Group Project: Diversity planning session

GROUP C: Diversity planning session In this presentation, your group is a team of organizational development and human resources professionals who are charged with the task of developing an effective diversity planning training program for your company. What are your objectives? What topics will you cover? Why? What learning exercises and methodologies will you use? How will you measure the efficacy of your program? Your group should demonstrate the ability to work together to support one another's objectives. Document your session on video, audio, through photos and Power Points, your My Space account, YouTube, or via an iLinc session. iLinc sessions must be schedule with me no later than Monday, April 23.

I can start the ball rolling with some objectves - if no one objects... ;-)

1. Developing a cohesive environment
2. Enhance cross-cultural understanding
3. Increas awaremess of reasonable accomodation
4. Effectively manage a diverse workforce

• Effective training can enhance understanding and team building.
• Networking groups can break down barriers.
• Mentoring partnerships can help new staff acclimate.

Comm - Chapter 4

Gender and Perception
This topic really stuck out for me. As we are raised very differently (for the most part) we perceived, ingest and respond very differently.

Is your past following you?
Again - this one was very interesting. I do believe that the past molds who we become, regardless of the paths we take, we have an ingrained sense of who we are from birth. I fought back when people told me I was organized and structured for the longest time. I have a creative side to me so I really didn't believe that I was so structured (and a control freak!). However, I distinctly remembered my mom buying me a large bag of M&Ms when I was about 8. I used to separate all of the colors and eat only one color first - usually the dark chocolate first and I always left the yellow for last as they are my favorite. And... if anyone came and took my M&Ms, messed them up or mixed them up it would stress me out and make me cry! Okay I don't cry any more, but I still separate them... lol!

Funny how you can look back and see who you really are from suttle experiences.

How about you? What can you remember from your past that speaks to the person you are or personality that you have today?

Comm - Chapter 3

I was very interested in the Pygmalion effect from The People - self-fulfilling prophecy.

The idea is that you will see what you want to see - the way you treat others will affect the way they respond to you. We could get very philosophical with this one! I remember the adage "you life is what you make it to be." It is also true in the way we perceive others. I have kind of a Pollyanna view of the world, I see everyone as a friend without any faults, and they are honest and kind until proven otherwise! Like I stated in my last blog - the only one that I found to be dishonest - I divorced! lol!

Oops - I digress...

Here's an experiment: Go to work and be totally different that you normally might be. If you're structured and a work-aholic (like me), try going to work business-casual, if you can, go out to lunch instead of working at your desk and smile at everyone you see and meet - make an effort to say hi to everyone. When you enter into an elevator - don't stare at the door or the numbers over the door, stand and look at the back of the elevator at all the people and just smile.

How does this change the way you feel about others?
How did this change the way others view you?
Let me know how this works for you... :-)

Comm - Chapter 2

We have a very multi-cultural company and we embrace those cultures and differences. Communicating with different cultures can be difficult if you don't understand their culture. I was interviewing a Chinese student for a scholarship program last week. When she left, she never turned her back to us and she bowed a least 3 or 4 times. She was also very sweet and very nervous!

An interesting question in this chapter: Can you provide an example of how your culture has influenced your view of events?

I'm going to step out of the box here and say that I believe we get a skewed version of world events from our own government. I also believe that each government provides a view that they want their people to see. It's like the corporate view vs. the front line manager view.

What do you think?

Comm - Chapter 1

How much noise do you have in the course of a day?
I know that I have a lot, not only my own noise: thoughts, stress, aches, worries, constant thought about all the other projects, besides the one I am meeting on! There is the air conditioner, my 'cube' mates, phones, printers, copiers, faxes, meetings, wind... boy; I could list a lot more. How do we all cope with so much noise? There is even 'white noise' to drown out the 'cube' mate’s noise. What are we doing to ourselves and our environment and how do we filter out the noise to makes sense of anything?

It's funny that I see joggers and walkers on mobile music devices, even on nature hikes in the mountains. Are we so used to the noise around us that we can't function without it? I know that I like to hike and listen for nature, birds, wind, the footsteps of my dog, the rustle of the leaves. It's good to let the mind and the ears rest now and then.

Feedback
In my line of work it is essential that there is feedback on communications. However, how do you really know that someone has heard you or that you understand the other person? Paraphrasing is always best - repeating the person's statement in your own words, this helps me also with remembering the conversation. It's also good to know that someone has received your communication, whether it's an email, memo, blog... etc. It's just common courtesy to send a 'gotcha.' I know a lot of folks who simply just send a smiley face - that's great! At least I know they received and acknowledged.

Question: How do you know that you have heard and understood the other communicator and how do you know they have heard and understand you?

HUB 420: Selection Criteria

How will you select whom you will allow in your network? What criteria do you use? I typically would not place filters on an Internet site, except if it was abusive or invasive behaviour. I'm a very open-minded and adventursome person and I truly believe that everyone has good in them - until they prove me wrong - and some have (like the ex) LOL!

Do you knowingly/unknowingly applying filters and judgments to people who contact you?
Great question - if you are speaking of the Internet accounts - I would say no. However, if you are speaking of personal contact - I would say yes. People can get very guarded around others for various reasons. Take, for example, if two teenagers are talking in a school hallway about their weekend plans and a teacher enters the hallway, they are going to either shift their conversation or speak in lower tones. I engage executives on a different level that I engage a peer or direct reports - the conversations are very different at times. Conversations with the executives will be filtered in a verticle conversation.

Do you assess and/or judge others based upon the way they communicate with you?
To be honest, I used to. Then I started to understand that everyone has their redeeming qualities and when you expose those qualities, they can really shine. There are other considerations in the way people communicate, culture, religious beliefs, environment, etc.

Chatting with Sonya!

Sonya and I 'met' on the phone tonight. We were online as well trying to figure out MySpace! Except for the apparent age differnce (I think I'm younger - just kidding!) we have kids in common. We love kids, we have kids, mine are grown, married having kids and Sonyas are 4 and 1 year old. Spend time with them - they grow up so fast... :-)

I thought the conversation flowed well, seemed to be easy to me. I'll need to read Sonya's post to see if she felt different. We chatted a lot, played on the computer with MySpace and laughed about the kids - they sounded so cute! Then my big dog started to nose my arm - my dog was jealous that I wasn't paying attention to her, just like a kid.

The barriers to conversation was, family, pets and the fact that my computer battery started to die quickly and I needed to retrieve my power cord from the other room.

My impression of Sonya is that she seems like a very sweet girl. She's a TA in a Kindergarten class and works in an after school program. Very cool.

The call was fun! Thanks Sonya!

Hey all you lucky NU students!

Let's chat!

I was never one to have a blog or any other Internet chat device - funny too, since I used to program web sites. Check out www.cox.com or www.kenyons.com or www.ctamsocal.com, all creations of mine and/or teams that I managed!

Leave a posting - let's communicate!

Jo