Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM March 2020 | Page 37

to avoid conflict over misreading others’ meaning
inadvertently, and to give everyone the ability and
future permission to ask for clarification out of good
will and good faith.
The essential reason we all have these biases, is
that we learn through categorization. We learn there
are people and animals and TOYS! Then we learn that
among animals are fish, furry things and things that can
eat us. Then we learn about dogs, cats, elephants…you
get it. ‘People’ are first divided in our young minds into
our family and everyone else. Then, we learn about
different kinds of people…friendly Southerners, brash
Northerners, those of different colors, good authorities
who can help us in emergencies and bad strangers
who will try to hurt us… This learning strategy helps
us tremendously when we are children, but when we
try to learn about differences among people as adults,
learning general information gives us just enough
knowledge to become offensive if we repeat it.
However, every person alive does this, because it is still
how we learn. We learn facts about things. However,
people have very strong feelings about other people
thinking in ‘general facts’ about aspects of themselves-
-it always feels objectifying or minimizing or outright
wrong.
Whether you look at diversity training and the
concept of unconscious cultural bias as a necessary
good or evil in your company, we all have much to
learn from one another. I continue to do so after
30 years of this work and find it some of the most
rewarding and amazing. People in the majority
need to have the ability to lay down their white guilt
or defensiveness long enough to hear minorities
teach about their experiences, without assuming
accusation. Minorities of any cultural aspect need to
realize that they have their own unconscious bias as
well, and remain just as open to learning about these
as they are to teaching the majority about their bias.
We all just want others to hear and understand us, to
feel respected and seen for who we really are, apart
from labels.
This is where process comes in. Skilled facilitators
open the conversation and keep it safe for everyone
to function as both teachers and students of one
another’s cultural attributes within an organization.
When people connect and come to the conversation
in agreement that we will all lay down assumptions,
and approach one another with curiosity to learn and
to bring our best efforts at understanding, magical
things happen…for individuals and the organization.
Many of us want these workshops and many are
forced to hold them for compliance reasons. Look
closely at these factors and discuss them with
your ‘facilitators’ (not presenters) before offering a
diversity workshop! Choosing incorrectly could make
misunderstandings worse and make everyone mad at
leadership. Doing it right can become one of the best
team-building experiences ever.
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