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Culture and Diversity: No Drama Obama - Umbrella Politics
The Power Dynamics of Umbrella holding
I have to say that until today I hadn't given the socio-political ramifications of holding an umbrella much thought.
That is until I read this article on the China Daily.
In China, part of wielding power is pageantry.
Most presidents and by this I mean people in charge of anything ( school-boards, factories etc.) would have a flunky to do the job of shielding them from the rain.
By holding his own umbrella Obama was signalling that he is a man of the people.
Was this a state department decision or just a spur of the moment thing?
Cultural symbolism matters, especially when you are sending a message to a questioning public in a foreign land.
Chalk this win up to serendipity if you like but I think it had more to do with savvy political handlers on the White-house team.
Culture as a dimension of Diversity
It's not just politicians that have to pay attention to culture.
Culture is one of the the dimensions of diversity most overlooked in organisations.
The usual reason for this is it's simply less visible or less obvious.
Every organisation and every individual is embedded in a culture that colours expectations and perceptions.
Like a fish in water, it can be hard to see what we are swimming in.
To us our culture is the Norm and thus invisible.
If cultural norms differ there is greater scope for unwanted misunderstanding or even conflict.
The key is to understand it as a possible issue and to be open to acting differently.
It's not about blankly accepting inappropriate behaviour or changing to match a minority; its about being aware of the possibility of the unexpected.
Many people take for granted that being fair means treating people the same.
It doesn't.
Sometimes to be fair or to make the most of an opportunity means treating people differently.
Flaunting Socially Responsible Consuming
We are at an interesting crossroads in consumer culture. Where luxury purchases used to be the ultimate sign of affluence or, at least, aspiring affluence, more consumers now may be driven to make conspicuously conscious purchases. According to research co-authored by Aronte Bennett and mentioned in her MediaPost article, corporate social responsibility (CSR) seems to be becoming a strong motivator influencing consumers today – even in these bad economic times. As she put it:
In a variety of experiments, our research found that consumers like CSR-associated products for two distinct reasons.
First, the fact that these products send out highly visible, social signals to their friends, family and co-workers regarding their kindness and charitable nature.
Second, they like the more private, self-signaling potential associated with the purchases of these products, even when a strong public social signal is absent to others.
These consumers like the visibility of what they are doing and they also gain in self-regard. This is sounding familiar, like a whole other market – luxury.
continue reading.
Andrea Learned is a marketing dot-connector with a focus on gender and a longterm view on coming trends. Andrea's broad, colorful commentary can be found regularly on her blog, Learned on Women.
More diverse creative teams get better results
Trying to juice up your next ad campaign? Develop a clever new product strategy? Research shows that adding an outsider to the mix can improve the thinking of your team and produce better results. According to a study published in thePersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
Better decisions come from teams that include a “socially distinct newcomer.” That’s psychology-speak for someone who is different enough to bump other team members out of their comfort zones…
Researchers noticed this effect after conducting a traditional group problem-solving experiment. The twist was that a newcomer was added to each group about five minutes into their deliberations. And when the newcomer was a social outsider, teams were more likely to solve the problem successfully. [From Kellog School of Management News - Embracing the ‘socially distinct’ outsider.]
The good news is that the “outsider” doesn’t have to be an expensive consultant or an external facilitator. The important thing is that the newcomer is distinct in some way from other group members. Beyond such obvious social distinctions as race and gender, the study’s author, Katherine Phillips of Northwestern University, suggests other examples that might work:
– One employee from accounting working on a team in which everyone else is from sales
– An employee of a company that has just been bought out finding herself on a team of people from the acquiring firm
– An out-of-stater finding himself on a team full of natives of the company’s home state
The outsiders in the study weren’t necessarily vocal or opinionated; their mere presence seemed to be sufficient to make the group think harder. According to Phillips, this research is one justification for maintaining an emphasis on workplace diversity: a diverse team (whatever the elements of diversity might be) will produce better results.
So, when you are pulling together the next team or task force, add all of the “obvious” team members, and then throw an outsider into the mix. You’ll be glad you did.
Found this via Barking up the wrong tree and Neuroscience marketing .com
Mark Steyn: A jihadist hiding in plain sight
"Diversity" is one of those words designed to absolve you of the need to think. Likewise, a belief in "multiculturalism" doesn't require you to know anything at all about other cultures, just to feel generally warm and fluffy about them. Heading out from my hotel room the other day, I caught a glimpse of that 7-Eleven video showing Major Hasan wearing "Muslim" garb to buy a coffee on the morning of his murderous rampage. And it wasn't until I was in the taxi cab that something odd struck me: He is an American of Arab descent. But he was wearing Pakistani dress – that's to say, a "Punjabi suit," as they call it in Britain, or the "shalwar kameez," to give it its South Asian name. For all the hundreds of talking heads droning on about "diversity" across the TV networks, it was only Tarek Fatah, writing in The Ottawa Citizen, who pointed out that no Arab males wear this get-up – with one exception: Those Arab men who got the jihad fever and went to Afghanistan to sign on with the Taliban and al-Qaida. In other words, Maj. Hasan's outfit symbolized the embrace of an explicit political identity entirely unconnected with his ethnic heritage. Mr. Fatah would seem to be a genuine "multiculturalist": That's to say, he's attuned to often very subtle "diversities" between cultures. Whereas the professional multiculturalist sees the 7-Eleven video and coos, "Aw, look. He's wearing ... well, something exotic and colorful, let's not get hung up on details. Celebrate diversity, right? Can we get him in the front row for the group shot? We may be eligible for a grant."
via ocregister.com
Interesting opinion piece. Steyn expands on multicultural relativism below:
Steyn's point is similar to the core thesis in C. S. Lewis', The Abolition of Man which I happen to be re-reading.
When Weird is Normal
Cartoon from Virus Comix
I was sent a link to a funny story on my life is average by a friend.
As I read the stories there not too many of them struck me as average.
Normality was anything but normal.
That set me to thinking, just what is normal/ average ? when it comes to people the description just doesn't seem to fit.
Who is this average Joe I hear so much about? When you actually meet Joe in person he's never that average.
We all have similarities but no one's alike we are all unique.
The comics right I don't think I've ever met an average person in my entire life.
The Myth of the Post-Racial Society
Interesting Article by Robert de Neufville over on Big think discussing the Myth of the post racial Society.
"Rather than showing that we have finally gotten beyond race, Obama's election makes it clear that we are still grappling with its role in our society. Indeed, it's precisely because race is still an issue that his election was such an important historic milestone. So we shouldn't take it as license to turn a blind eye to the racial issues in our society.
...........Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman argue that our reluctance to talk about race only allows the prejudices our kids naturally develop to go unchallenged. Likewise, as adults we shouldn't ignore the very real disparities that remain in the way we see and treat different races. We shouldn't use Obama, as Larry Wilmore jokedon The Daily Show, as "that convenient black friend every white person has to prove they're not racist." While we might like to believe that racial distinctions no longer really matter, pretending we don't see them won't make them go away."
I agree until we can raise issues of race without embarrassment and until old fashioned characterisations and stereotypes stop influencing our workplaces then there is no hope of a post racial society.
I think for a lot of people the election of president Obama was seen as a full stop, as an indication that American society had arrived . That the embarrassing race issue could finally be ignored.
This doesn’t mean we’ve not made progress it just means we’ve not arrived at the end of our journey.
If we are going to stop racial prejudice then we have to be able to challenge it constructively. To many people black or white, race, disability or sexuality can be the elephant in the room that no one talks about. We have to as Kyra Gaunt would put it “be willing to be offended” if we are going to make real progress in becoming a post racial or post anything society.
Creating a culture that can thrive in an environment of continual change.
Diversity,quality and change
I was asked to expand on what I meant by Quality in respect to diversity and explain a little bit more about Efficacy, Efficiency and Effectiveness so here goes.
How do you create an organisational culture that can cope with continual change? The answer is by embracing diversity. People change, their abilities change and their circumstances change.
If you have an organisational culture that embraces this you have an organisation that is adaptable, makes the most of its employees (from whatever background) and is open to new possibilities.
Focus on diversity to drive, direct and inspire positive continuous change.
- Diversity can give meaning to a change or quality drive.
- Focusing on Diversity provides a target making a difficult concept more easily definable.
- A Diversity focus can help the permanent drive to improve quality ( both personally and organisationally).
It’s important that everyone has a clear concept of quality otherwise they can’t realistically be expected to improve.
This means having clear definitions and if possible measurable quantities.
In addition, feedback is vital. People need to know what the results of their efforts are in the real world.
One popular way of analysing and understanding quality is to use the three E’s
The three E’s help you keep a broad diversity friendly focus when setting your quality objectives or targets.More efficient shouldn't mean less human. A process, procedure or activity can’t really be truly effective if it excludes, discriminates or fails to take advantage of the diversity in the workforce.
- Efficacy – how well something does its job
- Efficiency – how efficiently it gets done in terms of time, money and resources
- Effectiveness – how well it achieves overall objectives (is it doing the right job?)
The three E’s help you keep a broad diversity friendly focus when setting your quality objectives or targets.More efficient shouldn't mean less human. A process, procedure or activity can’t really be truly effective if it excludes, discriminates or fails to take advantage of the diversity in the workforce.
(C) You can take what I say, quote it, use it and reproduce it, but don’t steal it, thanks Warren
Beyond bureaucracy – the urban ascetic perspective
I loved the talk by Barry Schwartz summarised in the last post. My only issue was I felt it didn’t go far enough in terms of advancing practical advice.
After years of both following and trying to implement rules and procedures relating to race and equality, here’s my contribution.
At the end of the day it’s about effectiveness Focus on how well someone does their job not just how efficiently they carry out their tasks.All decent quality reviews consider three dimensions, Efficacy, Efficiency and Effectiveness. It’s typical for bureaucracy to get overly concerned with effectiveness to the detriment of the other two. Strategic decisions focus on all three with the greatest focus being on effectiveness.If you are in an organisation working with or dealing with people (customers, patients, clients etc) then part of your effectiveness will depend on how well you interact with people in your environment.
This rarely shows up directly in performance figures unless it’s a specific element of a job. Even then the real importance of personal interactions and responses to true effectiveness is often underestimated. It shouldn’t be. I think the key is to create more human institutions. This means work built around people rather than abstract job roles. It is not about being less focused on function or skills it simply means being more human centred when considering what’s involved. Real jobs, for Real PeopleWhen someone leaves they create a person shaped hole. No two people are alike. Create job specifications that details what you need and what you would like, then be flexible about how it gets done and consider what unlooked for benefits a new person brings to the table. In reality Job roles shrink or grow over time as people and circumstances change. The focus is always on what the organisation needs now.
This is not necessarily the same thing as what they had before, even if what they had before worked well.
New people mean new opportunities and new solutions.You need to have a person not a calculator making decisions.Many rules coming down from on high are just that rules that must be obeyed no matter what.
They often ignore common sense and judgement, they were written by people assuming that those carrying them out are either lazy, stupid or both.If we are going to stop people acting counter to their own common sense and organisational interest we need more courage and more latitude. 9 human rules about rules (well they are really more what you’d call guidelines)
(C) You can take what I say, quote it, use it and reproduce it, but don’t steal it, thanks Warren
They often ignore common sense and judgement, they were written by people assuming that those carrying them out are either lazy, stupid or both.If we are going to stop people acting counter to their own common sense and organisational interest we need more courage and more latitude. 9 human rules about rules (well they are really more what you’d call guidelines)
- Many rules are written to meet legal constraints, make sure they work towards achieving organisational goals.
- If you are trying to introduce a new rule make sure there is a way to ‘suspend and fix it’ quickly if it proves to be stupid.
- Look for reasonable behaviour not set behaviour.
- Have strict rules when they are needed but also have guidelines that leave room for manoeuvre.
- It’s important to focus on efficiency and getting a job done but leave some redundancy and latitude for human interaction.
- Be reasonable with how many rules the average person is expected to obey.
- Have a person that understands the organisational objectives not just a calculator make the final decision on how or whether a new a new rule or policy should be implemented.
- No rule lasts forever have persistent feedback mechanisms that work in place.
- Remember its ‘effectiveness that’s key, does a rule or policy still help us achieve our overall objective.
(C) You can take what I say, quote it, use it and reproduce it, but don’t steal it, thanks Warren
The Paradoxes of Diversity
Quite a controversy these last couple of days, over the Deoband fatwa against the Vande Mataram. I always loved that song (and still do) and I sincerely hope they don't yield to political pressure and ban it just to appease the Deobandis! Much has been said, reported, blogged and tweeted on this topic, but one news report just caught my eye: http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article43180.ece
So here's a Muslim politician (Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi), who happens to be not just a member but a Veep of a hard-core Hindu right-wing political party (the BJP), criticizing the home minister (P Chidambaram), a Hindu Brahmin, for attending an event where a Muslim organization (Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind) adopted a resolution against the singing of a national song (Vande Mataram), calling it un-Islamic.
Several cultures across the world tolerate diversity, but a few seem to revel in it to the point of absurdity! THIS is why I love India. Show me one other country where you might find such contradictions and paradoxes. As much a source of levity as a cause for pride.
Vande Mataram!
