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To Protect and Serve
July 26, 2011
Aaron Kesher

There’s really never a good time to arrest anyone. However, as the F.B.I. showed during the recent arrest of a Florida imam, there are better times, and more effective ways, to approach such a potentially explosive situation.

Arrest procedures exist for good reasons, of course: to protect the lives of all involved—officers, suspects, and bystanders. And for that reason, these procedures are often seen to overrule any other considerations. Yet in this case, paying attention to the differences involved, and therefore adjusting the procedures, resolved the situation far more successfully than might have happened if the agents had gone by the book.

By making a few simple adaptations to the cultural context (waiting until prayers were finished, removing shoes in the mosque, addressing the imam in his native language, not handcuffing him until they had left the mosque and, perhaps most importantly, keeping the larger Muslim community respectfully informed), the lives of all involved were protected, the dignity of the suspect and the community were preserved, and a valuable model created for similar situations in the future, whatever the cultural context.

 

cultural differences
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Legislating Identity
May 20, 2011
Aaron Kesher

In a recent article about the current movement in the Minnesota legislature to ban gay marriage by amending the state’s constitution, Sen. Warren Limmer, the author of the bill, asked an interesting question in relation to the LGBT community and civil rights protections:

“[Sen. Limmer] offered his view on civil rights based on sexual orientation versus those based on race. “Sexual orientation may be perceived as more of action [sic],” he told the committee. “Do you teach a person to be black?””

Can you “teach a person to be black?” I would say yes, absolutely—by your interactions with them. Even if they don’t necessarily consider themselves to be black. And of course we’ve had plenty of laws in the history of this country that helped support that particular education, laws that any legislator would now condemn.

What’s the long-term social impact on legislating identity? Again, if history teaches us anything, it’s that the need to define someone, even in counter-intuitive sense of removing their ability to claim a particular identity (as in reducing gay identity to an “action”) is a step towards a dangerous edge, an edge that, as a country, we’ve stepped over before—to our own detriment.

It’s time we learned our lesson.

Cultural Moment
Gay marriage, gay rights legislation
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Knocking Down the Wall
February 9, 2011
Aaron Kesher

Here’s the common mistake: “If we just get some diversity in the door, inclusion won’t be a problem!” Nothing could be farther from the (and here I’m tempted to use a capital T) truth—these two words, “Diversity” and “Inclusion”, have no intrinsic connection, though we so often talk about them in the same breath.

Diversity is a noun, a thing, a rapidly growing fact; Inclusion is a state of being wherein those in an organization feel that they are respected and valued for who they are: necessarily diverse individuals. There may as well be a wall between them. However, if you’re the go-to person for diversity in your organization, and you don’t see that wall, you’ll end up beating your head against it and never understanding why you have such an enormous (not always metaphorical) headache.

The good news is that there are tools you can use to start knocking that wall down. The first and most basic is cultural self-awareness. To start making a connection between diversity (the fact of cultural difference) and inclusion (the acceptance of cultural difference) you need to first and foremost get a handle on your own cultural preferences, assumptions, and blind-spots. It doesn’t matter what your cultural background is or what experiences you’ve had in your life—I can guarantee you that you have some cultural preferences that you consider to be “right”, as opposed to someone else’s, which are just obviously “wrong.” Understanding the roots of those value judgments—why you believe what you believe— is the first step to being able to look at a situation from someone else’s cultural point of view. You may not agree with that view, but at least you can start the conversation understanding that their beliefs and values are just as important to them as yours are to you.

So, maybe at this point you’ve figured out I lied: Diversity and Inclusion are connected.

By you.

diversity, Inclusion
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2nd Annual IDI Conference
November 4, 2010
Aaron Kesher

deepSEE was at the Intercultural Development Inventory Conference this past week, both presenting and networking. It’s amazing how, even though I use this model every day, when I get together with others who use it and we get talking, new uses and subtleties emerge. One of the big announcements was that they’re almost ready to go live with an online community for Qualified Administrators. This is something I’ve been waiting for since I took the qualifying seminar almost two years ago, and I’m eager to get in there and start making some new connections!

In his opening Plenary Session, Dr. Hammer made a convincing point about how little effective cultural competency training is done for what you think would be common-sense areas: FBI hostage negotiators, Diplomats, CIA operatives, public school employees, and more. Anyone in any profession who deals regularly with cultural differences, especially in tense situations, will never be as effective at their job as they could be with a solid foundation of cultural competence.

Namita Eveloy and I presented a case study Friday morning on using the IDI/DMIS in the public schools. Sara Taylor presented our LEARN/ACT framework for putting a diversity initiative together using the IDI as a base assessment. Both presentations were well-received, and we look forward to continuing the many conversations we started!

IDI
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The Devil’s in the Definitions
September 29, 2010
Aaron Kesher

I talk with people all the time about “cultural difference.” Usually this is after having at least defined the word “culture”, but I’ve never been completely satisfied with this. I mean, okay, now maybe we have a definition of culture, and we’re all pretty clear on what “difference” means, but putting those two definitions together still doesn’t get at the experience of cultural difference.

So, here’s my new definition:

“Cultural difference is experienced when your expectations about what is right or good aren’t met in the course of an interaction with an organization or individual.”

Seem broad? Well, culture ain’t narrow.

This of course begs the question, “What makes up my expectations?” Good question, but it’ll have to wait for the next post…

Cultural Moment
Cultural Difference
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