Building capacity: Navigating organizational opportunities as if they were a subway system

8th Annual NW Diversity Learning Series (2006)

Session Two Summary:
Deciding Which Line to Take: Initiating and Negotiating Difficult Conversation about Career Goals and Aspirations

By Monica Ercolano

How do you initiate conversations about access to organizational opportunities if you are not quite sure how the dynamics work? The focus of this session was to delve into the dynamics, particularly those coming from the differences people bring to the situation.

The second session of the NW Diversity Learning Series (March 23, 2006) began with three video vignettes of difficult conversations about career advancement. The central character is Carlos, a Hispanic supervisor, who is seeking access to another career opportunity within his company.

The problem is that Carlos has one set of assumptions about how career advancement should work, and his boss has an entirely set of assumptions. The result? A cultural clash.

In the first session of the Series (February 17, 2006), we learned how white men's values intersect and align with many organizations' cultures. As a result, white men may find it easier and more comfortable to have conversations about their career goals and opportunities.

On the contrary, diverse employees may have difficulty having these same kinds of conversations. Too often, invisible culture clashes occur due to social values, assumptions about recognition and advancement, gender, educational background, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, job level, communication style (especially direct vs. indirect styles), interpretations of intent and impact, class, age, ethnicity and race, to name but a few.

Carlos' struggle - the vignettes

First we see Carlos first talking with one of the employees he supervises, a white Anglo woman having trouble getting to work on time. Second, we see Carlos asking one of his peers, a white Anglo man, about how to approach his boss about a promotion. Third, we see Carlos face to face with his boss, George, a white Anglo man, talking about a promotion into upper management.

Spoken and unspoken messages

Presenters Bill Proudman and Kristin Chung-mei Lensen instructed us, the participants, to identify both the spoken and unspoken messages operating among the characters in these three video vignettes.

Participants identified the following:

• Carlos is operating on a relationship level while George is looking for quantifiable data and results.
• Carlos operates on the assumption that a good job should be recognized without having to prove it; George on the contrary is looking for Carlos to promote himself and prove that he has the necessary skills.
• George was expecting Carlos to learn about the requirements and function of the new potential job before hand; Carlos does not appear to have thought how his current skills would transfer to the new job.
• George focuses on Carlos's team absenteeism rates (data) while Carlos focuses on the fact that his team has the highest productivity rates.
• Small talk initiated by Carlos does not appear to engage George.
• George interrupts the conversation with Carlos by taking up a phone call, thereby lessening Carlos' importance.
• It is evident that the discussion is not looking positive for Carlos' objective, and you can tell by Carlos' non-verbal behavior that this is a very difficult conversation for him.

Bill Proudman and Kristin Chung-mei Lensen used this exercise to clarify why difficult conversation are necessary and important as well as to clarify that white men, like any other cultural group, operate with assumptions, agreements, and language that tell them what to expect and how to behave in the world.

White men's culture characteristics

Bill described the most important characteristics of white male culture as:

• Rugged individualism (vs. collectivism - i.e. more of a group orientation)
• Low tolerance for uncertainty/ambiguity
• Focus on action over reflection (doing over being)
• Rationality over emotion
• Time is linear and future focused
• Status and rank over connection and partnership

By applying white men's culture characteristics to the context of the video vignette featuring Carlos and George, participants identified some of the "undiscussables" that made their conversation a difficult one. Some examples are as follows:

Why are difficult conversations necessary and important?

Bill Proudman and Kristin Chung-mei Lensen explained that difficult conversations are important because they:

• Narrow the gap between intent and impact.
• Build partnerships rather than create misunderstanding.
• Address conflict - both overt and covert.
• Raise morale by helping people feel heard and validated
• Represent essential skills for good managers and leaders.

Kristin pointed out that unattended difficult conversations may result in grievances and lawsuits.

Undiscussable questions

The presenters divided the participants into four caucus groups: Women of color, white women, men of color, white men. Their task: To come up with questions (often undiscussable) their group had about enhancing access to opportunity and career development, and if discussed would deepen their ability to partner effectively across difference. Participants were asked not to ask the questions using politically correct language, because this frame hinders honesty and authentic conversation. You can view the entire list of these questions posted on DiversityCentral.com in a separate document, Undiscussable Questions.

Our speakers provided participants with a model for effective diversity partnership to apply to difficult conversations. We have posted a separate document that presents the Diversity Partnership Skills.

Skills for difficult conversations

With a list of 36 difficult questions, now the stage was set to have some difficult conversations. The participants were organized into 4 dialogue groups with an inner circle of six to seven people surrounded by outer circle of 20 to 25 people. All participants had the opportunity to practice the Diversity Partnership Skills or to observe the practice.

Two individuals' comments seem to provide good summaries of this dialogue. The exercise was eye opening, it showed that no matter where we are coming from or what group we might belong to, we all want the same things and deal with same issues - we just pursue them differently.

No matter how difficult it could be initially, stepping out of one's own comfort zone and taking the opportunity to initiate a difficult conversation will help us grow.

Conclusion

Continuing the learning and dialogue begun in Session One of the Series, participants in this session had an opportunity to raise "undiscussable" questions about career aspirations. They also had the opportunity to increase their comfort in initiating difficult conversations and practice the skills for being an effective diversity partner in the career development process.

The 2006 NW Diversity Learning Series (now in its 9th year) focused on the theme, Building Capacity: Navigating organizational opportunities as if they were a subway system.

Using the metaphor of a subway system, each of the six-bi-monthly morning seminars explored some of the ways that access to organizational opportunities and career development are hidden and therefore more difficult for women and people of color, as well as people who speak English as a second language, to utilize. The purpose of this Series was for everyone to become more aware of organizational culture and how it impacts building people's capacity, and for everyone, managers and employees, to become better at navigating these cultural obstacles along career paths.

For more information about the NW Diversity Learning Series, please visit the Series section of our website.

2006 Series Sponsors:

Gold Sponsors:

Silver Sponsor:

Bronze Sponsor:

Supporting Sponsors: