I help clients to ‘use differences to get the job done’. Your business objectives come first. “What are you trying to do?” “Let’s see how you can utilize the differences in your organization or team to reach those objectives.” This involves changing mindsets and behaviors. All layers of culture or diversity need to be acknowledged. Culture is more than nationality. Diversity is more than gender or ethnic group. It is important to address the layers of culture or diversity (e.g. head versus regional office) that are particularly relevant for a specific organization or team. Changing mindsets is not enough. “What you will now do or say differently in the workplace” will be the measure of your success.
Sample assignments
Raised the cross-cultural and diversity themes explicitly in the design and facilitation of the first global meeting (100 participants) of a major business unit of an international services company. Doing this during the first session enabled this subject to be raised openly and constructively in subsequent business discussions and meetings.
Conducted background interviews with 15 members of a major project team for an international professional services firm where ‘national cultural misunderstandings’ were said to be significantly delaying the project timeline. The project owner wanted a cultural awareness program for the team. Based on the interviews, I recommended instead targeted coaching for the project leader and restructuring of the team.
each individual must acknowledge not only otherness in all its forms but also the plurality of his or her own identity, within societies that are themselves plural. Only in this way can cultural diversity be preserved as an adaptive process and as a capacity for expression, creation and innovation.chiro Matsuura