NOVEMber 2008 issue
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ON PAPER |
The Workplace Rainbow
With cultural diversity becoming the norm, how can employers help their companies and internationally educated graduates adjust? Try mentoring, says an engineer and expert on the subject.
BY GEORGE LEE
The PEGG
A hiring spree that’s reached around the globe and through most of the new millennium has altered the very fabric of APEGGA permit-holding companies and other Alberta organizations. But it isn’t enough that they simply recruit people from other countries and cultures, then expect conflicts and miscommunications to magically sort themselves out.
That’s the word from Lionel Laroche, P.Eng., a diversity expert and one of the main presenters at APEGGA’s third annual National Mentoring Conference, last month. Companies that don’t take action risk frustrating, ostracizing and losing new staff members, said Dr. Laroche.
His presentation was part of a multicultural theme that rippled through the conference. Held in Edmonton Oct. 14 and 15, the conference attracted a total registration of 200 from within and beyond the APEGGA membership.
Arlene Lack, APEGGA’s mentoring coordinator, was pleased with the synergy at the conference. “It’s very exciting for mentors to see what an impact their beliefs, insights and values can have on their protégés. What an investment in the next generation!” she said.
Planning has already begun for next year’s National Mentoring Conference in Calgary, Sept. 24 and 25. Ms. Lack wants to make it another successful one.
“One of our speakers said get in the game, stay in the game, get on top of the game. I encourage members to take that advice — get in the game of mentoring and pay it forward,” she said.
In addition to Dr. Laroche, main presenters were
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Orrin C. Hudson, a motivational speaker and African-American. His life was transformed by chess and the white, inner city school teacher who taught him chess and that “every move has a consequence.”
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Gabor Maté, an accomplished author and international speaker, and a physician in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Drawing on his experience with Aboriginal peoples, he identified what others can learn from them.
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Francis Whiskeyjack, an elder from Saddle Lake Cree Nation who came through Canada’s residential school system. A mentor helped him turn his life around, and today he’s an elder on the staff of Amiskwaciy Academy in Edmonton.
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CULTURAL TOOLS |
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THE AUTHOR SPEAKS
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Each presenter brought moving stories of mentorship and survival. But there’s an everyday role for mentoring in Alberta workplaces.
Employers need to mentor properly so their people from India, Africa and elsewhere are welcomed and accepted, said Dr. Laroche. And they also need to foster cultural sensitivity with their other employees.
Dr. Laroche knows first-hand — twice over — the challenges of adapting to a foreign culture. He came to Canada from France via California. The member of Professional Engineers Ontario has written two books on diversity in the workplace, and worked with people from more than 60 countries.
Dr. Laroche said an action or a phrase that comes across as ridiculous in the Canadian context can be perfectly reasonable to someone who grew up elsewhere. “Back home it made complete sense. That’s how things worked.”
The French are blunt, direct and negative in their criticism. Canadians are more likely to couch criticism in euphemisms and other soft words, accented by a compliment or two. A report that misses the mark completely, Dr. Laroche joked, might be praised with: “Nice font.”
Adapting isn’t only about words and mannerisms. Changes in social and economic status can be huge for an internationally educated professional, said Dr. Laroche.
An engineer from India, for example, is accustomed to earning perhaps 10 or 15 times the country’s average income. Engineers there are also rewarded with the highest social status.
Flash-forward to a new life in Canada. Western life may offer more comforts, but a starting salary of, say, $60,000 is only marginally above average. To top it off, the difference in social status between an engineer and a used car salesperson isn’t that dramatic. The respect back home is much greater than the respect anyone at all gets in Canadian culture.
“Once you’ve had that level of status, it’s very difficult to give it up,” said Dr. Laroche.
Even clothing choices can open a newcomer up to ridicule and cold shoulders. That’s a lesson Dr. Laroche learned the hard way.
There was virtually no dress code in his workplace in California. “Anything goes.”
But there is a dress code in Ontario, even though it’s mostly unwritten. Dr. Laroche found that out when he showed up to work in an all-white suit with white shoes, after Labour Day.
A good mentor can steer a person away from those types of pitfall. Sometimes, however, the effects of mentoring are far more dramatic.
Motivational speaker Orrin Hudson said the white teacher in Birmingham, Ala., who taught him chess saved his life. Conference organizers adopted the title of Mr. Hudson’s presentation, Every Move Has a Consequence, as the theme for the entire two-day event.
Mr. Hudson, a former state trooper, tested delegates’ chess skills, and had them sing along to the hip hop song he wrote and uses to motivate school children. He also passed along a number of chestnuts, including
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“If you’re the smartest person on your team, you need a new team.”
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“Excellence is not enough. You have to be amazing.”
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“Opportunity does not knock. Opportunity is silent, waiting for you to find it.”
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“Sometimes you just have to jump and find your wings on the way down.”
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“Even a non-move has a consequence.”
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“Develop an attitude of gratitude.”
Gabor Maté, who has presented for APEGGA several times, spoke on addictions, the power of community and the lessons to be learned from Aboriginal cultures. Those lessons come from negative and positive aspects of the Aboriginal experience in Canada, said Dr. Maté, the author of several best-selling books.
Tradition, treatment of elders, a sense of community, and harmony with nature are all areas of Aboriginal culture others should draw and learn from. “Traditional peoples value and honour their elders, who they believe carry knowledge and wisdom that accumulates with age.
“We get lighter as we get older. Wisdom is in letting go — beginning a period of getting lighter.”
Dr. Maté continued, “We have no tradition in our culture.” In its place, we latch on to the latest technological gadget, the newest reality TV show and the trendiest celebrity.
The mind and body connection so strong in Aboriginal cultures is now scientifically acknowledged, he said. “Mind-body unity is now proven. But it has always been the view of traditional peoples.”
Great lessons have also come out of the residential school system, which left thousands of Aboriginals scarred for life. Abuse, as well as the drug and alcohol addictions used to mask pain, move from generation to generation.
Yet before Europeans came to North America, Aboriginal societies had no history of abuse. “So something has happened,” said Dr. Maté.
Cree elder Francis Whiskeyjack is a residential school survivor. He remembers an idyllic early childhood of few material goods but close contact with family and nature. “We were rich in spirit,” he said.
Then, between the ages of seven and 17, he lived in a residential school. His hair was chopped off, his culture exiled. “My dreams got shattered.”
It was an elder and mentor, however, who helped him turn his life around. The late Joe P. Cardinal taught Mr. Whiskeyjack to “believe in the Creator and believe in myself.”
Themes of getting to know yourself and connecting with family and community were voiced by all the speakers. Said Mr. Hudson: “Your purpose in life is to do what you were born to do.”
He said the role of the mentor is to “pay it forward” by helping others. And that’s exactly what he does now, when he shares his message — with adults and with children. While in Edmonton, in fact, Mr. Hudson also spoke to students of St. Boniface Elementary School.
MORE INFO
Apegga Mentoring Program
Arlene Lack
Mentoring Coordinator
alack@apega.ca
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