Richard Karash wrote:
> Tannen's Topic: Building Capability for Dialogue Between Women and Men in
> the Workplace
--snip--
>
> I'm interested in going beyond gender differences to other kinds of
> differences... Style or type (as in Myers-Briggs or Human Dynamics). Where
> are the tools that will help us be effective in truly diverse workplaces?
Rick--I too enjoy Tannen's work. I've found her "9 to 5" an excellent
tool for working on gender issues in the workplace (better than her other
books, simply because they were more focused on personal issues rather
than workplace issues). Tannen makes the point, too, that she's
describing "class-gender" conversational rituals.
Your question is one that I've been considering for several months. It
seems to me that there are so many differences among people in the diverse
workplace that we can easily lose ourselves in understanding ALL of the
differences. Yet, all of the years of diversity training in government
organizations still haven't resolved the fact that we tend to expect other
people to be like us (me!). It's occurred to me that there are a couple
of approaches that can be used to complement the diversity training that
goes on.
One approach is to identify similarities--for instance, why do we come
together (our individual and organizational purposes). We share some
significant similarities in the workplace, and by sharing these through
various methods of communication (dialog?), we can generate the structural
tension that moves us together towards our common vision or purpose.
Another approach I'd like to see more of is to develop and integrate
personal and organizational values through meaningful conversations
throughout the organization. We each bring a variety of values into the
organization (family, religious, cultural, ethnic, gender)-based and
potentially conflicting.
Finally, Tannen describes very effectively the use of conversation in
organizations to display or acquire power (by putting people down) or to
share power with by helping others save "face." These games that people
play in the workplace are certainly behavioral, and new behaviors can be
learned if organizations want to develop more cooperative working
environments (in lieu of the competitive playground environment we find in
many businesses).
thanks for asking the question!
Doc
-- "The time is always right to do what is right." -Martin Luther King, Jr.Thresholds <http://www.thresholds.com> Meeting Masters <http://www.thresholds.com/masters.html> Richard C. "Doc" Holloway Astoria, Or & Olympia, WA USA ICQ# 10849650 voice 360.786.0925
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