Team Diversity Basics

I’m studying the Optimizing Diversity on Teams course on Coursera. These are my revision notes for week 2.

Diversity Matters and So Do Our Biases

• Ethnically diverse and gender diverse companies financially outperform their counterparts
• Diversity on it’s own is not enough
• Baby-faced individuals are thought of more honest, naive and trustworthy than others
  • Study using a fictional peace offer from Palestinian leader: offer from a baby faced leader more often accepted
• Stereotypes and bias
  • Shape our daily interactions, cause conflict and shape trust
  • We must be aware of our own biases – you may think you’re being completely fair when your actually being completely biased
• Benevolent sexism:
  • Managers who “protect” women from difficult assignments, and so limiting their opportunities for career growth
  • Offering to help women when the help is not asked for, which can reduce confidence
  • More time and money given to older male colleagues due to unconscious bias
• Hidden bias has consequences for employee retention and burnout
  • Only 1 in 10 women say they leave the workplace for maternity reasons
• Elements of an inclusive culture:
  • hosting of affinity groups
  • training on hidden bias
  • channels for employees to provide input

Social Identity Theory

• Social Identity Theory (from Simply Psychology)
  • Social identity is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s).
  • Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.
  • In order to increase our self-image:
    • we enhance the status of the group to which we belong
    • by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group
  • We divide the world into “them” and “us” based through a process of social categorisation
    • This is known as in-group (us) and out-group (them)
    • Social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image.
  • Stereotyping is based on a normal cognitive process: the tendency to group things together. In doing so we tend to exaggerate:
    1. the differences between groups
    2. the similarities of things in the same group.
  • Examples of in-groups and out-groups
    • Northern Ireland: Catholics – Protestants
    • Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis
    • Yugoslavia: the Bosnians and Serbs
    • Germany: Jews and the Nazis
    • Politics: Labor and the Conservatives
    • Football: Liverpool and Man Utd
    • Gender: Males and Females
    • Social Class: Middle and Working Classes
  • Three mental processes involved in evaluating others as “us” or “them”, which take place in a particular order:
    • Social categorisation
      • We can assign people to a category then that tells us things about those people (or ourselves, based on the category we place ourselves in)
    • Social identification
      • We adopt the identity of the group we have categorised ourselves as belonging to
    • Social comparison
      • Once we have categorised ourselves as part of a group and have identified with that group we then tend to compare that group with other groups
      • This is critical to understanding prejudice
        • Once two groups identify themselves as rivals, they are forced to compete in order for the members to maintain their self-esteem

Examples of Microaggressions

• Examples of Racial Microaggressions
  • Alien in own land
  • Ascription of intelligence
  • Colour blindness
  • Assumption of criminal status
  • Denial of individual racism
  • Myth of meritocracy
  • Pathologizing cultural value / communication styles
  • Second-class citizen
  • Environmental microaggressions
  • How to offend without really trying

Intro of Torian Richardson

• In order to have an awareness of the culture, you need to have a self-awareness as well
• See things in a neutral mindset – go into new situations with an open mind to alternatives
• US and Europe have very similar working cultures
• As an African-American working in Africa, it was very different

Diversity and Inclusion Issues on International Teams (Torian Richardson)

• People gravitate towards the things and people that we know
• Get to know each other’s families
• Intellectual curiosity helped people open up their doors, and bond better
• People in Africa come from a more tribal standpoint

Strategies for Adapting to a New Team Culture (Torian Richardson)

• Have a level of intellectual curiosity
  • “I would really like to learn something new today”
  • People pick up on when it’s authentic and genuine
• Get to know the people, their families, even the meanings behind public holidays
• Intentionality is important
  • In new venture in China, started with intention to lean three things
    • Relationships (guanxi)
    • Why is credit not used as much in China?
    • What about their food, and how it relates to their culture

Cases of Strategic Focus on Diversity and Inclusion (Torian Richardson)

• Barry-Wehmiller
  • CEO and chairman has a book called “Everybody Matters”
  • “People are at the core of every organisation”
• GlobalMindED
  • Non-profit
  • Brings together all stakeholders in education
  • Students put together an incubator, where they do a start-up pitch at local schools
  • Coming up with a set of questions that are universal – can be asked of any student. What are your interests, why are you here, what you may want to do after you graduate

Addressing a Critical Situation of Bias (Torian Richardson)

• Challenge at transport company: people felt as if there were some cultural and racial issues in the way that particular jobs that were given out
• How to address in a positive way without staying derogatory?
  • bring all the stakeholders to the table
  • looking for common ground
  • everyone who was involved was also involved in created the solution
  • solution was simple, but the process of arriving at the decision was most important

Cultivating the Right Mindset to Manage Diversity and Inclusion Issues

• Come in with the right attitude – I want to be positive
• Accountability – level of ownership
• Take action – actually have to take progressive action
• Sense of gratitude

Interview with Andrés Castro Samayoa

• Assistant Director of Assessment at the Centre for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania
• The way in which questions of race an ethnicity are coded into the fabric of the institution
• This happens because there is an explicit understanding of the need for shared identities between mentors and students
• Role models with shared identities make it easier to connect
• Examples of unintentionally marginalising students?
  • the ways in which you ask questions
  • how you end up talking to people
• Red flag: “We think we have a handle on this”.
  • Means people are closing out opportunities for learning
  • lifelong approach

Interview with Ann Tiao

• Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania
• Model minority myth
  • Started in the 1960’s
  • Asian Americans were rare in the 60’s
  • Article said that Asian Americans were “model” because they were more quiet, did not voice their opinions (in contrast to African Americans)
  • Divide and conquer minorities
  • Re-emerged in the 1980’s, it was pointed out that they were over-represented in campus
  • It’s not true
    • huge diversity!
    • 50 ethnicities, 100 languages
• Where are you from? (you don’t look like you come from here, or belong here)
• Be intentional: what triggers you? What response do you want to make?

Intro of Harvey Floyd II

• Organisational psychologist and executive coach

Strategies for Reducing Bias (Harvey Floyd II)

• Exercise around social identity
  • Aspects that are given (cannot change)
  • Aspects that are core to them
  • Aspects that are chosen
• Example of reducing bias
  • Problem with selection and development
  • Who’s missing, and needs to be present?
  • Open discussion up to them
  • Who’s best interest is it to get this right?

Questions that Help You Create a Diverse and Inclusive Team (Harvey Floyd II)

• How do we align our values, actions and practices?
• Discuss undiscussable issues, find a mechanism to discuss them
• What environment will allow this?
• Who’s on the team? Why?
• Who’s not on the team? Why?
• If I’m stepping outside of boundaries, do I have the authority?

Frameworks for Managing Difficult Conversations

• SBI – Situation, Behaviour, Impact
  • Feedback model
  • This looks like non-violent communication?
• Unconscious bias training