D Smith-Goelz
Cultural Immersion Trip
One of the most rewarding acknowledgements that I have ever received was being selected to attend the Cultural Immersion experience in Memphis, Tennessee, at the National Civil Rights Museum. This trip and resultant honor was customarily rewarded to a salaried manager; however, I was the first and the only supervisor to be acknowledged by my company. For that I am most proud. Best Buy believebelievesd that it was important for its management team (whomever wanted to participate) to understand culture and diversity. They found a way to submerge their employees into an environmentwhat it was like to be that included first hand experiences of discriminationated against. The and found that the Cultural Immersion experience at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee was a week long view of cultural differences. was a way to submerge their employees into this environment. In fact, the group of Best Buy peers that I attended this trip with were all store managers and higher. I was selected to attend this event because my district manager saw my passion for creating an inclusive and diverse culture in my store. After attending this week of learning I brought back the understanding of what being different than the majority felt like. Not only did this allow my employees to escape from unfortunate, real world experiences but allowed them to extend that same inclusivity to our customers. I found this experience to be, in fact, less about me and more about the culture of others.
Understanding culture in theory is difficult. In a group there can be lots of different cultures and can cause conflict in the teams, and do to other cultures being different can cause conflict between teams you work with. Remembering that culture is based on values, religion, and social norms just like your own culture, and it can becomes something you can understands. In this class we have learned a great deal about how to deal with conflict, s speculate on diverse ways of interacting with people, examexam multi-cultural teams, all which are very relevant to the world in which we are preparing to take on in a leadership capacity.
What I expected from the involvement in the Cultural Immersion was absolutely different than what I actually experienced. I expected to be lectured aboutound what it is like to be discriminated against or to discriminate against other people. The facilitator opened the seminar by relating his own story. He was a person that performed hate crimes on Blacks, and on gay individuals. The story he told was disgusting and it infuriated me and made me mad. His change came when he almost beat a black man to death, he saw him lying there and realized “he bleed just like me, he had a soul just like me”, this changed his life. Once he was done providing his background and turn around story, he opened the floor up for anyone in the room who wished to share his or her story. What I learned is that discrimination comes in different forms and in many variations. I also learned that everyone in the group (a total of 15 of us) had experienced or had done some sort of discrimination. This opened the week by bringing our emotional and honest selves to the surface and helped us to really grasp the culture we were about to find. It was in that moment we saw how the world sees differences from an evil eye.
The tour plunged us into an environment where we felt uncomfortable, much like the culture in the South during segregation, and forced us to become a participant. Actors would yell hateful things at us or “Racial Microaggressions”that really made you feel as if you were in the middle of this discrimination issue.They Sspecifically, I was yelled at me and they would call me a“Queer and that I neede, you needd a real man to make it right”. Even though this was part of the program, I felt really scared. It put into perspective what it must be like to live in constant fear.The group then walked through the bus where Rosa Parks refused to conform to the required policy and/or law. We sat and watched as actors portrayed those who took her away in handcuffs because she was not permitted to rest like the “white menn”that entered the bus after her. We walked through a room that had a glass windowed wall that allowed us to see the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed, his car still sitting there. These recreations provided us with a real understanding of what it was like to live in a world of hate and racialdivide. Racial differences will always be present, and they aren’t always a bad thing.
Culture is more than skin color or religion - culture is a way of life. As part of the Cultural Immersion, I learned about African-American culture and experienced discrimination that they had to overcome. I felt an understanding, if only minimum, of their fight, what it cost them and the importance and worth of their fight. To have this still around today saddens me deeply. I feel a connection to anyone going through hatred. I am a lesbian and a strong female leader. I have had personal attacks on my character and the way I live that could produce blind hatred. Fortunately, I am a strong woman with wonderful friends and family who love and protect me. My personal experience is minimal compared to a whole race of individuals who face discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives, or those who are forced to conform to what others want them to be. The experience helped participants understand and believe that we live in a progressive world; however everyone has to be involved to continue the positive change, understanding and accepting diversity. I believe that hope is what drives the human spirit. The rocky and bloody road of discrimination and hate can eventually lead to meaningful and open dialogue where hearts are turned. Does this mean that the culture that one lives in today will continue far into the future? Not necessarily. I believe that my experience with Cultural Immersion was a real beginning in feeling compassion toward others who were “different”from me. It helped me to see that through creative and resourceful interaction with peoples of different backgrounds and cultural experiences, there is a chance that all humans on this earth could live as one. A lofty and not very probable future, but not impossible either.
The Cultural Immersion experience humbled me to my core. I believe that this experience helped to create the kind of leader that I have become am. A leaderOne that recognizes cultural diversity and is able to use this knowledge as a strength. In my experience, conflicts around cultural differences do not always appear right away. It is impossible to determine how new employees and fellow workers will work together. Cultural differences and conflict appear after the “new”worker has been on the job for a while. As K.M. Thomas said in his review of Bowman and Cox work, there are a number of reasons conflict can come about, “Leadership style orientation”being one of them. (Thomas P.5) There will always be conflict in a group of diverse individuals. I have also learned that there are several phases associated with eliminating or escalating conflicts within a multi-cultural team. Phase one is, in my opinion, the most important because it is at the beginning of the team’s relationship. John Ungerleider says“During this orientation phase of a team, attention to relationship building can pay off when conflicts eventually emerge. Trust building and team-building activities pursued early in a group’s existence can create stronger and more open relationships between members. Establishing effective communication channels and habits can prevent conflict, and will facilitate more effective responses to conflict when it does occur”(Effective Multicultural Teams, P. 4). As a leader, it is your role to clear up the conflict by facilitating these relationships and open communication channels.The leader’s real work of building an efficient team escalates when conflicts arise. I believe that the orientation phase related to in Ungerleider’s book is an ongoing process. What I learned from my field trip experience has already shaped the inclusive leader that I am today. Differences make people unique and help to develop a dynamic on a team that is creative. I understand the “why”behind conflict more and am able to articulate the change, while constantly adapting to match the ongoing process of the orientation phase. I have learned to have open and honest communication that delivers cohesiveness between members of a team.
Work Cited
John Ungerleider. 2008. Conflict. Chapter 8 in Effective Multicultural Teams: Theory and Practice. ASU Library Electronic Holdings
K. M. Thomas. 2005.Influence Of Diversity On Group Dynamics And Outcomes. Chapter 6 in Diversity Dynamics in the Workplace
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