Self-awareness key to accepting differences

With the workplace becoming more diverse, given the numerous nationalities, religions and educati

onal backgrounds, staff today are driven to adapt and have learnt to assimilate more rapidly. While respect and trust may be a necessary value in some organisations, and sensitivity and cross-cultural training may be provided in others, many leave it to chance to usher in diversity.

Diversity has become more of a norm in these days of globalisation. It is not merely an internal issue because suppliers and clients are equally diverse.

I was fortunate to have received diversity training as a young professional in the United States. I was selected to participate in an exchange programme with a major foreign competitor.

While I received a customary course in language and cross-cultural negotiation techniques, the focus of the training was on self-awareness. Most significantly, I worked with a team of psychologists and a psychiatrist to help me come to an understanding of my strengths and weaknesses related to working in a foreign environment.

As if I were a spy being sent on a mission, a battery of tests to predict my ability to survive in a foreign culture was administered. The results were then cross-checked with my sessions with the psychologists. My profile and propensity were finally written down and sent to my sponsoring bosses. These reports were then forwarded to the course instructors to shore up my perceived vulnerabilities.

Two years later, when I returned to my original workplace from this overseas assignment, I was amazed at how perceptive and correct the report had been about my cross-cultural aptitude and predicted performance. The report touched on the kinds of resources - technical and personal - that I was likely to have to resort in order to perform far from the reach of headquarters. I did, in fact, rely heavily on these resources and skills.

The report also predicted my lack of inclination to deal in dubious quid pro quo, which did land me into trials and tribulations a few months into the assignment.

What the preparation taught me most of all was to be myself, to be honest and transparent. In a foreign country, I simply could not just disingenuously turn native. To succeed, I needed to have respect for my host country and its people. I needed to immerse myself in a new team, bring forth my natural strengths and look for new answers within this foreign culture to shore up my weaknesses.

Looking back on that training experience, I realise that the foreign language I acquired is now nearly lost due to lack of practice. The negotiation techniques I was trained in have since been abandoned for many newer ones I later came across. Yet, it is the training in self awareness that remains a timeless and valuable lesson until this day.

So, do celebrate diversity (it is so politically correct) and do not forget to celebrate your own contradictions and vulnerabilities; most of all, remember to be honest and aware of who you are.