Platform : ‘If I Understand Why People Do Things, I Can Help Them Better’

Diversity training programs are often the butt of jokes, and doubts about their effectiveness persist. But government agencies and private companies increasingly require employees, particularly managers, to take diversity courses. TRIN YARBOROUGH and JAMES BLAIR talked with participants in the public and private sectors about what value they found in diversity training. ROBERT LUNA

Detective sergeant, Long Beach Police Department

Right now the Long Beach Police Department is sending all its 1,200 employees, sworn and civilian, through diversity training. It has changed a lot since the first time five years ago.

Last time, the Latino speaker, who was very educated, practically accused all the officers of mistreating Latinos, so immediately a barrier went up. Now we have a regular facilitator along with the new speakers, and that helps build rapport. We had an Asian speaker who got me to understand what people coming from Laos and Cambodia went through during the Vietnam War and in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. When you understand why they left, and what they went through to get here, then you really respect them.

I’m Mexican American and grew up in East L.A. My mother sold food on the street to buy me clothes for school. Now I work with gangs. When I saw Mexican kids I could relate, and now when I see black and Cambodian kids I tell myself to stop and understand that they’re going through some of the same things as Mexicans.

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FREDERICK R. LYNCH

Associate professor of government, Claremont-McKenna College. Author of upcoming book, “The Diversity Industry”

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Diversity training in the form of educating managers and other workers about the various cultures of immigrants and minority groups as a neutral presentation can be of benefit, particularly if your customers or your workers are from those same groups. It’s simply good business sense.

On the other hand, [using diversity programs to bring about organizational change] to retain and promote women and minorities is a very difficult, ticklish thing to do. It can backfire very easily [in that it] can target white males as the villains. You often hear “white male structure” and “corporate structure” and “capitalism” all mixed together. It can put white males on the defensive and sabotage your training.

The other problem is that it’s expensive. Many employers use only one or two days of training to ward off possible lawsuits or regulatory action. It turns out to be window dressing.

Again, there isn’t any systematic evidence that proves that the policies increase productivity or reduce ethnic tensions. On the contrary, there is evidence that the implementation of [some diversity] programs can increase friction.

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CYNTHIA LAMM

Nurse manager, UC Irvine

Medical Center

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Our patients are very diverse, mostly Mexicans and other Latinos, then Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians, Koreans, Chinese, Indians, and Middle Easterners. My own staff includes people from a dozen different ethnic backgrounds, and they help each other by interpreting for each other and by explaining why some patients of other cultures fear certain medical procedures or have certain health practices.

Our patient diversity training is about 20 hours. It’s not mandated. Those who take it share what they’ve learned in staff meetings. It’s helped me realize that many misunderstandings are not about who is right, but about being aware of what drives behavior. .

For example, in our training, the Middle Eastern presenter said that they often give gifts of money to ensure better hospital care. So when one of my nurses told me of a patient’s family insisted she accept money, I was helped her turn it down while still preventing embarrassment by explaining it was against hospital policy, and she knew they wouldn’t want her to lose her job. She said they instead could bring a treat such as fruit for the entire nursing staff, which they did.

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LATRESE MARTINEZ

Teacher, Wilmington

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The Los Angeles Unified School District requires all its intern teachers to take multicultural training to get their teaching creden

I’m African American and my husband is Mexican. I speak Spanish. I teach 30 sixth-graders at Wilmington Park Elementary and, except for one child from Guatemala, all my students are Mexican American. I’m required by the state to teach ancient civilizations. I chose Mexico, using the Mayans and Aztecs and so on, then ancient African kingdoms, then Chinese culture, Indian culture and Roman culture. I bring in literature from all these places, show how they did math the Mayan and Roman ways, have speakers from different backgrounds.

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VALERIE BARKHURST

Senior vice president, corporate diversity director, Bank of America

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We are expanding diversity education, starting at the top, teaching senior managers how to create an inclusive environment where everyone can do their best work.

People get stereotyped not just because of ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, but because of such attributes as marital status, height or what part of America they come from. I’m a stepmother, and people have a lot of stereotypes about us. Even when we don’t intellectually believe certain stereotypes, it’s easy for stereotypes to subtly enter our thinking without us even being aware of it.