Strategic Communication Core Page

Anyone familiar with dealing with multicultural populations knows that virtually all individuals come to the table with previous ideas about what is right and what is wrong about the way people should be have. We are all seeking those who look like us, think like us, dress like us, act like us and that are perceived as belonging to us. These are our Mind Clones (See page 8), the people we feel comfortable with. They eat with the right hand, the walk the walk, we feel comfortable with them, they only come as close as we feel comfortable with. All in all, they are the ones most like us.

The fact that we feel more comfortable with them means we feel less comfortable with others the farther away from our chosen norm or Mind Clones a person is. And most of the ideas we have about these other Mind Clones are not natural, spontaneous behavior. They are ideas that we have been taught since birth about "the others", those not of our Mind Clone.

If we have pink skin, because of family, school and societal programming, experiencing other color skins are going to make us feel a little bit uncomfortable. From childhood we have been told "He’s not our kind" or "We don’t socialize with them", "Or don’t look at them". We have been programmed to want only to be with those of our own Mind Clone.

And that desire to be with those who are like us spills over onto the job floor with negative consequences.

For example, if we feel more comfortable with white males, chances are we as a manager will promote other white males. We want those like us since we have to interact with these managers all day. If we promote others who don’t come from our Mind Clone, we are setting ourselves up for a little bit of discomfort every time we interact with them.

On the surface, it would seem that an eager to enhance productivity American company could meet its goal for dealing with the Global Workforce by opening up communication channels. Get them talking to each other.

But the seductive simplicity of the "get them to socialize and talk to each other" solution ignores crucial factors in the evolutionary history of our culture, our species and our way of life. Without understanding where our country has come from, the "Conqueror mentally" most white men still hold, effective Global Workforce synergistic productivity will be impossible to achieve.

Unfortunately there is already communication going on in many work places. Everything from racial epitaphs, name calling, refusal to cooperate, deliberate insults are already being passed between the groups. Just getting them to talk has not stopped the racial hatred and hostilities.

For this reason, we are going to have to do more than try to get diversity and mainstream workers to talk to each other. We are going to have to find a way to remove the inner programs that they have been given about each other

How much attention has been placed on the inner beliefs both diversity and mainstream workers bring to the table in terms of creating community, supportive and highly productive work groups? How many supervisors simply ignore the racial slurs mainstream workers use with diversity workers because "it’s always been that way". Or they say, "they just have to get used to it".. "Its the way things are". "They have to toughen up". "Don’t be so sensitive"."

No supervisor with a clear view of his productivity goals will ever gloss over these types of remarks or racially negative behavior by his work force. He or she knows that if one diversity worker has to defend their self esteem against a racial remark, that energy they use will not go into productivity on the work floor. On the other hand, a corporate nation that wants to maximize its return on investment from every workers will avoid the trap of "hiding its head in the sand and hoping it will go away.

In this connection a few other traps must be avoided at all costs. First and foremost, is the erroneous notion that if you ignore a problem, it will eventually go away. Secondly is the belief that if a mainstream worker decides he will work with diversity workers in a productive way, he or she will be through will power, able to overcome a lifetime of negative ethnic mind cloning or racism. 

How do they overcome this? These ideas are residing in their brains as memory chips. Unfortunately they can come out at the most inopportune time, when the person is not expecting to feel this way. It’s not enough to tell them to "get along with everybody", they have to have support and training in changing their inner beliefs.

Even after you decide you will provide the training for your workers to change their inner beliefs, what about you? Are you sure you are free of negative ethnic Mind Cloning ideas yourself. Would you promote a Black worker as manager if there was a white candidate just a little bit less qualified?

How do you separate racism from Mind Clone testing? As you know, whenever a new person enters a group, they are put through a gauntlet of tests. Ice down their backs, toilet paper decorating their desks. Files lost. These are normal tests for new entrants. But what if your diversity workers sees this as racism, instead of normal Mind Clone Testing? How do you defuse that kind of situation?

What solutions are available to corporate nations facing these types of challenges? How can a corporate nation get it’s house in order before their are ethnic conflicts that escalate in their firm and create lower productivity?

Careful selection of a diversity provider is key to your making the successful transition. You want a diversity provider who has programs that works with both mainstream and diversity workers. You want a program that is not negative, does not blame mainstream workers and does not set the two groups against each other by making one group the good guys and one group the bad guys.

You want a program that can really work to help your corporate nation create an productivity focused environment that includes working with all groups. And your provider must want to see the corporate nation succeeding it core mission.

You must never get a provider who wants to fix blame on your white workers for past events. That will polarize them, make them feel guilty and defensive. They will be stuck in their present mental space. Only as they feel safe will they be able to openly examine why they feel the way they do.

In the Strategic Communication World we seek to always "Find the One Point Of Mutual Agreement" in any situation or interaction. Once we find the one place where we can all meet, then we can begin to communicate".  Communication is the key to Rapprochement. 

Got questions about diversity and its impact in your corporation?  Subscribe to the email list rappcom -L  by emailing to exportfacs@aol.com. 

Strategic Communication Leadership Is Your Tool For Creating Synergistic Productivity From Your Global Workforce and thus marketing into Diversity populations!  In the 21st Century, A New Win-Win Way of Communication Is Required.   It's A New Paradigm For The New Way We Live In A Global, Internet Based World.