A few hours won't get you there

“Cross-Cultural Intelligence is the capability to function effectively across national, ethnic and organizational cultures.” (Livermore, 2015)

I cannot count how many times I have heard leaders say:

  • “Our company is committed to diversity, inclusion and equity.”
  • “We want our co-workers to believe that we are SERIOUS and COMMITTED to removing the invisible barriers of racism and exclusion.” 
  • “We want our work teams to feel heard, valued and respected.”
  • “Our teams will only be able to commit to a few hours of training, they still have to do their work.”

While participants may become engaged in a few hours – this introduction will only expose them to superficial, unfamiliar information about the long term effects of inter-generational hatred directed toward “marginalized groups.”

It will not offer the much deeper and required understanding of how our country’s race relations got to where they are today. 

While these sessions occur in and are about the workplace, participants start to realize that the topics have relevance in family and school settings. There is a spillover from work to home to school. Moreover, these topics spiral into parent-child and teacher-student conversations. Participants will ask facilitators, “What do I tell my black son about racism when another child calls him the “N” word?” or “What do I tell my daughter when the social science teacher says during a history lesson that America was built by blacks who were ‘involuntarily captured’ and brought to the US to help develop this great nation?” 

Early in these sessions, participants start to realize that “if they don’t talk about race relations with their children” they are blindsided by their children’s reactions to being teased as outsiders based on racial characteristics.  The results have shown that children in targeted marginalized groups will develop poor self-esteem with features of depression and/or aggression. Parents who avoid discussing racially loaded issues discover that they need to be more active in teaching their children how to respond to racial teasing. 

This work is complex.  And, a “window dressing – let’s check the DEI boxes” approach, while perhaps looking good on the outside, has nothing to do with real change. Real change – indeed Rehumanizing – takes time.