In Professor’s Model, Diversity = Productivity

Even though he never uses the word "culture," that is exactly what Dr. Page is referring to when he talks about "tools" or "varying ways of looking at problems." In our (at least theoretically) egalitarian society, it can be uncomfortable to bring up issues of cultural diversity. "Different but equal" sounds a lot like "separate but equal," and we know what a fallacy that was. I think that there is always a risk, or at least a fear that talking about cultural diversity will lead to value statements about one group's superiority over another. However, pretending that differences don't exist doesn't make them go away or make talking about diversity any easier. The goal, to second Dr. Page, is to find creative ways to help us all work better together, to leverage the diversity of strengths within a group so that the whole may become stronger than its parts.

I'd like to share an anecdote as an example of a creative solution. In my office, we have constant confrontations with our Central-American clients over punctuality. Like many Washingtonians, my colleagues and I are very schedule-bound. Meetings need to start on time, because we have allotted exactly an hour to each task. There can be a little flexibility, but anything more than 10 and certainly 15 minutes is tardy. Our Central American clients, in contrast, do not live according to rigid schedules and it is very difficult for them to understand that the lawyer will not be able to see them if they arrive at 11:30 instead of 11. Each client considers that he has a good reason for being late - he got lost on his way to the office, or missed the bus, or maybe the metro got stuck in a tunnel. With time, each person will eventually acculturate, but since we only see each client a couple times, we are having the same interaction over and over again with different people (think Adam Sandler in 50 First Dates). Eventually I asked a Mexican-American friend for advice on how to get our clients to arrive "on time." She laughed, saying that "there's no cure for Latino Standard Time." Her advice? Lie, and tell people to come at 10:30 if we want to start a meeting at 11. So far it's been working!

In instituting this policy, we were aware that it is just a "band-aid" fix that does nothing to bridge the culture gap between our US staff and Latin clients. But since we are meeting with new clients every week, it's not possible to help them internalize our cultural norm. The other constraints on our time don't allow us to adapt to their "time is fluid" norm either, so setting different times is the most pragmatic solution we have found so far. Have you ever had to do something similar with a friend who is always "late"? Or maybe you're that friend?

Though I identified this problem early on, it took me a while to get my colleagues to accept my explanation. Since some clients were on time (and even early!) my colleagues assumed that the clients who were late had an individual problem with punctuality. Over time, we noticed that Central American clients tended to be late more frequently than clients from other parts of the world, and that Central Americans from rural areas were the latest of all. The clients aren't deficient - they're following different "hidden rules" than we are. There are a number of other cultural factors that I've identified since then that also contribute to tardiness. For example, reading a map can be almost impossible for someone who has never before ventured outside of her village. I've also had clients tell me that they didn't follow the directions provided by our office because they required taking the metro - they had never ridden a train before (let alone one that goes underground!) and were too intimidated. I'm sure there are lots of other reasons that I am not even aware of yet because I've only been at my job for a year and a half.