The Importance of Diversity & Cross-Cultural

TrainingMarina Offner

Associate Director

Brandeis University, MA

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Karime Naime

Associate Director

The George Washington University, D.C.

Khala Granville

Associate Director

Indiana University Bloomington, IN

Why It MattersAudience Participation

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• Internal customer service vs. external customer service

• Goal to have a high functioning team

• Walk the talk

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Why It Matters to Us

● Lack of diversity in office

○ Does your team reflect the community that you

serve?

● Fear of retribution

● Training leadership on cultural competency

can put you in an awkward positon

Why Does It Make Us Feel Uncomfortable?

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• Bias: prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair

• Stereotypes: a widely held, but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing

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Making Sense Of It All

Bias vs. Stereotypes:

• “bias is a personal preference, like or dislike, especially when the tendency interferes with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective. On the other hand, a stereotype is a preconceived idea that attributes certain characteristics (in general) to all the members of class or set.

– (https://www.diffen.com/difference/Bias_vs_Stereotype)

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Making Sense Of It All

• Power: the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events

• Personal Values: the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work

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Making Sense Of It All

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Making Sense Of It All

• Cultural vs. Religious

• Work space

• Hiring

• Customer Service

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Implications

Types of Training

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● Recruitment

○ Data

○ Cultural Competency

■ Information Sessions

■ High School Visits

■ Community Based Organizations

■ Communications

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Types of Training

● Application Review

○ Bias Training

○ Bias Check

○ High School Context Review

○ Best Practices

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Types of Training

● Yield

○ Marketing and messaging to diverse

populations

○ On-campus programing

■ How do you host an inclusive event?

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Types of Training

● Faculty & Research

○ Including faculty of color

■ Socials

■ Selection

○ Campus wide diversity trainer

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Types of Training

● Starts with us, but is not all on us

○ Leadership buy-in is a must

● Update On-boarding Process

● Promote Ongoing dialogue

○ Discuss impact of article/relevant topic at staff

meeting

○ Involve your students

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Tips for Promoting Inclusive Office Culture

● Encourage difficult conversations

○ Set community guidelines

● Assess approach to project management

○ Who needs to be at the table?

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Tips for Promoting Inclusive Office Culture

• Khala Granville– kgranvil@indiana.edu

• Karime Naime– knaime@gwu.edu

• Marina Offner– moffner@brandeis.edu

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Stay Connected!