Consultant Verna Myers Reveals Strategies for Incorporating Diverse Ideas

View the videos and share how the various aspects in the video apply to you current or previous work experience. YOU MUST STATE THE TERMS, MODELS, OR CONCEPTS FROM THE COURSE TEXTOOK THAT APPLY TO WHAT YOU SAW IN THE VIDEO AND EXPLAIN HOW AND WHY THEY APPLY. What terms or ideas that you saw in the video were most important to you? Explain why you think they are important to organizations or managers? You must reference these terms with intext citations in proper APA format. If you mention a term or concept that is not your own, then you must put a reference at the end of the sentence from either the video or the textbook in APA format. This discussion assignment should be much more then book report of you re-stating what happened in the video. The goal is for you to analyze what took place in the context of the terms in the book. Your post must be at least 300 words long.  YOU MUST ALSO POST TO THE POSTS OF 3 DIFFERENT CLASSMATES TO GET FULL CREDIT.

Color blind or color brave? | Mellody Hobson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKtALHe3Y9Q

Consultant Verna Myers Reveals Strategies for Incorporating Diverse Ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPQtkU9Z4rI

How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace | Janet Stovall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvdHqS3ryw0

Inclusive Diversity: The Game Changer | Toni Carter | TEDxIdahoFalls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuK3FGwVJTs

The Surprising Solution to Workplace Diversity | Arwa Mahdawi | TEDxHamburg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtUlRYXJ0vI

To get full credit you must fully address the following:

USE THE INFORMATION BELOW AS A CHECKLIST TO ENSURE THAT YOU WILL GET FULL CREDIT.

1. Post was minimum of 300 words and you must post to at least twice to another classmate post or post to two different classmates which a post that asked a question or makes a comment that is more than 30 words long.
2. Analyzed and synthesizes theory and/or practice to develop new ideas and ways of conceptualizing and applying course content.
3. Addressed relevance to current trends/events/climate in the industry.
4.  Built on the discussion by adding own examples, course materials, asking questions, etc.
5. Responded to the question with intext citations in APA format. (This means paragraphs must have references embedded in them.

View the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbyJdMz-Ato

Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FrJeRrLYe0

Link

https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/10/how-to-create-a-reference-for-a-youtube-video.html

1. Used multiple terms and concepts from the course text, readings, and media to support answers.  These terms must be cited in proper APA format.
2. Analyzed and synthesizes theory and/or practice to develop new ideas and ways of conceptualizing and applying course content.
3. Addressed relevance to current trends/events/climate.
4.  Built on the discussion by adding own examples, course materials, asking questions, etc.
5. Demonstrated graduate level writing with correct grammar, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, and APA format.
6. Wrote in full paragraphs with a sentence structure and paragraph structure of responses are clear, logical, and easy to follow. The M.E.A.L writing approach is often the most effective. Link on the writing approach:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL_AmnVKD0g

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Y6AQ8UG_U

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF_PoOz2Tl4

Use the above items as a checklist that your assignment is complete before your final submission.

Responses:
1) 

The first thing I have learned since the first day I came to the United States three years ago was that do not talk about race, politics, and religions in the U.S… It is fascinating after watching this week video talking inclusive diversity and inclusion, I start thinking all the advice people had been given to me as an Asian student who had never thought about any of the subjects before. According to the videos, there are three main things everyone can contribute to building an inclusive diversity environment–speak out, include majorities, and start from yourself.

“If you see something, please say something”. The slogan has been widely used in public places. However, as I mentioned above, when first came here, the first lesson I learned was not to talk about races. According to Mellody Hobson, color blindness refers to a learned behavior where people pretend they do not notice race (2014). Here is the question, if we don’t see the problem, how do we solve it? So the first step is to reveal it, to raise people’s awareness. Creating a positive inclusive climate from a top-down would be the best solution to raise awareness, yet, it will also require the involvement of majorities to address the problem (Robbins & Judges, 2017, p127).

Who are majorities that we should have enrolled in inclusion discussion? Like Arwa Mahdawi mentioned, probably white, tall, straight men who name John (2016). I once had the chance to be a volunteer at United Nation for the conference regarding women rights. For the sessions I attended, there are only a few males were sitting in the conference room. It was said that thousands of women came to the conference to fight for their rights but only a handful of men were there to listen. As stated by Janet Stovall, the host of the conference ought to acknowledge the real problem, set goals with real numbers, and present some real consequences (2018). As an individual, what we can do is to change ourselves from color blind to color consciousness.

Women, people of color, LGBTQ, etc., there are many different groups people can be assigned to. Everyone has to have a color in the United States, white, black, yellow, brown, and it cannot be chosen by yourself but you have to be treated based on the color. One person cannot change the world, but if we are all aware of inclusive, the world can be so colorful and united. If you are in an administrative role, deliver the message to the recruitment team to target specific demographic groups that are underrepresented in the workplace (Robbins & Judges, 2017, p126). If you are an educator, start adding some lessons to foster students awareness of inclusive diversity. Don’t think you can’t make an impact on other people because you can.

To conclude, “diversity is a number, inclusion is about to impact” (Stovall, 2018). It is not about how many minorities you have in your organization but how do your organization treat them. If everyone speaks out what they see, majorities aware of inclusive, and we are all starting from our own, we will see significant differences in our lives.

2)

This week discussion concentrates on topic like racial discrimination and inclusion of diversity in the workplace. “Evidence suggests that some people find interacting with other racial groups uncomfortable unless there are clear behavioural scripts to guide their behavior” (Robbins & Judge, 2017). The videos  are informative on the varied experiences of the speakers, where they share how minority are working forward for the equal opportunities and tackling stereotype approaches but also emphasis how diversified group working for any organization can bring numerous creative ideas on the table, which would be beneficial for the company to understand different audiences mindset and plan project strategies accordingly to deliver customers need.

Firstly, Mellody Hobson (2014) conducted a Ted talk, narrates about ‘Color Blind’ where she explains to end the racial discrimination and she adds how white people who does not experience any indiscrimination can ignore the racism  topic in their life. People who are not white and undergoes different aspects of discrimination specific being the race has a different version of this colorblind ideology. Example: In an event, where Mellody & her friend were supposed to go for an editorial lunch meeting and when they showed up in the room, the lady asks her ‘where are your uniforms’? (Mellody Hobson, 2014). This is true for all those people who are not white and live in United States, where they have undergone racism and have been treated differently and not the same way just like White’s. “Most research shows that members of racial and ethnic minorities report higher levels of discrimination in the workplace” (Robbins & Judge, 2017). Mellody Hobson (2014) emphasis to be a ‘Color Brave and not Color Blind’. “We have to be willing as teachers, parents and entrepreneurs to have proactive conversations about race with honesty, understanding and courage, because it is the smart thing to do” (Mellody Hobson, 2014).

Secondly, where the speaker Janet Stovall discusses ‘how to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace’ Janet Stovall (2018) describes, how she wrote ‘Project 87’ where in Davidson city, enrolled 100 black students, hired 10 black professors, create 5 black courses, hired 1 black dean, it was a challenge for Davidson as now it was a question on their commitment as they pointed out real problems, real numbers and their consequences’. (Janet Stovall, 2018). Working over this project for few years, the project did progress resulting in “185 black students, 16 black or multiracial professors, 4 black deans, she emphasizes how the college changed due to the power of single – mindedness” (Janet Stovall, 2018). “As economic globalization continues to expand, the very idea of diversity management must expand to include a diversity of cultures and situations” (Robbins & Judge, 2017). United States is one such country which have welcomed all kind of people from different countries, following different cultures. “organizations will have to carefully consider how to create diversity strategies given the variety of perspectives on diversity across countries” (Robbins & Judge, 2017). On the other hand, Toni Carter (2018) shares her views on how she loved working on creating diversity in community and at the same time got lucky to work in the diversity team for a job that paid her bills. She emphasizes in a Ted talk that, “diversity can only be practised when everyone around are involved in it” (Toni Carter, 2018). She observed that “majority group of people neglect the diversity criteria and thus are not on the same page of being inclusive” (Toni Carter, 2018). The real game changer moment is explained here with an example of a workforce with and without having diversified people. “Evidence from a study of more than 6,000 workers in a major retail organization indicated that in stores with a less supportive diversity climate, African Americans or Hispanics made significantly fewer sales than White employees, but when the diversity climate was positive, Hispanics and Whites sold about the same amount and African Americans made more sales than Whites. Whites sold about the same amount whether there was a positive diversity climate or not, but African Americans and Hispanics sold far more when there was. There are obvious bottom-line implications of this research: stores that fostered a positive diversity climate were able to capitalize on their diverse workforce and make more money” (Robbins & Judge, 2017).

To sum up, people in any organization needs to be acknowledged and required to understand the distinct characteristics of diversity and inclusion. Both the concepts are intertwined, and it affects the results. When the diverse group are represented equally but are not inclusive at the workforce, there talent won’t be noticed which would result in less participation at workplace and thus won’t foster creative ideas, hence it would not lead to any business growth. “Effective diversity management increases an organization’s access to the widest possible pool of skills, abilities, and ideas” (Robbins & Judge, 2017).

3)

In today’s society, diversity plays a significant role in many companies and organizations (Robbins & Judge, 2016). According to Robbins and Judge (2016), diversity is “the extent to which members of a group are similar to, or different from one another (p. 355). As discussed in the textbook, there are two levels of diversity which are surface-level-diversity and deep-level-diversity (Robbins & Judge, 2016). Surface-level diversity focuses on the biographical characteristics of an individual’s noticeable features such as age, sex, race, and ethnicity (Robbins & Judge, 2016). Whereas deep-level- diversity is unnoticeable traits that an individual has such as personality, values, and work ethics (Robbins & Judge, 2016). To get past and minimize workplace diversity, an individual should focus on diversity from a deep-level point of view (Robbins & Judge, 2016). If an individual focuses on diversity from a surface-level point of view, many false assumptions can be made from the initial first impression (Robbins & Judge, 2016).

The videos for this week revolve around workplace diversity and inclusivity, which can be a sensitive subject (Robbins & Judge, 2016). Up until now, I have not studied organizational diversity in depth, but I do not entirely agree with the majority of the topics that were mentioned in the How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace video by Janet Stovall (2018). The methodology that Janet implemented ended up having great results (Stovall, 2018). However (and I may be missing the point here), how does an organization set up a hiring process that only allows individuals within a certain age, sex, race, or any other characteristic apply for the job? I do feel that diversity is essential in organizations; however, I think the individual that is hired should be the best-qualified person for that particular position. With that being said, discrimination and biographical characteristics such as gender, race, age, etc. should not play any role in the hiring decision (Robbins & Judge, 2016). Therefore, it should be based strictly on the abilities and qualifications of the person that is being hired (Robbins & Judge, 2016).

I thought that Toni Carter (2018) done an excellent job of explaining how she implemented diversity management within her organization by eliminating diversity through inclusion. Carter (2018) closed with stating “I’m convinced that if all of us get on the same journey to inclusive diversity, we can create the solutions that our young people need for the next generation.” I feel that this approach will demonstrate the importance of diversity and can be used at any level. Therefore, it can be taught in early stages and then implemented throughout the careers of many individuals.