Who is the real expert on corporate culture?
Is it the CEO or the people on the ground, particularly those from underrepresented groups? In my experience, it’s often the individuals from underrepresented groups who are most in tune with the subtle cues of culture. They can tell us a lot about what certain signals and statements mean in practice, and how they are thought of and treated within the organisation. Contact me via e-mail if you would you like us to at your organisations cultural landscape.
Examining assumptions
When you are born and raised within a culture where people look alike on the surface, in a homogeneous environment, how do you react when you meet people who don’t look like you? Is there really a causal relationship between having some surface level differences in a group and the ability of the group to actually benefit from the different perspectives and ideas that they have? Not everybody in the group knows the same information or have had the same experiences, values or background as yourself. It's been proven over and over again that diverse groups outperform homogeneous groups. Diverse groups are more likely to share their unique information and perspectives that they have in their heads when they see that there’s some surface level differences amongst them.