Avenues Silicon Valley Leadership Team Retreat

Avenues Silicon Valley
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
Seattle Girls’ School
Leading with
Cultural Competency in Mind
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee (http://tiny.cc/rosettalee)

About Seattle Girls’ School

Goals
 Basic Definitions
– More Terms
– What it Means at Avenues
 Courageous Conversations
– Barriers to Overcome
– Skills and Frameworks
 Creating Community Online
– Challenges and Opportunities
– Stories from the Road

Basic Definitions
Diversity: Difference, Variety
Diversity is Value Added:
Business Portfolio
Biodiversity
Creativity
Innovation

Dimensions of Identity and Culture
This model of identifiers and culture was created by Karen Bradberry and Johnnie Foreman for NAIS Summer Diversity Institute,
adapted from Loden and Rosener’s Workforce America! (1991) and from Diverse Teams at Work, Gardenswartz & Rowe (SHRM 2003).

Basic Definitions
Inclusion: A sense of belonging,
worthiness, and value one feels in an
organization
Are you an owner or an employee?
Are you “in the family” or are you a guest?

Inclusion Parable:
The Giraffe
and the Elephant

Basic Definitions
Equity: providing opportunities and
access to all so that every person can
achieve his/her full potential. Equitable
treatment involves acknowledging
diversity, recognizing and celebrating
our differences, and eliminating the
barriers that prevent the full
participation of all peoples.

Equality vs Equity
Everybody gets a shirt versus everybody
gets a shirt that fits.
Giving everybody some insulin in
equality. Giving only people who are
diabetic some insulin is equity.
What is “fair”?

Basic Definitions
Justice: An active and conscious effort
to work against multidimensional
aspects of systems of injustice (racism,
sexism, homophobia, etc.) by
identifying, describing, and dismantling
injustice wherever you find it, including
within yourself.
Derived from Robert J. Patterson, Ibram X. Kendi, and Ijeoma Oluo

Culture [consists] primarily of the
symbolic, ideational, and intangible
aspects of human societies… It is the
values, symbols, interpretations, and
perspectives that distinguish one
people from another.
James A. Banks
What is Culture?

Cultural Competency:
Many Models
Cultural competence is a set of
congruent behaviors, attitudes and
policies that come together in a
system, institution or individual and
enable that system, institution or
individual to work effectively in cross-
cultural situations.
Terry Cross

The Jones Model of Cultural Competence
Cultural Self-
Awareness
Cultural
Intelligence
Cross-Cultural
Effectiveness
Skills
Countering
Oppression
through
Inclusion

Other Terms to Unpack
People of Color
Racial Literacy
Safeguarding
Privilege
Marginalization
Minoritization
Situational Advantage

Engaging in Courageous
Conversations

Safety Versus Comfort
Safety: I feel that, in this space, I can ask questions without
fear of judgment. I can voice my perspective and know that
I will be validated for the fact that that is my truth. Others
may challenge my ideas, but that challenge is in the spirit of
greater shared understanding and growth.
Comfort: I feel that, in this space, my reality will be agreed
with, validated, and unchallenged. I don’t have to explain
myself to be understood, and I don’t have to justify my
perspective, as everyone shares it.
True dialogue happens in an environment where everyone is
safe but not always comfortable...
SO THAT THEY CAN LEARN AND GROW.

Moving Conversations
from Safe to Brave
 Controversy with Civility
 Ownership of intent and impact
 Challenge by choice – with reflection
 Respect in all its multiplicity
 Pointed challenges, not personal attacks
 Mindfulness of the true source of emotions

Debunking Some Myths
 All or None
 Mistakes
 Apologies
 “Tonsils” Theory
 Vulnerability

Growing Through Iterations
William Taylor’s Reflective Competence Model

Learning Zones
and Performing Zones
Learning Zone: You engage deeply in the areas of
weakness. You actively seek new information,
strategies, and feedback for adoption. You embrace
mistakes in this low-stakes environment.
Performing Zone: You showcase your areas of strength
(e.g. a competition routine). You engage in new
information, strategies, and feedback in relation to
your current thinking (e.g. PhD defense). You minimize
mistakes in this potentially high-stakes environment.
Make sure you know what zone you’re in SO THAT YOU
CAN MAXIMIZE THE BENEFITS OF THAT SPACE.

Comparing Dialogue and Debate
 Dialogue is collaborative. Debate is oppositional.
 In dialogue, one listens in order to understand and find
meaning. In debate, one listens in order to find flaws and
to counter arguments.
 Dialogue reveals assumptions for reevaluation. Debate
defends assumptions as truth.
 Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one’s beliefs.
Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly into one’s
beliefs.
 In dialogue, one searches for basic agreements. In
debate, one searches for glaring differences.
 Dialogue remains open-ended. Debate implies a
conclusion.
Adapted from Shelley Bennan, Dialogue Group, Boston Chapter, Educators for Social Responsibility

Singleton Compass

Polarity Thinking
Cognition marked by flexibility and
elasticity that enables individuals to
recognize and navigate the countless
opposing yet interdependent energies
that manifest in all life. Polarity thinking
transforms ‘either/or’ contrasts into
‘both/and’ formulations that allow for
mutually-satisfying, stable, and
predictable gains in personal and
professional life.
Caroline Blackwell, National Association of Independent Schools

Polarities, Not Binaries
 Equality and Equity
 Free Speech and Inclusive Speech
 Diversity and Inclusion
 Diversity and Unity
 Systems Work and Individual Work
 Calling Out and Calling In
 Heat (protests, disruption, opposition) and
Light (education, patience, collaboration)
 Safety and Bravery
 Accommodation and Assimilation
 Change and Tradition

Polarity Mapping
Caroline Blackwell, National Association of Independent Schools

Engaging Across Differences
 Be willing to sit in the gray areas
 Be willing to be uncomfortable
 Be willing to be vulnerable
 Be willing to extend trust and earn trust
 Be willing to listen fully
 Be willing to continue the conversation
 Be willing to believe we need each other

Building Community… Online

Ways Communities Come Together
 Community Meetings
 Advisories
 Affinity Groups and SIGs
 Family Groups
 Staffulty Groups
 Morning Energizers
 Lunch Parties
 Work Parties
 Before Classes

What Builds Relationships
 Stories
 Finding Commonality
 Affirmations
 Sharing Struggles
 Vulnerability
 Curiosity

Making Choices, Setting Priorities

Presenter Information
Rosetta Eun Ryong Lee
6th Faculty and
Professional Outreach
Seattle Girls’ School
2706 S Jackson Street
Seattle WA 98144
(206) 805-6562
rlee@seattlegirlsschool.org
http://tiny.cc/rosettalee

Avenues Silicon Valley Leadership Team Retreat

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