 | Multicultural Musings
The Diversity Advantage E-ZineNovember 2006
You are receiving this because you have shown an interest in supporting diversity and inclusion. It is my hope that the information you find in the following column is informative, useful and will on occasion cause you to smile. Feel free to forward this e-zine to your colleagues and friends. The more we spread the word, the sooner the world will see diversity as an advantage. If this was forwarded to you, you can sign up for your own copy by clicking here www.LenoraSpeaks.com
|
Special NOVEMBER Celebrations National Native American Indian Awareness Month
Child Safety and Protection Month
National Alzheimer's Disease Month
Good Nutrition Month
Latin American Month
National Adoption Month
American Diabetes Month
Family Stories Month
Lung Cancer Awareness Month
National Family Caregivers Month
2nd Week - National Children's Book Week
3rd Week - American Education Week
1 National Authors' Day (USA)
1 National Family Literacy Day (USA)
1 All Saints' Day (Christian)
2 All Souls' Day (Christian)
2 Dia de los Muertos (Hispanic)
7 Election Day (USA)
11 Veterans Day (USA)
13 World Kindness Day (UN)
15 America Recycles Day (USA)
20 Universal Children's Day (UN)
22 Stop the Violence Day (USA)
23 Thanksgiving Day (USA)
25 Int'l Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women (UN)
30 St. Andrew's Day (Scotland) |
|
A World of Inclusion: News of Interest Study Shows Teacher's Gender Matters
There are lots of differences between the sexes and here's one that might stir up debate: Boys learn more from men and girls learn more from women. That's the upshot of a study by Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College and visiting scholar at Stanford University. Dee says that gender matters when it comes to learning. Specifically, having a teacher of the opposite sex hurts a student's academic progress.
Source: www.teachersofcolor.com
|
|
Tips, Techniques & Ideas Can We Value Differences When We Can’t be Civil?
Have you ever observed or been a part of the following scenarios?
· You are seated at a busy upscale restaurant and the first words from the food server are, “Are you ready to order or do you need time?” It does not occur to the person to say, “Good afternoon,” or “Welcome.” · You call tech support when your computer locked up in the middle of an important project. The tech is from outside of the USA, and you are having difficulty communicating. You lose your temper while explaining the computer problem. · You are participating in a discussion about immigration, and you are verbally attacked because your opinion differs from the others present.
As these and other similar situations become more common, do you often wonder what really makes people so rude? I was recently asked by a college in Wyoming to deliver a keynote to their faculty and staff during their in-service day. I was asked to tailor my remarks to civility instead of diversity. My first assumption was that they just wanted me to avoid the “D” word. You know, talk about diversity but don’t use the word. Upon further investigation, I discovered the administration was very interested in building and sustaining a learning environment that respects differences of all kinds. After all, an institution of higher learning is the one place where diversity of all types should be encouraged.
The request to focus on civility came about due to the concern that too many people had a “short fuse” and the leadership wanted to foster a culture where disagreements were valued, not just tolerated. The client supported diversity and wanted its faculty and staff to learn how to disagree agreeably, and model a culture of sincere politeness. With the recent outbreaks of violence on school campuses, leadership wanted to be proactive. They were not confusing the notion of valuing diversity with civility; rather they believed they needed to focus on civility before addressing issues of diversity that would undoubtedly lead to discussions filled with differing opinions.
So why do otherwise normal people become so rude in certain situations? I believe there are at least three reasons:
- We don’t make the time to connect with others as fellow members of the human race first. The one thing we all have in common is that we are human. We all want to be loved, respected, and safe. We have forgotten to use “common” courtesies as a matter of course. Politeness is not “common” anymore. Our time is so compressed, we shortcut politeness to get to the point. In many ways technology has caused our lives to become more stressful instead of less. Everyone wants everything immediately. Email, voicemail and text messaging cause people to communicate indirectly, and this often leads to misunderstandings. When a problem arises and we need to connect directly with a stranger, we don’t even exchange pleasantries; we go right to the issue at hand. To address this issue the Ritz Carlton Hotels have succeeded in embedding courtesy into their culture. Their code is “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentleman.” All interactions with guests and employees are built upon this premise.
- We have become rigid in our thinking. Many believe their way is the only right way, thus anyone who sees things differently is immediately wrong. Today’s communities and workplaces are filled with people from different religions, ethnic groups, political views and ages. For example, for the first time in U.S. history there are four generations in the workplace at the same time, each with its own values and accepted behaviors. Without a conscious attempt to connect on a human level first, many people assume the other person is wrong or ignorant so the resulting exchange is one of intolerance.
- We live in a society of blame. If you start your day by reading the newspaper or watching TV news, you will see everything wrong with the world, people feeling victimized and searching for someone to blame. This focus then materializes in our behavior with comments such as “It’s not my fault!” or “You made me do it!”
Our lives do not have to be this way. We can influence our environment. We are responsible for our own actions. We can be civil toward each other even when we disagree with different points of view. The ensuing holiday season, which is often stress-filled, is a great time to refocus our efforts on civility. Try the following actions for the next thirty days, and observe the difference in your own interactions. Perhaps they will even become new habits!
- Before starting any conversation for the first time with your co-workers, service providers or strangers greet them by saying “Good morning,” or “Good afternoon.”
- Ask, “why do you think that…” before jumping to a conclusion about someone.
- Watch the news in the evening, instead of starting your day with bad news.
- Look for reasons to be grateful and find ways to be kind for no reason.
- Make the time to learn the most efficient uses of your email and database system.
- Schedule specific times to work on email instead of throughout the entire day.
- Schedule fun. Make appointments to meet friends; buy season tickets to the theater, etc.
- When someone says “thank you” to you, respond with “my pleasure” instead of “no problem.”
- When someone makes a potentially explosive statement that is not in the form of a question, respond with silence. If you must respond, try this. “Thank you for sharing. I see it this way… because…”
- Create a quiet space for yourself.
- Take a “cranky” quiz at www.whyiseveryonesocranky.com/quizzes
There are dozens of things we can do to return to civility. The first step is to follow Nike’s advice, and “just do it.” To address the needs of the above referenced client, I combined the key points from my two most popular programs, Turning Barriers into Bridges, and Becoming a Totally Responsible Person. After the presentation the group brainstormed dozens of specific ways to bring the ideas to action.
So what does civility have to do with valuing differences? Everything. Valuing differences is much more than being nice to others, for if we cannot slow down long enough to really connect to those different from ourselves, we cannot truly learn ways to understand and respect them.
2006 Excel Development Systems, Inc.
_________________________
Re-Print Permission
This article may be reprinted in it's entirety if the following conditions are met:
The following complete tagline with the author's name and contact information is included immediately after the article.
1. 2006 Excel Development Systems, Inc.
Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP is President of Excel Development Systems Inc., a full service diversity training and consulting company that helps organizations discover and utilize their diversity advantage. Lenora can be reached toll-free at 888-288-8885, or Lenora@LenoraSpeaks.com. Find additional articles at www.LenoraSpeaks.com.
2. A copy of the printed article is mailed to the author at PO Box 1628, Greensboro NC 27402 within 30 days of publication.
3. The article is presented in a positive light as part of an appropriate business related publication.
|
|
Learning Resource Highlight  November Special - New Product Offer
The Diversity Advantage is now available as an E-Book!
This book represents a conversational approach to sharing critical information about diversity. Using a question and answer format for easy reading, this book is filled with practical tips and dozens of resources to help you learn how to increase respect and inclusiveness in the workplace as well as in general life situations.
Regular price after November 30th is $17.00
Available after November 1st for an introductory price of $10.00.
Download immediately! No shipping fee! No waiting!
Click here to purchase your E-Book!
|
|
Ponder This... "Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.”
--Wendell Lewis Wilkie
|
|
Useful Links For your convenience we add to this section from time to time without deleting any links. The new editions will be marked with an asterisk *.
Black Enterprise Magazine
www.ctrsr.org - The Center for Sexuality and Religion is an educational, interfaith, and interdisciplinary organization that assists communities of faith to promote sexual and spiritual health.
www.DiversityInc.com - The leading online and in-print magazine reports current diversity news.
www.glaad.org - The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
www.hacu.net - Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities
www.HireDiversity.com - An excellent site that provides a link between today's multicultural professional and corporate America.
*info.monster.com/alliances/diversity - As the need for diverse talent grows, Monster's alliances with organizations focused on specific demographic communities help customers continue to recruit the best and most diverse talent. List of links to these organizations.
www.pflag.org - Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) is a national non-profit organization with over 200,000 members and supporters and over 500 affiliates in the United States.
www.splcenter.org - The Southern Poverty Law Center is internationally recognized for its work against racism and extremist groups.
* www.tolerance.org - Your willingness to examine your own possible biases is an important step in understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudice in our society. Take a Hidden Bias Test at this site to measure your unconscious, or automatic, biases.
Thank You in over 465 languages
Listen to Lenora's latest radio interview! She provides an in-depth discussion on the value of diversity and why organizations that embrace diversity have the advantage in today's competitive environment. Click here, then scroll down to the February 21, 2006 episode!. |
|
Diversity Factoids Between 1998 and 2005, the percentage of women in policymaking positions—such as state legislators, elected officials, high court judges, department heads, and top governor's advisers—went up only 1.6 percentage points, from 23.1 percent to 24.7 percent, according to the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society (CWIG). The gender gap is widest and most persistent in state legislatures, where the number of women has hovered around 22 percent since 1998.
According to Harvard's Project on Global Working Families, the United States is one of only five countries out of 168 studied that doesn't mandate some form of paid maternal leave. The only other advanced economy among those five was Australia's, where women are guaranteed a full year of unpaid leave. Only half of American workers get paid sick leave and only one-third get paid leave to take care of sick children, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research.
About 64 percent of U.S. voters say the nation is ready for a female president in 2008, according to a Siena Research Institute telephone poll in February 2006 of more than 1,100 registered voters in all 50 states. Eighty percent of women and 78 percent of men said they would vote for a woman president.
Nearly 22 percent of adults with severe disabilities have college degrees. Approximately 33 percent with mild disabilities had degrees and 43 percent of adults with no disabilities had degrees, according to a survey by the Census Bureau.
As the median household income stayed the same for non-Latino white households (about $48,000), black households (about $30,000), and Asian-American households (about $55,500) between 2002 and 2003, the median income for Latino households decreased by 2.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source: DiversityInc.com |
|
The Last Word..... "We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.."
Maya Angelou
|
|
About Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP is an internationally recognized speaker, diversity consultant, and author with more than twenty-five years experience in the public and private sectors. As an educator and keynoter, Lenora has developed a unique way of presenting sensitive topics in a high-energy, fun-filled, yet thought-provoking way. Call today to book her for your organization - 888.288.8885.
Helping you make diversity an advantage,
Lenora
Lenora Billings-Harris, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional)
lenora@LenoraSpeaks.com
888.288.8885 (toll free)
336.282.4443 (voice)
336.282.4487 (fax)
For more information, please go to
www.LenoraSpeaks.com |  |
|  |
