How Do You Say That Again? Cultural Diversity at Work

I remember meeting the rest of my teammates when I started in IT and having to ask six out of the eight how to pronounce their names for the first full week. It was an eye opening experience, and I had to really learn to listen when people were talking to me so I could understand what was being said.
Growing up, I had been exposed to several different cultures and nationalities, but as an adult in the workplace, that wasn’t really the case. The majority of the people I worked with or reported to had similar backgrounds as me, and we shared a lot of common experiences. Once I started in IT, I was suddenly working closely with and reporting to people that were born overseas and who had vastly different life experiences and professional goals. This really opened my eyes and forced me to truly put into action the ideas of equality, diversity and teamwork.

Equality

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I have worked for different types of people before. However, they were usually American, from the same basic area that I was from and had most of the same goals and expectations. As I got older and started to work in other industries, I found myself reporting to a lot of women.
In IT, there are less women than men. However, in my experience, I have worked with more women among development teams. My general manager is female and when dealing with my client, I usually report to and get direction from a female. In the workplace, I now get to put my views on gender equality into practice on a daily basis.
The team I manage consists of a very diverse group of people: male and female, native-born and foreign-born, recent college graduates, very experienced developers and entry level employees. I have to look and treat each of them based on the same criteria: how well they do their job. I truly think that is what equality is. We are all judged according to the same criteria. If you were hired as a full-stack developer with 20 years’ experience, do you perform at that level?
All that matters is that you are a good team member that performs at the expected level.

Diversity

Like I stated before, when I started in IT I had to ask six out of the eight people how to pronounce their names for the first full week, because only three of them were born here in the US.
As most of you know, if you work in IT you will meet and work with a lot of foreign-born developers, testers, architects and leaders. I have had the great fortune of meeting, working with and becoming really good friends with several people born in India, China and Israel. I have invited and hosted several of these friends at my home and have been able to introduce them to my children. This has been an awesome opportunity for me and my family. I have learned so much about other cultures as well as more about my own. When you are asked about so many things you take for granted being born and raised in this country, it really makes you think about what it is you do on a daily basis.
But the number one thing I feel that I have learned by being on diverse teams in a diverse industry working with diverse people, is that differences make us all stronger. When we are all coming from the same direction, with the same experiences and the same expectations, we become stale. New ideas are harder to come by. It is hard to come up with dynamic solutions. Brainstorms become brain drizzles. I look forward to meeting and working with people from different backgrounds and encourage everyone to be as diverse as possible.

Teamwork

I really feel that this is the ultimate reason for any and all types of diversity. It’s all about the team and the work a great team can produce.
A big reason that I enjoy working in IT is the team aspect of the work. Most of the time you don’t sit somewhere all alone and develop or test or plan IT work. Especially within our company, we strive to work within the agile methodology, and that requires and dictates teamwork.
When you have a diverse team, you are able to develop better thoughts, better processes, deliver better work and generally perform at a higher level. I am speaking from personal experience and from personal observations. All of the teams I have been part of or worked with that have been diverse, regularly performed at a higher level. I believe it’s because of the reasons I have spoken of earlier in this post.
The ability to approach problems with a different world view enables a team to think outside the box. When the team is working towards the same goal but approaching it from different experiences and motivations, it consistently adds fuel and creative spark to the project. When you are part of a diverse team it also forces you to look at yourself and others differently.
You learn that India is a beautiful place with amazing food and extremely caring people. You also learn that there are people there that are not so caring, there are areas that are not so pretty and food that is not exactly what you think is great tasting. In other words, you learn that India is like America. There are good people and not so good people. Amazing food and not so amazing food. There is beauty and ugliness. You learn the same thing about China, Israel, and Eastern Europe.
The bottom line is, we are people and none of us are perfect. But together, through our different experiences and cultural affections, we can create amazing and wonderful things together. And even though our languages are different and names can be difficult to pronounce, together we make an incredibly awesome team.
 
Do you think having diversity in the workplace is a hindrance or a positive? Do you work in a company that is very diverse? Just how diverse is your workplace? Do you celebrate your diversity? Let me know in the comments and let’s keep the conversation going.