Archives for September 2014

By: Rob Weidamoyer

The realization of being wrong about something can be surprising, expected, or even so commonplace that no reaction is generated. Teaching high school students allows me to see all of these occur on a daily basis and without any hesitation or attempt to shield the natural expression from others until after the fact. However, twelve years in public safety allowed me to see reactions no human should ever have to endure, especially those that have just learned a family member or loved one is no longer alive and in the absolute worst cases, saw what little may be left of that individual. Nature and Nurture (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2011) have demonstrated that not all leadership qualities are the direct result of just genetics and environment.

I spent a career learning from some of the best first responders in the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and New York City areas. Individuals who had seen things I couldn’t fathom, and were less affected by them due to years on the job of countless tragedies. These policemen, firefighters and other emergency service workers had leadership skills that absolutely could not be taught in a classroom and were not hereditary. They were the result of untenable environments and knowledge of previous incidents shared by those that came before them who knew passing along that information was the only way some of these people may survive. While all of the management skills in the world worked great back at a firehouse where gathering money and organizing a dinner required low level administrative effort, the ability to mitigate a life and death situation was actually less of a challenge for a group like this because they had more experience than any one person should ever know.

The picture below shows urgency that can only be experienced when a life is on the line.

The Human Factors in Change (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2011) are what allow some people to handle situations with ease when that same type of event would make others physically ill or give them nightmares for weeks. Surgeons see blood more than most people, but yet others faint at the sight of blood, so how can anything in the business world or even my classroom be effectively presented to employees, clients or students without risking the worst possible reactions? Adaptive Systems (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2011) allow for the mitigation of potential discomfort or even offensive presentations where these efforts can circumvent the usual roadblocks faced when attempts are made to shift operational details to increase productivity.

Positioning all of the desks in my classroom in an evenly spaced circle allows no one to hide in the back of the room as they are all now “up front”. A fire officer continuing to provide direction and motivation to his crew upon the discovery of a charred body allows them to still get the job done without being overwhelmed by the sight. Business managers can generate incentive programs for achievement in new production practices that may be initially met with heavy resistance. All of these examples are both forms of management and mitigation, but much like the constant misuse of the word “inspiration” when the speaker actually should be saying “motivation”, the clarity brought by knowing more skills can be learned from those around us if we follow their example of focus and drive by being open enough to accept that we may not have the best method in mind.

 

Reference:

FDNY Rescue 2 (2011) Available at: http://www.firecompanies.com/MFC/public/gallery_images/01317739480_orig.jpg. [Last Accessed September 27, 2014].

Moran, R.T, Harris, P.R, Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World,. Oxford: Routledge

Redmond, Brian (2014) Leadership in a Global Context. The Pennsylvania State University World Campus

 

“Cultural Diversity refers to the differences between people because of their culture of origin.” (PSU, 2014) It is very common to interact with people of many different cultures in our everyday lives.  I have worked with many people with different cultures.  I have never had an issue with anyone, I feel that regardless of what your culture is, we all do things and think differently. It is important to always respect one another, even if we don’t have the same beliefs.

Social Media is such a huge part of our everyday lives and people tend to voice their opinions very openly on there. Sometimes I don’t think that they remember that other people are reading it and it is offensive in some cases.  I see this a lot on facebook and it is very disturbing to me.  One minute a person is quoting bible verses, the next post will be bashing someone because of their ethnicity or culture. I have come to a point where I just delete the person because it gets that frustrating.

When I first started working, we were given regular vacation days and certain Christian holidays off.  Because of so many cultural differences within our organization, eventually we had to work on some of those Christian holidays, however we were given “floating holidays”, which means we can use them for any holiday that an employee wanted to use to celebrate their specific religion. “A paid floating holiday, or two, allows employees to take paid time off when their practices don’t match the typical work schedule. A floating holiday allows an employee to take any day off, for any reason, as he or she needs the day.”(humanresources.about.com) This is a typical practice of many organizations. Cultural Diversity is being recognized in many organizations; therefore people should accept that it is part of our society.

With the way that society is and the constant violence in our world, I believe that if we could all just love and respect each other, it would improve matters.  I don’t think that anyone has a right to judge someone on their beliefs, as long as they aren’t doing harm to anyone.  The constant hate against each other needs to stop.

Pennsylvania State University. (2014) LER 497B: Lesson 3 Diversity. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

http://humanresources.about.com/od/employeeleave/g/floating-holiday.htm retrieved on September 28,2014

 

After being sick for four months straight and slowly losing all my weight, I finally got diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis in June 2013. The doctor prescribed me steroids and told me to eat as much as I can to gain weight. I was 80 pounds at that time. Presto! Within three days, I was normal and eating numerous bowls of my favorite food like Ice cream, cakes, and brownies as snacks each day. French fries were my breakfast and fattening greasy yummy Indian food were my lunch and dinner. Alas, within two months I got sick again. The doctor increased my steroid dose to the maximum and again within two days I was fine and on my way to gaining weight again. Unfortunately, yet again only a month later, I got sick. I was getting tired of this vicious cycle. Something was not right. A change was needed. Right at this moment, I went through what Schein describes as the process of ‘Unfreezing’. My motivation to change had been created. Unfreezing is stage 1 in Schein’s three-stage model of planned stage.

Stage 2: Changing of Scheins three-stage model of planned changed was the hardest part of the whole concept. Schein provided us with two main mechanism for achieving this change. The first one being identification: connecting with a respected person and learning the new behaviors and/or attitudes from that person. Basically adopting a mentor who has gone through the change himself. In my case, my mentor was a group of people from online discussion forum who had also started on the path of eating healthy and shared their experiences there. They provided me with lots of success stories and helpful tips to succeed in this new diet such as never starve yourself and take several small meals a day so you never feel hungry. Also, satisfy your cravings by eating something on the ‘naughty’ list once a month in moderation so you don’t feel the need to binge eat. I also found numerous healthy recipes online and by adopting the second mechanism of change by ‘scanning the environment’. I discovered an air fryer, which cooks with only a few drops of oil, and mainly through hot air hence we were able to eat delicious food that would otherwise have been considered unhealthy due to the amount of oil in them.

The final stage in Schein’s (1980) planned change theory is stabilizing the changes by freezing the new behaviors into the standard behavior. There are two mechanisms in the refreezing stage: fit to self-concept and whether significant others will accept and confirm the changes. The fit to self-concept mechanism is about being able to test the new behaviors or attitudes to see how well they fit with the person him or herself. This works best if there is a safe environment in the organization to try the change (i.e., without repercussions when failed and with support from others involved). It is important to note that just because people show the changed behavior once or even a few times, that does not necessarily mean that it is a permanent behavior. They can regress to the old ways if that supportive environment is not present. We started this new lifestyle in December during the holidays. Hence, we were not met with any resistance and thankfully were able to sustain this process.The second mechanism in the refreezing stage is highly related to the first. It is about whether significant others in the organization will accept the changes in the person’s behavior as well as confirm it through organizational supports, such as changing technology to match the new behavior or providing access to the people needed to accomplish the changes.(Penn State, 2014). In our case within the first month, positive changes started to happen. My father lost about 10 pounds in a month while I gained five pounds. These changed propelled us to keep going forward. So after the holidays when we ventured out into the social world, as soon as everyone saw the positive changes in us, they were extremely supportive and became encouraged themselves to try and change their life style. Thus it has now been a year and a half since we changed our life style through schein’s three-stage planned model of stage. I haven’t gotten sick again and I am being slowly weaned of all my medications while my family as a whole has also lost a lot of weight and are now great champions of healthy eating.

References:

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 5: Learning and Change in a global setting. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Picture 1 retrieved from:

http://www.radioactiverunner.com/?p=771

Picture 2 retrieved from:

http://www.justrun.org/JR_for_kids/diet_and_nutrition.htm

Picture 3 retrieved from:

http://ic-pod.typepad.com/design_at_the_edge/organisational_change/

Schein, E. H. (1980). Organizational psychology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

By: Rob Weidamoyer

A high school classroom is hardly the place anyone would expect to observe a necessity for communications that relay information through a high context, recognizing the listener’s base understanding for the subject and then using lower context clarity for explaining things from the foundation of the lesson. However, the need to use global communication methods in localized environments like classrooms or lecture halls is just as critical when providing information to individuals that are actually part of a global audience. While some truly global considerations like culture differences and attributions can be less of a concern with a room full of American teenagers, sensitivity to the families and guardians of these young people can’t be overlooked when assigning homework or creating information sheets that need to go home with the student.

The ineffectiveness of using local communication methods on a global scale is relative to the size of any organization’s globe and its intended audience. If a classroom full of students in a general studies course includes individuals with special needs, those students will ultimately determine the pace at which the group progresses. An honors level course will move forward with little concern for those not working parallel to the standards of the curriculum because the expectation of a high context understanding is anticipated upon enrollment. Additionally, schools in areas where education is not viewed as the means to the end of an otherwise impoverished lifestyle that continues into adulthood will not experience great strides because the incentives are not tangible for those students.

The below chart shows a severe disparity between the amount of suspensions issued to African-American students compared to their Caucasian peers.

 

The immediate question for me as a teacher would be whether or not the school has clearly communicated the boundaries of acceptable behavior not just to the students, but also to the parents and guardians of these individuals as well. Some societal cultures are not fortunate enough to have families educated so sufficiently that they can understand school handbooks written like a crimes code. For those that see aberrant behavior glorified by entertainers who look, dress and speak the way they do, their assumption of acceptable behavior makes sense when the adults in their home lives don’t have the ability to relay high context writings in a low context manner that will be recognized and understood by their children. This inequality reaches a boiling point when whole communities then use those school handbooks as ammunition for claims of oppression because the school didn’t ensure understanding and those protesting are looking for justifiable answers.

There may be an advantage to my position as a music teacher that allows me to see both sides of this situation and maintain an understanding because I have every variation of student in my classroom. Many of my students communicate in a high context during school, only to go home to a low context world that they hope to escape one day. These students usually have a self-awareness and work ethic that ignores the societal assumption that their upbringing determines how they communicate. Unfortunately, being a music teacher also forces me to acknowledge that the examples many of my students have outside of school including actors, musicians and other public figures directly contribute to the ability of my students to embrace anything but a low context level of communication that is coupled with even lower levels of intelligence. All of these factors suggest that ensuring communications including everything from school handbooks to furniture building manuals should use global approaches clear to all potential recipients of that communication.

Reference:

Coke, Tanya E. (2014). Schools are doling out suspensions “like Tic Tacs,” here are some ways to keep kids in the classroom. [ONLINE] Available at: http://hechingerreport.org/content/schools-doling-suspensions-like-tic-tacs-ways-keep-kids-belong-classroom_15294/. [Last Accessed September 21, 2014].

Communication is defined as  interpersonal acts that exchange meaning and information” (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2013, p. 126). The process of communication is fairly simple. An idea is produced and then molded into a message by an individual known as the sender. The person receiving the message is known as the receiver who then decodes it. This process has been labeled as Encoding-Decoding. Subsequently, if the receiver decides to pass on the message, his role will change into that of the sender. One thing that is important to note about the process of communication is that it always occurs in a context.

Moran (2013) expands on this concept of culture occurring in a context and endorses the importance of taking context and culture into consideration for both the sender and the receiver. For instance I visited Saudi Arabia a few years ago. While visiting a jewelry store, the call to prayer came on the loud speaker. Suddenly, all the store clerks just put down the jewelry and walked outside without a word. I was perplexed, I tried to stop one of them and ask if we were the reason they were leaving but they just got annoyed. Later, I realized that majority of the transactions stop for a while when the ‘azaan’ call to prayer starts.  Me stopping the clerk to ask was a gaffe. When the azaan comes on you are not supposed to communicate during it, just listen politely. Hence you have to be very cautious about when and how you communicate.

Edward Hall, a prominent anthropologist differentiates between two types of context-cultures: High or low context cultures. High-context culture utilizes more ambiguous methods of communication. Messages are in either physical context or internalized in the person with little communicated in the explicit words. Japan, Saudi Arabia & Spain are cultures that are occupied in high-context communications. In such cultures, the listener is already ‘in the loop’, already ‘contexted’ and thus do not need to updated. While in low-context cultures such as Canada or the United States, the listener knows very little and has to be filled in about everything from the start. Thus it is crucial that people acknowledge what kind of culture they come from and what kind of culture they are dealing with in their everyday life to avoid any kind of communication misunderstandings. A person coming from a high context culture would get annoyed when dealing with some one from a low context culture person because they would have to explain every little detail to them. Thus individuals should not take communication lightly and should pay more heed to how they are conducting it, especially taking body language into consideration. For example Hand gestures: Moran gives the example of a Canadian patting a child on the head being an affectionate gesture while in Malaysia the head is considered the source of one’s intellect and should not be touched. One should always remember that communication is irreversible. You cannot take it back. For example once you send a text message it’s done, you can’t erase it!

References:

Moran, R.T, Harris, P.R, Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford: Routledge

Picture retrieved from:

http://beaconnews.ca/calgary/2011/11/how-culture-controls-communication/

Redmond, Brian (2014) Lesson 4, Global Communication. The Pennsylvania State University: World Campus

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2013). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage.

 

 

One of the most important pieces of communication is the decision that results from this interaction.  As I trudge through the day to day responsibilities in an organization that is continuously making error after error, I can’t help but think about how these poor decisions come about.  Bazerman and Moore (2012) said that if we were all appropriately humble about the quality of our judgements, we could easily double check our opinions and correct our flaws.  They call this overconfidence which is one of the big reasons that we make poor decisions, but before the decision is the communication process where overconfidence sounds a lot like egocentrism.

Redmond (2014) described egocentrism as an inability to take on other people’s perspectives.  I think that egocentrism and overconfidence are some of the most difficult challenges we face when communicating.  Redmond (2014) said that communication is something so basic to being human that we almost never consciously think about it.  But when poor decisions arise, how often would the communication process get blamed?  I’m noticing it very rarely does.  We think we’re great at it when we really aren’t.  Professional athletes still practice the fundamentals and I think that listening and confirmation of proper interpretation are the fundamentals of communication but we are rarely aware of their necessity.  Moran (2011) talked of practical guidelines that will result in more effective communication, one of them being, communication does not necessarily mean understanding.  Even when two individuals agree that they are communicating or talking to each other, does not mean that they understand each other.  Understanding occurs when the two individuals have the same interpretation of the symbols being used in the communication process, whether the symbols are words or gestures (p. 47).  These errors exist and they take place often and they seem like such a simple fix.  We just have to go back to the basics.  Like the athlete the messes up a play and says, “I need to go back to the fundamentals” and they build their skills back up from there, so should we.

So where do we start?  Well it starts with awareness.  We need to be aware that we are making these errors.  This is something that I’ve actually been putting a lot of thought into lately and began to develop a potential solution.  What if all offices had a “decision room” built into it.  You could convert one of the conference rooms.  The decision room would include several of the most common biases, errors or pitfalls that occur when a group makes a decision, printed on the wall.  Each time a group wants to get together to make a decision, they do it in this room where they will be reminded and become aware of the errors they commonly make and attempt to avoid them.  The decision room could not only help make you aware of these errors. but it could also provide instructions or techniques on how to avoid them.  With better communication comes better decisions.

Egocentrism is easy to fall victim to and after plenty of practice, it soon becomes second nature to avoid it.  Having been working on opening my mind to other’s perspectives, I’ve found that not only do I feel as though I’m making better decisions but it’s led me to opening my mind to other biases or errors that I typically make.  I could say that this has made a difference in the way I lead my team as well as how I interact with my peers.  Communication can be easy but difficult to get right and an open mind and a little practice could help us all be better at it.

 

References:

 

Bazerman, M., & Moore, D. (2012). Judgement in managerial decision making (8th ed.). Hoboken: Wiley.

Moran, R. T., Harris, P. R., Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford: Routledge

Redmond, Brian (2014) Lesson 4, Global Communication. The Pennsylvania State University: World Campus

Errors can occur in the communication process, especially when trying to communicate across cultures.  There can be simple misunderstandings that can lead to simple solutions and there are simple misunderstandings that can lead to grave results (Moran and Moran, 2011, pg. 48).  In 1999, I’d traveled in and around Latin America and the Caribbean on various efforts to remediate program code in various accounting offices for a major logistics provider.  The accounting programs were written in various types of program languages with syntax written in different languages.  Overall I think the multilingual, multi-country project incorporated over 25 different languages or variations, 20 different programming languages and almost 40 countries.  Let’s just say that the practical guidelines that (Moran and Moran, 2011, pg. 47) propose to follow for more effective intercultural communication were challenged on a daily basis.  As discussed in the opening paragraph, the simple error in translation highlights that “communication does not necessarily mean understanding” and the story behind it will prove that as cultural variables and differences increase the number of communication understandings also increase (Moran et al, 2011, pg. 48).

Speaking Spanish wasn’t easy.  As a kid I took five years of French and used it about once a year when I flew to Montreal to play hockey; but living in South Florida and working in Miami I was encultured by the Latino community and forced myself to learn how to speak various dialects and variants with phonetic and grammar differences.  This helped certainly when immersed in a foreign South American country for the first time meeting a 65 year old programmer that had used a version of code that we typically learn as seniors in high school to help maintain the shipping manifesto and customer data for billing verification.

While the challenges were many, I am reminded of a particular cultural gaffe that happened to me in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  The accounting office in Argentina was in a terribly poor area outside Buenos Aires and you typically didn’t leave the gated compound during the day unless it was to the 2 hour lunch accompanied by your peers and bodyguard and so we became very close.  I would travel there for a few weeks at a time and work through the challenges of translating the code to see if we needed to remediate it for Y2K compliance and our days were long and boring and so we’d typically break out at 2PM and have tea or what the locals called Mate (pronounced Mah-te it was a caffeinated beverage made from the yerba mate plant).  Well this wasn’t any tea break it was a ritual social gathering where we would all exchange stories and take a break from the day.  Mate is typically enjoyed in a social setting and one person prepares the drink and it is served in a gourd like container with a metal straw from which each person around the social group takes a sip and passes it on.  What I witnessed the few times before I engaged was each person took a sip on the first round and talked about what was on their mind and as it went around the circle more and more discussion resulted from the social and the polite listening turned active listening (Moran et al, 2011).  By sharing meaning while being engaged in this social atmosphere created great communication and helped break down the gaps, whatever they may have been.  After witnessing this for a few days I asked politely if I could engage and they complied; and after checking online various times that night to confirm what Mate was and how to drink it I was all prepared for the next day.

I really didn’t know what to say when the Mate was given to me and when I took a sip (I was third in the circle) I realized that it was hot, like wicked hot!  So, without prevail I thought I would announce to the audience that it was hot!  So, being the cultured guy I was, I proceeded to say in my perfect Spanish, “Estoy caliente!”  Well, what I didn’t realize is that in Uruguay and Argentina that meant “I’m horny”.

And as I passed the Mate to the next person who was a female (around my age at the time) she blushed, said something in Spanish too fast for me to understand and everyone started laughing.  I’m not talking about just smirking and ha ha. It was pure belly laughing.  Finally, when the group calmed down the girl next to me spoke to me (in English) and told me what happened and what I should have said in Spanish was “Hace Calor” or “It’s hot”. Well you can imagine how red my face was when I found out what I really said and when I asked her what she said that had the group in stitches she told me that she had told everyone it was because of her and not the tea!

To make a long story short the story became folklore and every time that I visited the folks in Argentina over the next few years I was always known as the “hot” guy and in fact it was a great ice breaker when meeting new folks in the project as the story made it’s rounds.  Things get lost in translation all the time and the interesting part of the communication breakdown is that it could have gone in a different direction but because I was trying hard to learn the culture and how to communicate the team welcomed me and looked past my lingual shortcomings.  The “team” was a good bunch of people and they looked past my erroneous interpretation because I was conveying to them that I was trying to part of their team.

Communication Process, Figure 4.1 (based on Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2013, p. 234). and adapted & reprinted from PSU (2014) OLEAD 497B: Lesson 4 Global Communication

Pennsylvania State University. (2014). OLEAD 497B: Lesson 4 Global Communication. Retrieved at: https://cms.psu.edu

Moran, R. T., Harris,P. R., Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford: Routledge

The war of 1812 was over before the Battle of New Orleans was ever fought. Andrew Jackson led his troops to victory for basically nothing. Why is this being brought up you ask? Because today communication is instant and it is all around us. Everywhere you look people are texting or talking on their smartphones. Business works the same way. With the click of a mouse, messages are communicated instantly across the globe. But how are our messages interpreted? Have you ever read a text and thought a person was mad at you? Body Language makes up most of our communication but how do you know what someone is saying when they aren’t in front of you?

From personal experience, time and time again, if one of my co-workers would have picked up a phone, hour long meetings would have been avoided. The problem with email communication is that many times, we read an email and misunderstand what is really being communicated. We read a person yelling, or arguing or being manipulative when really, none of those things are happening. Sometimes, we read what we want to hear. The communication process through email is entirely different than through face to face communication.

During face to face communication, there is a sender to receiver process. That involves what is referred to as decoding and encoding. This part of the process is where we decide what is being said or heard. The process starts over and continues. Through email communications, you are only reading the words of what is being said, not what that persons intent was. It is extremely important to consider the words being used and how you are using them when sending emails or texts. In a study by Kruger, Epley, Parker and Ng (2005) it was found that 13% of communication was interpreted wrong. In my busy day, 13% of my emails being interpreted wrong would mean a lot of people are mad at me. If this is an issue at companies around the country, imagine what it’s like communicating across cultures in a global business world.

My Organization employees many people from Africa, Kenya specifically. Communicating with the difference in our culture is often hard due to our language barrier. I once had a co-worker who never understood why one of his staff always called or came into the office to communicate with him. That staff was from Kenya while his boss was from America. There was a language barrier that he (The staff from Kenya) often thought was actually worse through email. He felt it was more comfortable to speak in person or over the phone. He did not understand when his supervisor was being sarcastic or if he was happy or mad. This is an important concept for all of us to take into consideration when dealing with different cultures.

Sometimes, I think we lose a lot of communication by not picking up the phone or walking down the hall to someone’s office and engage in a more personal conversation. I think some find it easier to communicate through text or email because they can discuss harsher or more difficult topics without being next to the person. In the world of business, I believe this is wrong. We should all take a lesson from that staff at my Organization whose manager thought he was wrong always picking up the phone or driving to the office.

Reference:

Moran, R.T, Harris, P.R, Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World. Oxford: Routledge

Redmond, Brian (2014) Lesson 4, Global Communication. The Pennsylvania State University: World Campus

 

By: Rob Weidamoyer

Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world’s richest people is quoted in our text as saying that “Only when the tide goes out do you find out who is not wearing a bathing suit” (Moran, 2011). This motivates an excellent question in a world overrun with organizations going out of their way to tell anyone that will listen just how diverse they are and how having more women, minorities, or ethnicities somehow makes them better at all aspects of their existence. The trouble with this ideology is that unless the individuals hired to be flag poles for the diversity banners are actually the best people for that job, the boasting is pompous and unjustified. Profiling is frowned upon when it comes to race or beliefs, but it should be required when interviewing candidates for jobs that require high levels of competency.

During my career in the public safety field, I presented my white, male bosses with the resume of a young Israeli woman I had just interviewed that could not have been more than 5 feet, 5 inches tall and slightly more than a hundred pounds. The candidate had a master’s degree in communications from a well known university and completed her required service in the Israeli Defense Forces where she trained soldiers as a Krav Maga instructor after having learned the fighting style in her early teens. On paper, the woman could not have been more qualified, but my superiors questioned her ability to successfully do the job here without getting herself or anyone else hurt or killed because of her size and appearance. They changed their minds immediately when an African-American colleague of mine who at 6 feet 5 inches and over 250 pounds that could have easily played professional football, told the directors that she scared him and all he did was shake her hand.

It has become increasingly apparent to me that sometimes a fear of the unknown is enough to remove a qualified person from an equation and it is a practice that needs to be stopped as soon as possible. Every job applicant coming through a potential employer’s door could have the right references, resume and experience, but overlooking that for the sake of maintaining a false sense of diversity is not going to assist those who the diversification efforts were designed to help. The below graph shows the steady balancing of police forces in Canada from 1985 through 2006 where the overall number of officers has increased by roughly ten thousand, most of those jobs have been filled by well-qualified female recruits.

The above graph is an excellent illustration of the way diversity should be included in an existing workforce, rather than attempting to turn away qualified applicants that aren’t part of a quota. Realizing this, many employers have adopted the Equal Opportunity method of hiring when possible, even though some jobs with physical limitations will always be restrictive in nature. Some businesses have tried the “Apollonian” (Moran, 2011, p.16) approach of staying the course and not advertising in or removing themselves from the diversity game with no notable success or loss in either direction. The Nitoryu (Moran, 2011, p.66) style of handling two swords at one time, or in this case, maintaining an existing workforce while trying to integrate extremely diverse new hires has been difficult for many businesses and all but abandoned by some.

Lastly, watching the everyday interactions of my high school students in a very diverse area of the state reminds me that the ignorance towards differences in the adult world are developed over time and not with us when we are born, as some of my students haven’t been on the planet long enough to appreciate or dislike those whom are different. However, some do demonstrate behaviors fostered in home environments that make me worry for them as adults in the real world and their ability to stay out of trouble. Eventually some planets may align and allow for differences to only be recognized on the level of human character and not appearance, but until then the responsibility is on the world to promote acceptance, not tolerance that suggests someone’s differences must be endured rather than treated no differently than anyone else whether it’s on the street, the playground, or in my classroom.

Moran, R.T, Harris, P.R, Moran, S.V. (2011) Managing Cultural Differences Leadership Skills and Strategies for Working in a Global World,. Oxford: Routledge

Redmond, Brian (2014) Leadership in a Global Context. The Pennsylvania State University World Campus

Image 1- http://www.mypolice.ca/police_statistics/statistics_Canada.html