Ram K. Kasturi's Diversity Management

In my earlier jobs I had a colleague, a minority caucasian race who was quite religious but very brilliant and hard working person. She was sent on a visit to a bit conservative place on business. On her return she came back to me and said that she wanted to talk to me.She told me that she should not have been sent on a visit to such places.I was just terrifed thinking that something serious must have happened I asked her "Why?" .In minutes she broke down in tears. and you can guess what must be my state of mind . On a prolonged dialogue I was able to learn that she was upset because she was totally ignored in a restaurant she went to by the waiters and waitresses and she had to wait for a very longtime before she could place an order. You can possibly guess how relieved I was as a manager to know that this was so simple..

in another incident my group and I were sitting along with my new boss in a group meeting and my boss was reviewing the progress on the projects and planning. After Zaheer, one of my colleagues completed his presentation my boss criticized him badly with such severity that it surprised me. I thought that Zaheer did a fairly good job and though some problems were there in the planning they are not so bad that we could not have corrected. Coming from an young person like Zaheer, without much experience they were not really unthinkable blunders, I felt. As days progressed I have learnt more about my new boss and realized his prejudices are very deep rooted and thought that these prejudices may have contributed to the way he reacted toward Zaheer.

Corporations have undergone a sea change in the profile of the persons they have to work with inside and outside the organizations.This diversity has also brought a new emotional landscape into organizations. Economics does not pay attention to diversity and merely uses the law of efficiency- do it the in the most cost effective way without sacrificng quality. The software industry is a very good example where we find highly diverse groups working together on common projects and all of them need to refine their skills in communication(please refer to my blog post on communcation in the hub pages) and project management, especially handling the diversity aspect. .Corporations must impart a training in dealing with the new emotional landscape along with the hard skills to be successful.

Dealing with Diversity

Managers are often reviewing the work progress, which requires some harsh statements that may be perceived as criticism. While managers try to justify that criticism is a part of their job and any employee who is very sensitive to criticism should not be there. Managers tend to forget that their own inner prejudices, bias and lack of skill in offering artful critque could be equally responsible. Many very bright managers have been total failures when it comes to people and managing them effectively..

Dr. Vamik Volkan, a psychiatrist , has pointed out that hatred between groups are kept alive for many years and loyalty to one group can be antipathy towards another group. Emotions and prejudices are formed early in our life and beliefs come later.Our beliefs are what we use to justify our prejudices.(Thomas Pettigrew). It is far easier to change intellectual belief than prejudices. The discomfort experienced by two men of different religions or races could be due to their deep rooted prejudices though they no longer feel the prejudice.Subtle biases persist and the expression of bias can be supressed even if the attitude cannot be eliminated. It helps managers to be aware of these factors when dealing with employees partilcularly from diverse cultures and backgrounds. I offer here some tips derived from Harry Levinson a psychoanalyst and corporate consultant. In his book, "emotional intelligence", Daniel Coleman also writes about this. I have added a few on my own expereince in management. Coleman calls it an art I call it science hence the slash bewtween  art and science. I think it will be useful to know your views and experiences too..

The Art/Science of Criticism.

1. Do not hold your anger and blurt out all of it one day with massive criticism but try to do it peridically in a constructive way.

2. Try to plan what you will say and how to to put it taking into consideration your prejudices. if any.

3. Dont let your bias and prejudices play a role.

4. Try to be specific- try to give examples of specific incidents that illustrate what you say. Speficity is important for praise also.

5. Include solutions- try to offer some solution on how to fix the problem or ask for suggestions from the receiver.

6. Do not criticise through memos or in public, do it one-to-one basis in private. At home also try not to criticise your spouse also in presence of children if you are married person

7. Have an empathy-try to be atuned to the impact your criticism can have on the receiver of the criticism. .

8. Explain that your criticism is to help him/her  do better and it is not your intention to attack him/her personally..

9. Thank the receiver for listening to you and keep smiling to them and do not make a grumpy face every time you see them later or avoid them.

All the best