulting & Training, By admin

In the first installment of this series, I stated that diversity professionals must navigate the rugged terrain of uneven support, hostility, and apathy. Doing their job well takes political savvy that some are born with. In contrast, organizational development and effectiveness skills must be learned. But, where would diversity professionals have learned these skills? Most of them do not have a degree in diversity leadership, cultural competence, or organizational development. They have learned how to generally succeed in the diversity business from the School of Hard Knocks. A few can get by with this trial by error approach, but most continue to struggle especially in the area of diversity politics.

While a considerable number of diversity professionals can competently navigate organizational politics, even the best succumb to the pressures of an nonsupporting leadership and limited authority when it comes to the diversity initiative.

This second article in the series continues the discussion about the top ten things diversity leaders need to know to navigate diversity politics. The full list includes the following:

The entire summary of the list of items is too lengthy for a single article. I covered the first three items in the first installment, which can be viewed by following this link. In this installment, I cover diversity politics items 4-6, which are shown above in red font.

Be clear about the diversity and inclusion ROI

Until recently cultural diversity initiative funding was primarily targeted for compliance protection training. Anti-harassment, civil rights, and cultural diversity awareness training received most of the resources. Today, managers want to make certain that they are getting a sufficient return on their diversity initiative investment (ROI). They expect better talent selection, increased productivity, a reduction in insensitivity complaints, and improved employee retention for the resources they allocate. These are basic cultural diversity talent management expectations.

Measurement of diversity initiative ROI starts with defining the diversity initiative business case, determining how much the initiative will cost, and verifying the amount of return.

Questions you will address in making your case are:

Why is the diversity initiative important?
What are the goals and objectives?
What is the amount of investment needed for a successful initiative?
How is the return on investment measured?

Start with making a case for the initiative

One of the most impactful cases for a diversity initiative based on my experience is made with results from our diversity scorecard analysis. In one case, our client’s diversity committee struggled with getting on the same page about why their initiative was important. One group felt that the company had an obligation to society to promote a diverse organization. Another group emphasized the fact that the metropolitan area’s demographics were changing with the increased numbers of people of Mexican descent. The need to remain a competitive and innovative bank was a third rationale offered by another group of committee members. Different committee members were voicing different opinions about the group’s work to colleagues and managers as a result their different views about why the initiative was important.

We used the diversity scorecard method to create links along four levels of analysis: the bank’s bottom line (top of chart), its mission and vision, the operations needed to produce results, and the cultural competence needed to be productive (bottom of chart). Participants were asked a series of questions and the responses were characterized by arrows pointing between the four scorecard levels on the scorecard chart.

The set of arrows across the scorecard levels indicate that the bank’s ability to increase revenue is directly linked to its excellent customer service vision and mission, and that demographic changes require new skills in order to fill the mission and impact the bottom line. While other diversity initiative goals expressed by the diversity committee were appreciated and maintained in the overall business case, the culturally competent customer service delivery piece took center stage.

Diversity Initiative Goals

Once the culturally competent customer service cultural competence goal was established, the need to provide training became the focus. Obviously, if the bank wants to determine the ROI for training, the allocated resources, especially hidden expenses, must be accounted for. The assessment data from our example indicated that customers of color find the bank tellers so difficult to talk to that they avoid using the services to the extent possible. One young Latina said that “I have to go to the bank often. The tellers act as though I am a burden to them. They are unfriendly and talk to me as though I am not able to speak and understand English. I was born and raised in the United States.” The woman tries to avoid using the services. She is considering moving her money to another bank.

The bank tellers, on the other hand, say that they know it is important to provide each customer with excellent service, but find those with limited English difficult to serve. Their stereotypes about Spanish-speaking people being in the country illegally and not putting enough effort into learning English make it difficult to serve these customers equitably. Training is the key to making the customers feel included and the tellers feel more competent.

Measuring the ROI

The amount of investment in the diversity initiative is determined by the goals and time line. Our bank client wanted to have a competitive edge over other local banks in reaching out to Spanish-speaking members of the community. They invested in the initiative as though it was extension of their advertisement. They saw the investment as an imperative.

The most important factor in measuring the return-on-investment for training is the diversity initiative goal. Measuring the amount of new accounts generated by the tellers before and after the training, for example, and then comparing the increase revenue with the cost of the training is the typical way to measure the ROI. Different components of the diversity initiative can be measured in a similar way. The diversity officer’s salary, support staff, and employee time away from the desk for training are other factors considered in ROI analysis.

Summary

Take the political game out of diversity initiative by linking it to the organization’s purpose. Instead of getting caught in the trap of uneven commitment and negative stereotypes about cultural diversity programs, get your audience to focus on the bottom line. The rationale for implementing a cultural diversity initiative should be to improve the organization’s bottom line. A non-profit organization’s bottom line may be to improve customer service, while a for-profit organization may focus on increasing shareholders’ value. Help your audience make the connection with a diversity scorecard analysis.

The investment in an initiative consists of the cost of designing, developing, implementing, and sustaining it. By measuring the effect on the organization’s bottom line before and after implementing different parts of the initiative, and then comparing with the costs, diversity professionals can determine the return-on-investment.

The next installment of this article about Navigating the Landmines of Diversity Leadership will focus on (a) the benefits of belonging to a diversity professional network, (b) establish allies within your organization, and (c) align the steering committee.

By Billy Vaughn, PhD–If you like this article you will love this one (Click Here).

Navigating the Landmines of Diversity Leadership

On July 28, 2008, In Diversity Initiative, Talent Management, By admin

In-house diversity professionals often ask me about how to address resistance to their diversity and inclusion program. These professionals describe managers who give a nod to the diversity program in leadership meetings, while making excuses for not being more actively involved in addressing the issues in their units. Others enthusiastically offer their opinions and suggestions on other topics, but disengage when the diversity goals are covered. A couple of the managers seem to be openly hostile towards the diversity program based on the reasons they give for not supporting it and the aggressive tone of their statements about it. Many managers may not openly show support negative statements about the diversity program, but you can see their faces light up while that “brave” individual speaks her or his mind.

Ironically, very few diversity professionals seeking my opinion voluntarily talk about the managers who support the diversity initiative until I bring it up. Diversity professionals appreciate the white male manager who sticks his neck out in support of the diversity initiative, especially when it is needed. However, these brave individuals tend to be under the radar when diversity professionals talk about diversity work. The devilish forces in the organization that are consumed with undermining the diversity program and its champions tend to consume many diversity professionals to the point of losing objectivity. That is one impact of the work on them.

The point is that diversity professionals must navigate the rugged terrain of uneven support, hostility, and apathy. A diversity professional of color or a woman must be concerned about appearing neutral, yet sensitive to the needs of people of color and women who look to them to make their lives in the organization better. It really takes skill to walk this tightrope. But, where would diversity professionals have learned it? Most of them do not have a degree in diversity leadership, cultural competence, or organizational development. They have learned how to succeed in the diversity business from the School of Hard Knocks. A few can get by with this trial by error training, but most continue to struggle at least in the areas of politics.

One diversity professional I have worked with closely for years continue to have a difficult time raising the bar of expectation with respect to her organization’s diversity program. She is so sensitive to the leadership’s own limitations with respect to openness to cultural diversity that she colludes in their undermining the program to a considerable extent. I probably would be as cautious if I were in her shoes? The only difference is that I have much more experience in navigating cultural politics and strategies to deal with them. She has to worry about not moving things too quickly to avoid making her supervisor too uneasy and getting the expected results. It is a difficult predicament that leaves diversity professionals feeling drained, ineffective, and isolated. Too often their experiences lead to illness and depression.

People need to feel successful. The diversity professional needs to feel that he or she is making a difference and that the organization’s leadership is supportive and willing to provide the authority needed to do the job as best as possible. While a considerable number of diversity professionals are great at navigating organizational politics, even the best can succumb to the pressures of an unsupportive leadership and limited authority.

This article is written to give you some insights into how to navigate the treacherous diversity leadership terrain. Here are the top ten things to try to impart to diversity leaders in my executive coaching work and certification training:

1.     Become a cultural diversity leadership expert and actively pursue continuous learning
2.     Be clear about your own diversity lenses
3.     Take the sting out of the diversity program in your business case
4.     Be clear about the diversity and inclusion ROI
5.     Have a really clear plan based on the big picture of the organization
6.     Get the leadership on the front lines of promoting diversity and inclusion
7.     Become part of a diversity professional network
8.     Establish allies within your organization
9.     Align the steering committee
10. Request the authority needed to do your work effectively
11. Neutralize diversity trouble makers
12. Hold managers accountable
13. Work with unit managers individually
14. Avoid personalizing criticism of the diversity program
15. Pat yourself on the back

The entire summary of the list of items is too lengthy for a single blog, so I will cover three items in five over the next five blog publications.

Become an expert who is actively involved in continuous learning
The most dangerous diversity professional is one who does not know what she or he doesn’t know. There isn’t a lot of room for error in the diversity business. One mistake and you will be treated like a Don Imus. A common negative evaluation of diversity professionals I hear is that they are unaware of personal biases towards white males. I have also noticed that many diversity professionals tend to treat negative evaluations that express this view suspiciously.

They rationalize the comment away by assuming that the participants’ own prejudices and resistance lead them to view the training negatively. Another rationalization is that the participants will “get it” some point in time after the training has ended because they are still processing what they have learned. The problem is that there is no point at which the participants are re-evaluated after then training to support this claim. I try to get diversity professionals to understand that each evaluation offers insight into what they need to learn to make participants’ experiences both interesting and rewarding. They can get great evaluations and push the participants towards higher levels of thinking about cultural diversity. It takes skill and continuous learning.

Developing your expertise will make you more credible, insightful, and valuable to your organization. You don’t need a doctorate. A great toolkit, a wealth of strategic skills, leadership ability, and mediation skills will safeguard you against the toxic aspects of the work. Complete a diversity professional certification course that offers you the practical tools you need to do the work. Avoid the out-dated programs that continue to focus on the basics as though organizations have not grown since the civil rights movement. You need contemporary strategies and sophisticated people skills that will get even the most resistant manager on the diversity bandwagon, or at least neutralize her or his impact on your efforts.

I have met a considerable number of professionals in my training experiences who say that they are always open to learning new things, but remain entrenched in their views about cultural diversity. There is a “yes, but . . . “ response to any suggestion that organizations have made progress beyond raising awareness and that placing blame on white domination is outdated. The white male or female who “gets it” from this perspective is the one who actively pursues social justice for people of color. I have also met a lot of professionals who really understand the importance of making connections with everyone—no matter where they are on the diversity learning curve. High performing diversity professionals are eager to learn how to embrace members of the dominant group without colluding in practices that maintain the status quo.

The point is that as your organization changes, you will need to change along with it to remain effective. This is true of any organizational leader. The continued success of the diversity program is directly related to how much you are growing and learning as a professional. America’s 2008 presidential race is a very good example of how the country as a whole has progressed socially, while its leaders lag behind in their ability to manage its diversity. Leaders are so behind that the presence of a white female and an African American male as the most serious contenders for the Democratic party nomination took them by surprise. No wonder America was also surprised. The two candidates and the media stepped all over each other’s multicultural toes because they were unprepared to manage diversity. Diversity leadership requires being ahead of the game which is not possible without continuous learning.

Be clear about your own diversity lenses
Many diversity professionals have been asked to accept the role after success in other areas of their company, such as sales, training, and management. A good proportion of them did not really want the job, but felt that it was a great opportunity to assist the organization in moving forward in this important area. They have been asked by the leadership, so it was especially difficult to turn down the request. Even if they were diversity pioneers and had considerable diversity training, that does not necessarily translate into an ability to lead a diversity initiative.

Our view of cultural diversity has been ingrained in us since birth. It is not easy to unlearn the biases and prejudices we are exposed in a society that gives us the double message of being tolerant in our attitude and exclusive in our behaviors. Liberals tend to bend over backwards for people who are different and too many people of color struggle with their own sense of sense of being treated unfairly. The diversity professional must be clear about any baggage he or she brings to the work.

Diversity professionals must understand the lenses through which they see cultural differences. A social justice set of lenses will have different consequences from an assimilationist worldview. Worldview impacts diversity education objectives, assessment, coaching, and the mission. Integrating the diversity education program into the organization requires understanding how the dominant culture’s lenses are more or less similar to your own as the diversity leader. The more there is a mismatch, the more challenges the professional faces in finding ways to integrate the two. This means that the diversity professional must be able to set aside personal values and beliefs about how the organization should be in order to learn about how to move the organization to higher stages of inclusion.

The diversity steering committee is a great resource for learning how to take multiple points of view. Make certain that your steering committee represent a cross section of the organization and as many different diversity lenses as possible. Developing your ability to embrace even the lenses that oppose your own will be an asset for increasing your diversity leadership effectiveness. Many diversity professionals, for example, make the mistake of avoiding people who overtly take issue with the diversity initiative. In my experience, the people who espouse everyone in the organization should meet “the same criteria” merit lenses express the views others share. If you can get an industrious, good intentioned person with these views on the committee, they often turn into one of your most important allies.

The diversity of lenses poses a challenge however. You will have to align the steering committee to make certain that the different lenses do not undermine decision making and program implementation. This is where your diversity leadership skills come in. Just make certain that you have done the work necessary to truly value the diversity of lenses among your team. Once their on the same page about why the work is important and their different lenses are valuable, you will have a team that helps you communicate the program better and integrate it into the organization more smoothly.

Take the sting out of the diversity program in your business case
The days of lawsuit fears in making a case for diversity programs are all but over in the United States. US Supreme Court decisions that place the burden on the plaintiff in civil rights suits and anti-affirmative action backlash have emboldened organizations in terms of compliance. However, today organizational leaders have a less controversial, potentially more acceptable rationale. The increased diversity in the recruitment pool and succession planning for baby boomer retirement have upstaged diversity programs as a critical talent management resource.

You must have a clear idea about your program’s return on investment (ROI) to make a modern case for diversity and inclusion. Doing so will not only get more people to support the program, especially management, but you will also be able to better articulate budget requests. Instead of making certain that everyone has been exposed to equal opportunity employment rules, the diversity professional must articulate how much the program will increase the talent needed for succession planning and manage its diversity.

You will also need to show how managers will be supported in the development of diversity management skills. Your ability to coach them and cheer their efforts will be a crucial part of the business case. Work with the human resource office, training, and organizational development to develop an integrated approach to succession planning and talent management.

I personally like to engage diversity professionals in considering ways their expertise adds value to the organization. They are stretched to consider what it would take to develop talent management strategies for diversity and inclusion that the other departments will envy. The result is that the diversity office is seen as a critical component in the organization’s efforts to address productivity challenges. In this way, the business case is an opportunity to show how the diversity office plays a crucial role in organizational effectiveness.

In summary, the diversity professional’s job is filled with opportunity and landmines. Continuous learning is critical to stay on top of the fast-moving, ever-changing aspects of diversity work. Understanding your diversity lenses that impact how to do the work and embraces the range of other lenses will increase your capacity to deliver high impact diversity education programs. Your business case for diversity education will be more powerful to the extent that you put time and effort into understanding how the program can add value to the organization’s productivity.

The next installment of this article about Navigating the Landmines of Diversity Leadership will focus on how to (a) Be clear about the diversity and inclusion ROI, (c) Having a really clear plan based on the big picture of the organization, and (c) Getting the leadership on the front lines of promoting diversity and inclusion.

Cultural Competence Performance Appraisal: Executive Accountability

On July 14, 2008, In Managing Diversity, Talent Management, By admin

Keywords: 360° feedback, Cultural competence, diversity & inclusion, performance appraisal.

The racial and gender identity politics depicted in the 2008 American Presidential race indicate that Americans can no longer afford leaders who lack cultural competence. Observing presumably “enlightened” leaders, such as Jeremiah Wright, Bill Clinton, and Geraldine Ferraro, “playing the race card” demonstrates that American leadership skills lag behind social progress. Wright’s lack of sophistication hardly needs further discussion. Bill Clinton is a great orator who typically mesmerizes African Americans with his ability to connect with their lives. He inadvertently sacrificed his standing in their community and a significant number of votes for Hillary Clinton in an overzealous attempt to defeat Obama. His linking Obama’s South Carolina win with Jesse Jackson’s (‘84 and ‘88) success in the state was a costly foible—especially given that it ignored the successes of fellow democrats Al Gore’s (2000) and John Edwards’ (‘04). Pointing out that he has an office in Harlem and listing his black friends in defending himself against critics of his remark made former President Clinton look more prejudice than most of us could have imagined.[i]

Geraldine Ferraro’s attempt to use the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama competition to raise America’s consciousness about gender inequity and the glass ceiling was ill conceived. Her claim that Obama’s race protected him from media attacks in comparison to his white female competitor was a colossal error for a democratic leader with a history of liberal social policy achievements. Barack Obama may be perceived as the most culturally competent of the lot,[ii] but he is not without his own shortcomings. For example, he either intentionally downplayed his bi-racial identity or simply could not figure out how to exploit it in the interest of getting off the race card train wreck. The result is that he played into the shallowness of categorizing people as black or white racially on the basis of skin color alone. CNN analyst David Gergen[iii] challenged Hillary Clinton to vigorously take issue with white Americans who voted for her in reaction to Obama’s race as much as she voiced opposition to gender prejudice. Senator Clinton appears to have completed avoided Gergen’s challenge. She probably could not figure out how to do respond without losing further ground in her campaign.

In the end, everyone was playing race and gender cards because they do not have the competence to get beyond it—especially with competition at stake. The race for the presidency between an African American male and white American “liberal” female brought the lack of cultural competence among the leadership to our attention. This is substance for a national debate.

In contrast, leaders of high performing modern for-profit corporations understand that they cannot afford to suffer from poor competence. In fact, an increasing number of organizations use performance appraisal to hold managers and supervisors accountable for promoting diversity and inclusion. The use of appraisal in this manner assesses a manager’s productivity and potential. It also serves the additional goal of business alignment. The manager’s ability to develop direct reports and promote strong relationships is essential for managing an increasingly team-oriented and culturally diverse workplace. Managers in these organizations have their compensation directly tied to how well they manage diversity and promote inclusion.

While the accountability strategy makes it clear that cultural competence is an organizational value, important questions are raised about appraising this type of performance. What is cultural competence? How do you measure it? Is cultural competence something that be taught? This article addresses these questions.

What is cultural competence?
Cultural competence refers to an ability to navigate the treacherous terrain of cultural diversity with ease. It is comprised of four components (a) Awareness, (b) Attitude, (c) knowledge, and (d) skills.[iv] Training leaders to implement diversity practices is critical to achieve the best business results.[v] Unfortunately, most diversity training and education programs limited training to raising awareness about cultural differences and attitude change. The result is that diversity management knowledge and skills lag behind valuing diversity. Managers need to learn about cultural differences in productivity, such as performance appraisal, teamwork, and competitiveness, to harness diversity.

The diversity professional can benefit from additional knowledge and skills, according to Damon Williams and Katrina Wade.[vi] The more successful diversity resource professionals are characterized by the following:

Technical mastery of diversity issues
Political savvy
Ability to cultivate a common vision
In-depth perspective on organizational change
Sophisticated relational abilities
Understanding of the [organization’s] culture
Results-oriented

How is Cultural Competence Measured?
The early influence of healthcare professionals in defining and measuring cultural competence has led to an emphasis on language skills and knowledge of different cultures in most cultural competence definitions.[vii] Assessment tools tend to concentrate on these areas as a result. A broader view of cultural competence assessment is needed to serve the purposes of other sectors.

The Human Capital Inventory (HCI) was developed to this end.[viii] HCI is a 50-item checklist that measures an individual’s cultural competence across the four components with an additional Personal Experience section. The inventory is best used in a 360° feedback format. A common use in management appraisal is a format that requires the Human Resource Office to administer the inventory to the manager under review (self appraisal), at least two direct reports, two or more fellow managers, and at least one superior. This set of appraisals provides the manager with a comparison between self appraisal and the summary of the other’s appraisals.

HCI is comprehensive in that it measures beyond awareness of and attitude towards cultural diversity. In addition, the Personal Experience section and the 360° feedback format control for the tendency to provide favorable self appraisals in order to be viewed as liberal-minded.

Is Cultural Competence Something That Can Be Taught?
Yes. While there are a few people who come into the world with the gift of getting along well with people across cultures, most of us are not so lucky. We must unlearn the prejudice and stereotypes about other cultural groups that have been engrained in us since birth. Once we get past our biases, we need knowledge and skills to manage differences. One of the most effective ways is to experience an immersion program that requires you to learn how to successfully navigate an unfamiliar culture without customary privileges, such as speaking your first language. Learning about a culture’s conception of time, how members manage conflict, how they relate to superiors and other cultural differences are examples of diversity management skills that must be trained.

The National Training Laboratory[ix] has a long history of training diversity professionals. The program’s strength is in developing the individual’s sense of who he or she is as a diversity professional and cultural being in a diverse world. Diversity leaders need this personal growth to fully appreciate cultural differences. One shortcoming is that the program does not sufficiently emphasize developing organizational strategy and leadership skills. One or two weekend long certification programs exist, but a review of the content and interviews with graduates indicate that there is insufficient expertise among facilitators to benefit significantly. Cornell University[x] offered the first diversity professional certification course. The program appears to be struggling with a history of human resource compliance and equal employment opportunity content that the law school trained faculty knows a lot about and the current emphasis on strategy and leadership skills.
DTUI.com’s certified diversity profession program has been offered for ten years. The program combines organizational development, diversity leadership, assessment, and training skill to offer a comprehensive program. Diversity recruitment and retention have also been recently added as content. One of the challenges prospective participants consistently note is that the program requires two 3-4 day sessions to complete before certification is designated. DTUI.com has recently made changes that offer certification upon completion of each of the two training levels.

Experts can train cultural competence. Diversity expertise is comprised of a set of strategies, facilitation skills, and political savvy. The best training programs have facilitators who assist in developing this competence.

People tend to learn at different rates and have different learning styles. Training thirty managers in a group is cost effective and even suits the learning style of many participants, but at the end of the day some learn more than others. Training increases with individualized management cultural competence training. One way that the HCI is used as an assessment tool is for manager cultural competence training. If the results show that a manager’s attitude towards cultural differences is limiting, then the coaching targets that component. Another manager may need skills training based on her HCI score. In this way, the manager who makes a social foible even after group training has an opportunity to fill gap between what he did and did not learn.

Leaders of modern organizations cannot afford to stumble over cultural differences. This is one reason more and more managers have diversity manager goals as part of their performance evaluation. A thoughtfully conceived manager cultural competence performance appraisal system is a critical talent management component. If your organization holds managers accountable for meeting cultural diversity goals, look closely at the appraisal system to make certain that it adequately assesses cultural competence. The organization that does not have this type of performance evaluation must consider carefully how it can reach diversity goals without it. A manager is only accountable for performing at the level of expectation that supervisors and the human resource office have specified. Knowing what cultural competence is and how it relates to productivity are critical.

[i] See Tuen van Dijk ((1984). Prejudice in discourse. Amsterdam: Benjamins) for research on how people talk to avoid appearing prejudice.

[ii] Diversity Training University International (2008). Cultural Diversity Poll: Republicans Needed Romney; McCain is a No Show (http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-2367)

[iii] Taking race out of the race, CNN May 21 (2008) http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/05/21/ec.seg.gergen.cnn

[iv] M. Martin & B. E. Vaughn (2007). Cultural competence: The nuts and bolts of diversity and inclusion. In Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring, pp. 31-38, DTUI.com Publishing Division: San Francisco.

[v] T. Jones (2007). Talent management perspectives. Talent Management magazine online (http://www.talentmgt.com/newsletters/talent_management_perspectives/2007/August/406/index.php).

[vi] D. Williams & K. Wade (2007). What is a Chief Diversity Officer? In B. Vaughn (Ed.), Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management magazine, Spring, Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 17-21. DTUI.com Publications Division: San Francisco, CA.

[vii] See R. Nishima, PhD. (2006). A Framework for Cultural Competency: Measurement and Accountability, The Commonwealth Fund. (http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=404298)

[viii] Billy Vaughn, PhD (2006). Human Capital Inventory. Diversity Training University International Publishing Division: San Francisco. (http://www.dtui.com/toolkit.html)

[ix] NTL, Introduction to Diversity Professional Certificate Program (http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/info/summary.aspx?e=00615b52-9b23-4722-96e7-689f930142a3)

[x] Cornell University, Cornell Certified Diversity Professional (http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/mgmtprog/certificates/dm/CDP.html)

The Key Elements of a Cultural Diversity Talent Management Strategy

On June 17, 2008, In Consulting & Training, Talent Management, cultural diversity, By admin

Keywords: cultural competence, Talent management, Cultural diversity talent management (CDTM), multicultural recruitment and retention, Onboarding

Summary

Talent management is not a one size fits all approach in modern organizations. This article focused on the need to tailor talent management to meet the needs of a diverse organization. Cultural diversity requires thinking about how to tailor recruitment and retention practices in order to meet the specific needs of different cultural groups represented among new employees. First you need a strategy based on data that provides insight into the points of view across different cultural groups. Providing culturally appropriate practices will increase recruitment and retention.

We have entered a period of talent scarcity. At the same time, demographic changes have led to an increase in cultural diversity in the recruitment pool. In an era of abundance talent, implementing a diversity initiative is the best strategy for harnessing cultural differences in the service of productivity. The goal is to reduce the challenges cultural differences create in people working efficiently and effectively together. In order to attract the best and brightest in a shrinking, yet diverse talent pool, the strategy must include tailoring recruitment practices to meet the needs of different cultural groups.

It is well known that the baby boomers will retire in the next few years, which will result in a “brain drain.” The knowledge and experience of about 40% of the workplace will leave with the retirees. Even with the recent increase in U.S. birthrates, the workforce is expected to decline steadily between the years 2000 to 2050 (Monthly Labor Review, November 2006). Even with more workers opting to retire later, the number of younger generation recruits in the pipeline is insufficient to meet the labor force demands. In addition, retention of college graduates is increasingly difficult. To sustain productivity and high performance in an era of stiff competition, population shifts, and the challenge of managing diversity, organizations must address the unique needs of different cultural groups they hope to attract and retain. Maintaining talent and the drain of knowledge that retiring workers will take with them is the central concern.

Talent management is the key to addressing the inevitable knowledge gap challenges. Cultural diversity talent management (CDTM) can address multicultural recruitment and retention challenges. CDTM is a unique approach that requires customization similar to the human resource practices that tailor performance to individual needs.

Here are three things to consider in developing talent management practices for cultural diversity recruitment and retention:

Develop a strategy
Provide culturally appropriate recruitment and performance review processes
Provide cultural appropriate career development practices

Developing a CDTM Strategy

It is not surprising that collecting data is the key to developing a CDTM strategy. One of the most important benefits of affinity groups, turnover interviews, and mentoring is the valuable data they can make available. A study by Sodexho and the National Council of La Raza (2008), for example, indicates that a significant number of companies view the Latino affinity group as an invaluable resource for customer insight and product testing. Human resource officers and managers can use these groups to gain insight into how to customize talent management programs. Ideally, the human resource officer works with the managers and the cultural diversity resource specialist in using the data to develop tailored talent management strategies.

Using a combination of quantitative survey data and focus group interview qualitative data offers the richest source of information. Certain groups, such as Native Americans, will be less open to survey data than group interviews. Focus group interview data collection tends to increase the odds of participation, but the trade off is that data analysis is more challenging. The more difficult it is for people to talk about the subject matter, the more clever data collection techniques will have to be.

HSB C used a group of “robust, consistent and transparent methods” for global talent identification. The multiple sources of data included 360 degree feedback instruments, interviews, panel reviews, self and manager assessment. The capability framework was constructed to identify the behaviors of outstanding HSBC performers.

Culturally Appropriate Recruitment and Performance Reviews

One of the big mistakes managers and human resources officers make is relying on the same recruitment and performance review practices that were “successful” when the organization was monocultural. They soon realize that something is not working as it should as these out-dated practices fail to include a more diverse set of employees. The second common mistake is thinking that diversity recruitment and performance review skill building alone will solve the problem. While this is a reasonable approach, care must be taken in developing skills without the awareness and attitude needed to support them. In other words, the approach fails to consider the cultural competence components that serve as a foundation for skills (e.g., awareness, attitude, and knowledge).

The key elements of performance review cultural competence is awareness of one’s own cultural diversity lenses, attitude towards cultural differences in performance, knowledge of what performance means across cultures, and the skills needed to competently manage cultural differences (See the DTUI course on this topic for more details). This is definitely one of the training areas for which there is increasing need.

Provide Culturally Appropriate Career Development Practices

Career development is where mentorship programs and performance evaluation programs overlap. Much of what has been offered above about performance evaluation is relevant here. The primary difference is that the mentor and mentee tend to meet more often and the relationship is less hierarchical.

The use of Onboarding for recruitment and retention is increasing in popularity. According to Madeline Tarquinio, Onboarding “encompasses the variety of tasks and requirements involved with acclimating and engaging a new employee in the company.” It has been shown that Onboarding improves retention and reduces the time new for new employees to reach expected productivity levels, according to a study by the Aberdeen Group (2008). Onboarding can be easily extended to CDTM for meeting the needs of employees across cultures. You want to make certain that socializing new employees into the organization’s culture is inclusive to the extent that it is tailored to meet the needs of different groups. The younger generation employees are acculturated to social networking, which translates into making certain that these new recruits are quickly introduced to as many of networking opportunities in the organization as possible. Best of class companies Onboard before the new employee starts, according to the Aberdeen Group study (2008).

Summary

Billy Vaughn, PhD
Chief Learning Officer
billy@dtui.com
If you like this article, you should check out our Cultural Diversity Talent Management webinar series starting August 13, 2008. Click here to learn more.

Misreading the Presidential Primary Polls: Because Barack Isn’t Black or White, Stupid!

On May 11, 2008, In Politics, Race Relations, cultural diversity, By admin

Barack Obama is the product of a black African father and a white American mother. But, you would not know it from media coverage, university lectures, polling data, religious sermons, and your neighbors’ voting behavior. Americans love to simplify their world so mixed race people are difficult to categorize given our black-white mentality. But racial identity is no longer a simple matter. The ways in which Americans collude in ignoring Barack Obama’s race demonstrate that while the demographics of our society have changed, our ability to think inclusively remains under-evolved. It is very difficult to talk about race in American society as a result.

Interracial marriages have tripled in the United States since 1970, which constitutes about 400,000 marriages per year today, according to the Richmond Free Press. This represents a dramatic increase in the number of Americans with more than one racial identity. Their off springs are challenging racial categories. For instance, in at least 10 states, the percentage of multiracial Americans between ages 5 and 17 is at least 25%, according to 2000 census data, which is greater than the overall 19% for this age range. It is old news that America is demographically changing, yet we fail to recognize that we need new language to talk about our differences. Instead, we will continue to play the “race card” in talk about our differences.

Consider Hillary Clinton’s recent controversial comment about race in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries:

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on. The Associated Press found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me. There’s a pattern emerging here”.

At least one African American politician characterized her comments as divisive. Conservative political news commentator Patrick Buchanan came to Hillary’s defense. He says that there is a double standard when it comes to talk about race. Basically, Buchanan argues that when white Americans talk about black people, their words are scrutinized more than when a black person make statements about white people. He believes that when someone describes “facts” about racial differences, such as reported racial differences in poll results, it is absurd to claim racial animus. He is correct. There is an absurd double standard. The culprit, however, is our out-dated thinking about race, identity, and what means to be American. Politicians need to understand that ignoring that Obama is bi-racial can lead to accusations of race baiting and racial animus.

Consider Indiana and North Carolina voting patterns in the primaries across racial groups as examples. Indiana is 88% white American, 9% African America, and 5% Hispanic. In North Carolina, African Americans, white Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans constitute 21.7%, 74%, 6.7%, and 2% respectfully. Clinton won by 2% of the vote in Indiana. Indiana exit polls showed that Clinton got the majority of votes from white Americans, as she had in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Obama received more than 90 percent of the African-American vote and about 40 percent of white votes in North Carolina. The question becomes how impact is Obama’s bi-racial identity on the results. We may never know the answer to the question because it simply is not being asked.

Pollsters want to know if race plays a role in voting, but they collude in racial politics by not asking if Obama’s mixed race has any impact on voting outcomes. If Barack is half white, then a considerable number of white Americans should be comfortable voting for that part of him they identify with. Using the same logic, many blacks should vote for him as well. The point is that mixed race candidates pose special challenges in making sense out of poll data. Coverage that ignores the fact that Obama is both black and white undermines the democratic process. West Virginia is 94.9% populated by white Americans. Hillary Clinton will likely win that state by a large percent, but she will not receive 100% of the vote. We deserve to know how the white Americans voting for Obama view him along racial lines.

Research supports this view. It turns out that when an African American shares many traits stereotypical of white people (e.g., “intelligent”, successful, “articulate”, and bi-racial), white Americans have a difficult time categorizing the person along racial lines. They tend to create a special category for the individual so as to maintain the integrity of their black-white racial distinctions. This is referred to as subtyping. So even if white Americans ignore Obama’s bi-racial background, they will sub-type him because he does not fit their stereotypes of black people. In my experience, African Americans also make faulty assumptions about Barack. Their experience in American society leads to over-emphasis on his skin color. He is African American whether he likes it or not from their point of view. A common justification is that he has been forced to identify as black in American society because it is so race conscious. The result is that Barack’s bi-racial identity is both an asset and a stigma for him at the same time.

American beliefs about race remain out-dated in the face of a multi-cultural, multi-racial reality. How do we get out of it? We need to recognize, embrace, and celebrate our achievements in blurring the racial boundaries. This is the way we help Americans get out of the crazy, unproductive identity politics.

LOU DOBBS IS MOVING NEXT DOOR: THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

On March 21, 2008, In Politics, Race Relations, By admin

As a cultural psychologist and diversity expert, I am in both heaven and hell in this historical period of American politics. In fact, I am in the midst of writing the book, The Cream Always Rises to the Top: Leading a Culturally Diverse Nation in the Twenty First Century, as fast as I can to beat the start of the political party conventions. Yet, I felt compelled to stop for a moment to write this article after hearing Lou Dobbs’ interview with Shelby Steele about Barack Obama’s speech on race relations. Lou is threatening to have a race relations dialog on his CNN show. Any media coverage of race he does will likely be so inept that the country will be torn apart at least temporarily. So, I must write this blog to impart some wisdom before getting back to a more substantive analysis and interpretation of cultural identity in America’s current political atmosphere.

Why am I concerned about media coverage of race relations? I have two reasons. One is that media tends to create more problems than solutions when covering race relations. Journalists must take a stand as Dobbs demonstrates in interviewing Shelby Steele independent of a panel of experts with different viewpoints. A study I conducted a few years ago shows how the media gets it wrong in covering race relations (http://www.dtui.com/bio_billy.html). I analyzed three southern California newspaper coverage of the trial of Sagon Penn, a young African American male who shot and killed one San Diego police officer and wounded the backup officer. While his acquittal after two trials is a race relations story of its own, my focus was on the prominent messages the two year media coverage conveyed about the story. Previous research in European countries indicated that the media tends to reproduce negative stereotypes about “ethnic minorities” in covering stories about them. I wanted to find out if a similar coverage occurs in the U.S. media.

Since most people read the headline more often than the body of the story, I sorted the headlines in thematic categories across the three papers over the two year period. Not surprisingly, the media primarily used negative stereotypes about young black males in characterizing the Sagon Penn incident. This was true over the two-year period even after the evidence became overwhelmingly clear that it was a case of “Driving While Black” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_While_Black) that motivated the police to stop the young man’s vehicle.

The second problem with media coverage of race relations is that it takes the focus off the real issues. Racial tension in America is a symptom of larger identity group politics that play out in group competition within a culture of hierarchical intergroup relations. Lou interviewed Shelby Steele alone because doing so allows him to impress his views about race on the audience. Using a fellow conservative to discuss race relations offers the appearance of different points of view because Steele looks a black American. To his network’s credit, Lou did interview another African American the next day or so. He told his guest that he would be given the last word and proceeded to cut him off shortly afterwards to disagree with a statement that was being made.

In contrast to falling into a neat racial category, Obama’s bi-racial identity makes it easier for him to take different racial perspectives. We know from social science research that it is easier to take the viewpoint of those with whom we share group membership. The ”you are either black or white”racial point of view shared by Lou and even liberal journalists will likely lead to discussions about race with little substance apart from getting people to take an emotional stand. Their need to prove that their point of view is more superior will reproduce the race relations dilemma that limits thoughtful discussion. It is unimportant that Shelby Steele is also bi-racial from Dobbs’. What matters is that he is a conservative and looks black.

I am an expert in getting a diverse group of people to work through difficult discussions about race. Believe me the skill did not come easy, so you can anticipate that 99% of journalists will get caught up in their own emotional baggage rather than lead a balanced and insightful discussion needed to get the country to the next level.

For the remainder of this blog, I will argue that Americans are currently in an identity crisis, which is more important to understand than the poor race relations symptom. Then I will give Lou and other journalists a few tips for facilitating race relations dialog because I know that they can’t help but go with a juicy story than a more meaningful one. It is a dangerous thing to give a list of suggestions because naive readers will no doubt think they “get it” from my sound bites. The result is that they will likely create even more problems. But, I am in the business of training executive level diversity management skills and I feel obligated as an American to offer my expertise whenever possible. In fact, this is a great example of the utility of diversity training contrary to popular media coverage (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/01/19/ST2008011901990.html).

The racial stuff in the presidential campaign started with the brief gender versus race controversy sparked by media coverage of Geraldine Ferraro and some feminists who raised the question of whether Obama was being coddled by the media because he is African American (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqL_sm0J8jc). Their concerns are legitimate, but their assertions suggest that a high stakes competitive race between a woman and man is not the time to make nice and that playing the race card is fair game even for presumed liberals in intergroup competition. After all, only one of the two candidates can win the party’s nomination, and getting either of them in the White House will make history. It is truly a historic moment just having a white female and African American male as serious contenders, but we just might take our country politically backwards in terms of race relations without competent leadership in the oval office.

Governor Bill Richardson stated that among the reasons he endorses Barack Obama for the presidency is that they both are products of a foreign parent and lived abroad during childhood. Obama is able to get young Americans to vote in record numbers because American youth can identify with him more than Hillary and John McCain. We favor people who share our view of the world more than how much we share racially. Richardson and Obama share a unique perspective as American leaders. They can take a multi-racial and multi-national view of American leadership. No longer can we afford cowboy or southern liberal leadership. It simply will not suffice in our changing world.

An example that stresses my point further is taken from Studs Terkel’s two sets of interviews twenty years apart with Americans on the topic of race (The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream 1998, http://www.studsterkel.org/). The example I love to give is about the change in attitude a white male with a history of allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan and an African American female anti-Klan community activist had towards each other in the second interview twenty years later. The change in attitudes took place after the two were encouraged to work together on a race relations team to combat intolerance in their community. The working class Klan member’s incentive was getting paid for his involvement and the African American woman was happy to receive the money and feel part of solving the community’s race relations problems. During their close contact they learned how much they had in common and discovered that the local leadership was using pitting lower class whites and the black community against each other to take attention off their race relations leadership incompetence. In other words, the two individuals discovered their common identity.

I must confess that I think identity politics is also a symptom of a larger problem. We are a society that has not had to come together as Americans. The result is that what it means to be an American varies across class, race, gender, ability, sexual orientation, and a host of other ways in which we have decided to identify ourselves distinctively in the world. But, I think that focusing on identity politics will get us much further than naive discussions of race relations.

“Black” conservatives are finally getting back into the spotlight with Obama on the hot seat about race. They are also a good example of identity politics. Do African American conservatives identify more with their race or conservative Republicans? I predict that the poll will show that many African Americans and white conservative Republicans will both state that political identity is the defining category for this group. I further predict that the African Americans will base their response on not sharing conservative political views with the much smaller group of black conservatives. White Republicans will focus on the conservative ideology they share. If you tease the results out by class differences, gender,and sexual orientation, I predict that identity will account for how people respond.

I am not the first to emphasize identity politics. Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson stated that the politics of identity has turned inward as Democrats struggle with navigating the unfamiliar terrain of choosing between nominating a white female or an African American male to represent their party—given that both are equally capable (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/democrats_and_the_politics_of.html). Our white female-African American presidential candidate predicament offers just the right conditions for identity politics to take center stage. The problem is that most of us are like Lou Dobbs. We want to concentrate on race relations, which is a symptom of the problem, because it is a juicy story and we can get emotionally self righteous. That’s the American dilemma and I am afraid it will get very messy before too long if Lou Dobbs gets into the mix.

The American people deserve and sorely need high level discussions about race relations. If you must move into the diversity experts’ territory, Lou, then at least mind your manners by considering the following. My nearly 30 years of teaching and training cultural diversity suggest that the audience benefits from a facilitator that practices the following:

Avoid taking sides—be the facilitator, rather than the messenger. The journalist who is too wrapped up in her or his ego to work on behalf of public good is doing a disservice and more public harm than good.
Always have a panel of at least three “experts” with a range of viewpoints about race relations. All too often the Democrat versus Republican dichotomy gets center stage.
Avoid sound bites. At least stick with one topic or idea, rather than have a “free for all” that gets people wound up without a safety valve. But, maybe getting people so angry that they start hating each other is so newsworthy that you don’t mind irresponsibly contributing to maintaining America’s poor race relations.
Be aware of your own biases about race BEFORE facilitating the dialog. I know most of us think we are liberal and tolerant, but the research evidence is clear—we tend to hold liberal values, while our intercultural skills are barbaric (http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-103.pdf).
Try your best to empathize with viewpoints that oppose your own. This is the key to critical thinking yet most of us fail at miserably. If you want to be an out of the box journalist, try empathetic and compassionate interviewing and dialoging. It is a transformative experience that will turn your journalistic insight upside down for the better.

I have a list of other suggestions, but I think this is more than enough to deal with as a start. My experience indicates that Americans are desperate to talk about their differences and their identity is the most important thing they want others to understand. Race relations will progress in this country with or without the help of the media. Look at how far we have progressed given the limited media competence in making it happen. Journalists can both do their job well and be responsible citizens in healing long standing animosity and deep wounds across identity groups with good facilitation skills based on compassion.

Billy E. Vaughn, PhD is a certified diversity professional who trains and coaches executives. His clients include organizations across sectors, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, Qualcomm Inc., Costco, Goodwill Industries, and the European Central Bank. Learn more about him at http://www.dtui.com.

Become a Certified Diversity Professional by May 12, 2008. Learn more at http://www.dtui.com/conferences.html

Cultural Diversity Poll: Republicans Needed Romney; McCain is a No Show (Updated June 17, 2008)

On February 11, 2008, In Politics, cultural diversity, By admin

Letter from the Editor
I called my brother-in-law today to wish him a happy birthday. He talked about his excitement for the possibility that a “black” man may become America’s next president. He also mentioned that he was so shocked by the remarks Bill Clinton made in reference to racial politics that he had to call up a few friends for validation. But, his reaction to my comment about Barack Obama not being black left an impression on me. It was as though it was the first time he had heard that Barack is multi-racial. Our conversation quickly moved to a more comfortable racial politics topic. My in-law is like many African Americans who believe that American society is so race conscious that your skin color, rather than your genes define the group you belong to. If a black person doesn’t get that, from their perspective, she or he is being foolish and ignorant of the ways in which racism creates problems for us. This is a debatable perspective, but it does remind us that we have a ways to go as a society. Fortunately the youth do not appear to have as much racial baggage most boomers have a difficult time shaking loose.We need a United States leader who avoids playing politics with race. A president who works towards understanding the problem of social divisions in the United States and programmatically addressing them in the service of building a more innovative and productive society will lead us out of the present economic slump and our international relations quagmire.

The diversity lesson in this newsletter. Many of you know that DTUI.com conducted a poll to determine which candidate you think will best promote better racial and ethnic relations. You may be surprised about the results on both the Republican and Democratic sides. So, check it out.

Diversity Lesson
Cultural Diversity Poll: Republicans Needed Romney; McCain is a No Show
A recent poll indicates that the Republican party no longer has a candidate who can lead Americans toward embracing the cultural and racial differences in their increasingly diverse society. About one in three or 29% of the respondents in the Diversity Training University International (DTUI.com) poll selected Mitt Romney as the candidate that would most likely improve racial and ethnic relations. McCain and Giuliani did not receive a single vote. Barack Obama received the most votes with 46%. Hillary Clinton received 21% of the votes, which roughly translates into about one in five respondents. John Edwards, another Super Tuesday casualty, did not receive a single vote. What’s the story with Mitt Romney? It is no doubt that his pro gay civil union stance while he was the governor of Massachusetts has a lot to do with it. It also helps that the state passed the civil union law. While Mitt has tried to retract his pro-civil union stance during the short run for Republican party presidency nomination, he still has an equality record that the Democratic race front runners cannot easily match.

Americans are, in part, basking in the glory of having a woman and person of color as serious contenders for the presidency. They like witnessing the social progress that has been made. This is one more reason the Republicans are in trouble. The economy is certainly a huge concern, but don’t discount the power of a candidate’s social capital in this election.

Respondents had an opportunity to vote against all of the listed candidates or to indicate that the best candidate was not in the list. However, less than 6% of the votes went to these choices combined. Visitors to the DTUI.com website had opportunities to respond to the poll from January 27, 2008 to June 17, 2008 resulting in sample of 325 respondents. The margin of error is 4.5. DTUI.com site visitors and newsletter subscribers tend to be highly educated (78% college educated), represented slightly more by women, at least 45 years old, and financially well off (i.e., about one in three visitors earn more than $100K annually). The results have a seven-point error margin. Notice that Senator Obama remains the leader by 10 points over Romney even when the error margin is considered. Data were analyzed by the DTUI.com research division.

Why is Barack Obama Denying His Mother?

On January 27, 2008, In Race Relations, By admin

In this Issue

Letter from the Editor
Diversity Lesson: Why is Barack Obama Denying His Mother?
Diversity Professional Resources
Diversity News
Diversity Events
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

If you have not contributed to the DTUI.com presidential poll on the site’s index page, please do so. We will be presenting the results in the next couple of newsletters.

When you have a candidate who feels forced to identify as black or white, a woman who feels pressured to wear pants to campaign, and a former governor who is trying to distance himself from signing a history making same gender civil unions law, the race for the 2008 presidential candidate gets juicy. The hype about this being a historic moment in American presidential politics is being overshadowed lately by America’s obsession with race.

I doubt if the next American president will do anything that remarkably changes the status quo. Even Bill Clinton, the so-called “First Black” president, could not pull it off. This campaign is great reality TV and soap opera with Americans feeling good about showing the world a rainbow presidential race while worried if voting for a black man will tip the scales.

America needs to get over its obsession with race. I just don’t see it in the cards given that identity politics are intimately interwoven into the fabric of our society. The two party system is a problem as I see it. The fact that we do not seriously deal with gender, race, religious, and other identity differences as a society is the other problem.

A candidate that is serious about promoting better racial and ethnic relations will do what governments of other western societies have done—create a cabinet level position for diversity and inclusion. Give the diversity and inclusion office a billion dollar budget each year to promote an American society in which we are a society that “different in cultural practices, yet one in mind.” This is not about a series of town hall meetings to discuss what it means to be an American. The Chief Diversity Officer will focus on developing a strategy that will lead to a society in which each individual feels she or he can be their cultural selves in making a contribution to society. Promoting a society that adds value in the lives of individuals in the service of them living productively is common sense to me. The return on investment is increased innovation, significant decrease in civil rights lawsuits, integrated churches on Sunday mornings, and valuing cultural differences.

This is not an easy task. That is why an expert is needed. The person needs the power and authority to fully invest in the project. But, that is why it will not happen. We currently have an unprecedented proportion of people of color and women in high level government positions—under a Republican presidency. However, they feel so pressured to think red that I don’t see the diversity of thought needed to create more innovative solutions. The blues do the same thing.

It simply takes more than waiting for America to mature beyond racial and ethnic politics. We need to put experts in charge to make it happen. On the bright side is witnessing my twenty-three old son and his generation teach me new things about cultural identity.

Why is Barack Obama Denying His Mother?
I conducted a study of bi-racial children about ten years ago with Rosanna Jones, PhD, who subsequently used the data for her award-winning psychology dissertation. I learned a great deal about multi-racial people. This presidential election is disturbing to me because we are missing an opportunity for all Americans to raise their consciousness about a growing group of citizens—multi-racial people.

It is unfortunate that Barack Obama chooses to refer to himself as a “black” candidate. His mother, who has passed away, may have understood, but I feel bad about his denying her as part of who he is by taking sides. I also understand the enormous pressure on him to identify publically as black. Barack must contend with America’s desire to hang on to out-dated ways of socially dividing up our society.

The ease at which we seem to divide society into black and white certainly serves important socio-political-economic functions. We know immediately who is most likely to succeed and who enjoys more privileges in society. Although this short cut thinking does not always work, we don’t seem to worry much about it. Social science research suggests that when a person like Barack Obama comes along, we need to fit him into a box. If he has enough stereotypic black features, then we easily put him into that category. He doesn’t look white enough, so we don’t have to worry about that category. But, he doesn’t neatly fit into the black category because we know he has white genes, he is “articulate”, and even darn smart. Most white America outside of the south will consider voting for him because he is in part one of them—even though they have a hard time acknowledging it.

The research indicates we subtype people like Barack. We create a unique category for him. Doing so enables us to maintain the integrity of our black-white dichotomous view of the world, while making sense out of Barack being an anomaly. This does not mean we have shades of grey in our thinking about race. After all, we have merely created another box instead of blending the black and white ones.

It appears that African Americans and southern whites are going off the deep end over Barack’s race more than other Americans. African Americans tend to be so steeped in Clintonian politics and uncertain about how to categorize a multi-racial person with “real” African roots that the presidential race bringing up all kinds of feelings. They had no problem voting for against Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton, but now that there is a serious contender of their race, they must question their loyalty.

My major point is that accepting that Barack is a multi-racial candidate has more promise for creating an inclusive society. Each of us can own the fact that we are multi-racial ourselves. We can see that there is a male and female that is vying for the presidency on the Democratic side rather than two “minorities.” Perhaps we can even get to the point the gender distinction loses significance.

I want to vote for a president who understands that identity politics is not a card you play to get the upper hand. It is serious business because people are harmed by stereotypes and the intentional exploitation of them. Join me in scrutinizing the 2008 presidential candidates’ plans for creating a more inclusive society.

Please offer comments at the bottom of this newsletter.

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DIVERSITY NEWS

Verdict of woman spanked at work overturned

Lawyers: No discrimination because spankings given to men and women

Associated Press updated 9:12 a.m. PT, Thurs., Jan. 17, 2008

FRESNO, Calif. – An appeals court overturned a $1.5 million verdict awarded to a woman who was spanked in front of co-workers in what her employer called a camaraderie-building exercise.

A jury in 2006 had ruled that Janet Orlando had suffered sexual harassment and sexual battery when she was paddled at home security company Alarm One Inc. The jury punished the company with a $1 million punitive damage award.

But on Monday, a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal overturned that verdict, ruling that the jury had been given improper instructions. In particular, the jury wasn’t instructed that one vital element of proving that sexual harassment occurred is showing the action was directed at a woman because of her gender.

Lawyers for Alarm One, an Anaheim-based, 300-employee company, said that the spankings were not discriminatory because they were given to both male and female workers and that Orlando and others willingly took part.

Orlando’s attorney, Nicholas “Butch” Wagner, vowed to take the case to trial again.

“We may get more this time,” Wagner said.

But K. Poncho Baker, the attorney who defended the company at trial in 2006, said that because the company has since gone into bankruptcy and its insurance was exhausted battling Orlando’s claim and settling with three other co-workers, there may be little left to recover.

“Good luck retrying this one,” Baker said.

Orlando quit the company in 2004, less than a year after she was hired at the Fresno office, saying she was humiliated during the company’s team-building practices.

Employees were paddled with rival companies’ yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against one another. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing pies at them, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks.

The company has since abandoned the practice.

DIVERSITY EVENTS

January 21, 2008—Martin Luther King Day Celebration

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National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) May 27-May 31, 2008 in Orlando, Florida. (www.ncore.ou.edu) 7:12 PM 1/20/2008.

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Why is Barack Obama Denying His Mother?

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