Cultural differences might be obvious, but understanding cultural nuances is much more challenging. It is the path least travelled by many corporations.
- By Peter Scott
The differences between people who are Chinese and American, or British and Indian, or Russian and Canadian, or any other cultural or national combination imaginable, can quickly become obvious during social interactions. In the past, cultural differences in the workplace did not get a lot of attention simply because largely, diversity, was minimal. It was not, by and large, considered the employer’s concern if the person born in China, the UK, Vietnam, India, or any other place, or had difficulty interacting with coworkers. All that mattered was that the work was getting done promptly and in a timely manner. However, Canada has been increasingly turning to a mobile, globalized workforce to fill a critical labor shortage. A diverse workforce has increasingly become the norm rather than the exception. Now, leadership talks about managing the diversity space; but, do corporations really understand the full implications of the process? In many cases, Shieh-Chi Chen does not think so. For this reason, she started 2Sisters Consulting to assist the conversation with respect to the cultural nuances that impact corporate culture and performance.
Shieh-Chi Chen is not a typical diversity and inclusion expert or certified executive coach. She is a Chinese woman who grew up in India and lived in the United States and Canada. As a result, her personal experiences are credentials most diversity experts wish they could claim. It is that experience, coupled with extensive formal higher education training in organizational change management, political science and coaching, that has led to her interest in helping corporate Canada better adapt to a multicultural and diverse workplace.
Always Looking Diverse
Early in her career, Shieh-Chi worked for the Canadian federal government in the Women’s Center where she quickly discovered that she needed to make some changes to adapt. As a Chinese woman raised in India, she needed advice on how to “fit in” through dress, presentation, and negotiating the organizational and political structures. That was the start of her journey into the diversity space. Shieh-Chi now has a deep knowledge of business, having done a lot of consulting work with large corporations. The product offered is unique. She helps senior executives and their companies better understand diverse workers, how their talents are best utilized, and how to positively leverage their differences in the workplace. Her honesty is refreshing when she says, “Sometimes senior managers toss about the right words in the workplace, but it is important to truly understand what workforce diversity really means because the country’s growth has been and will continue to be based on immigration.”
Shieh-Chi also points out that many of the immigrants look like her – a person of color. “We are not going to blend into the workforce in 2 or 3 generations. My 16-year old son will look Asian all of his life. He will never blend in the way the original European settlers and immigrants did.” The value proposition Shieh-Chi offers organizations is a better understanding of this diverse talent pool in terms of recruiting, nurturing, developing, and including people of color and diversity in the workplace.
Many of the immigrants to Canada are very well educated and can meet the financial requirements to enter the country as workers. These are accomplished, financially secure people, and Canada needs to keep them once they are recruited and hired. Unfortunately, some immigrants who want to immerse themselves in Canada’s culture say, for whatever reasons, that they do not feel welcomed and find themselves looking for employment in other countries such as the United States. This is a “brain drain” Canada cannot afford to continue.
“It is important to remember the creativity aspect of diversity,” says Shieh-Chi. Canada values its people and has faith in their ability to deliver quality products and services. Numerous studies have shown that a well-managed diverse team produces more innovative products than a mono-cultural team. Diversity is of enormous value to organizations that are looking for the slightest competitive edge.
Corporate Surprises
Shieh-Chi has worked with many large corporations, and they are often surprised by what they discover about their own organizations after consultation. An example Shieh-Chi offers is a large insurance company operating across Canada that decided to take a closer look at their broker relationships along gender lines.
What the company discovered was that women brokers worked differently because they are highly relationship-based . They used their relationship-based style to support each other and were aggressively growing their networks and business in spite of competing with the “good old boys” network. The women are not as complacent about getting or keeping their customers and were producing as one of the fastest growing sectors in the organization. However, no one had really looked at the insurance business from this perspective.
To begin the conversation about diversity, Shieh-Chi first explores what the client hopes to accomplish through diversity. “Managers need to learn to look at two perspectives in conversations with staff who are different from them. They must ask themselves, ‘Who am I in the conversation, and who you are in the conversation?’” How people view diversity is naturally reflected in their interactions with people of color as well as people of different cultures. How often do people say they are not sexist (or prejudiced) and as proof claim a best friend is a woman (or a man or a person of color, and so on)? “What does that mean exactly?” asks Shieh-Chi, “Are you really looking at that person as a person or is that person like a token you take out when a relevant issue comes up? As a consultant, I look at statements like these and ask what is behind the assumption and what is driving the conversation?”
Companies have diversity celebrations, but the real issue for management is how people are treated in the company during the regular course of a business day. Leadership must ask itself if the company hosting diversity activities, like cultural lunches do it mostly for public relations as opposed to having real organizational policies in place that promote diversity as part of the corporate culture. For instance, is leadership really supportive and do they demonstrate that support by speaking publicly about it? Do company representatives serve on boards or participate in community events like diversity conferences? Are there metrics to measure progress of recruitment and promotions rates? And finally, are human resources and management processes in place to support the diversity commitment?
Understanding cultural nuances is not always easy, but it is certainly worth the effort. Canadian corporations are discovering that diversity increases innovation and competitiveness. As the country continues to attract the world’s best talent, people like Shieh-Chi are there to help make the transition as beneficial as possible for all the stakeholders in the conversation.