What's The Difference?

• Why mental health in the workplace during Covid-19 is changing, and how this is impacting individuals and teams
• Why the mental health impact of the pandemic is having an outsized impact on women and BIPOC, amplified by systemic disparities
• How the CDC released a report in early April about the impact the pandemic is having on mental health, and what crucial information that report contains
• How the layers of traumas we are all experiencing in trying to adapt to the realities of the pandemic are making it more difficult to navigate through our normal work life
• How all of the various changes in our lives are feeding each other, and why marginalized people especially feel these changes
• How 42% of Black, 27% of Asian, and 22% of Latinx and 19% of multiracial people have experienced an increase in race-based hostility, compared with 1% of White people
• How 40% of women and nonbinary people and 42% of transgender people have experienced gender-based harassment compared to only 2% of men
• Why more than 1/3 of respondents said that they don't trust their employer to react fairly to harassment situations
• How you can help within your organization, and what strategies you can follow to make your workplace more safe and supportive for the mental health of team members
• Why intentionality and accountability are vital ingredients to creating positive, lasting, systemic change in your organization

At the beginning of April, the Centers for Disease Control released a report on the impact the global pandemic has had on mental health in America, and the results probably won't surprise you. Overall mental health is on the decline, and many people are struggling to access mental healthcare due to economic disparities, lockdowns and many other factors.

Just as in the population at large, mental health in the workplace during Covid-19 is also displaying many troubling warning signs. Isolation and work/life balance struggles due to working from home, increase in anxiety and depression, and a lack of support systems are all factors.

It probably also won't surprise you to learn that people within marginalized communities are experiencing an outsized impact on mental health in the workplace during Covid-19, because disparities within our systems have an amplifying effect. While 1% of White people have reported an increase in race-based hostility during the pandemic, a staggering 40% of Black people have reported the same. For people of Asian ethnicity, that number is 27%. 22% of people in the Latinx community reported an increase in hostility, and 19% of multiethnic and multiracial people reported an increase.

Gender-based harassment is also on the rise during the pandemic. 2% of men reported an increase of harassment based on gender, but 40% of women and nonbinary people and 42% of transgender people experienced harassment during the same period.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that there are steps you can take in your workplace to make your organization more safe and more supportive for team members who are dealing with mental health challenges, now and in the future.

Here are the steps you can take to foster a work environment that can better meet the mental health needs of your team members:

• Acknowledge your team's experiences and the ongoing impact of mental health in the workplace during Covid-19.
• Identify existing resources in your organization that can help, and look for opportunities to create new ones.
• Seek organizational policy flexibility that gives team members the freedom to take time away as necessary.
• Ensure that staff know who they can go to internally in your organization if they need help and support.
• Get comfortable talking about mental health and talking about how people from different groups are impacted differently.
• Take your DEI work seriously, make it a priority, and treat the work with intentionality and strategic thinking.

By following these steps, you can have a massive impact on your workplace and on creating an environment where employees feel safe to voice their concerns, talk about their mental health needs, and seek the support they need.

If you'd like to learn more, please explore www.deepseeconsulting.com/resources where you'll find more tools, resources and information that can help you create lasting transformation within your organization.

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• Why adapting and responding to others' filters is one way to communicate and interact across the stages of development
• Why responding to stage-appropriate development is crucial, and why leading up in cultural competence is important for communicating effectively across stages
• Sara cites an example of Polarization and offers how to communicate with someone in Polarization by focusing on commonalities
• Why it is important to use the developmental strategy for each stage to move conversations into a more effective place
• How to use the developmental strategy for minimization, by "seeing self" and understanding your own filters without judgment
• Why it is important to avoid moving into the Polarization stage along with the person you're interacting with, and how you can move the conversation beyond Minimization
• Why it is important to be patient and understanding toward people who are operating from lower stages of development
• Sara shares an analogy of a teacher working with a student struggling with fundamental skills and explains how this relates to communicating across stages of development

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• Why people often struggle with talking about minimization and addressing Diversity and Inclusion issues with leaders they report to in their organizations
• What the "situational leadership" model is, and how it specifically addresses "skill and will" in any given situation
• Why high will, low skill leaders are often clueless to the fact that they are lacking in particular cultural competency skills, and why telling them what they aren't seeing is usually counterproductive
• Why keeping a high will, low skill person's will at its high level while gently guiding them to the skills they need to develop is crucial
• Sara offers an example of a high will, low skill situation with her daughter when she was very young and how Sara guided her to find her own solutions
• Why "leading up" in the workplace means helping leaders above you in an organization discover and see things you can see and they can't

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• What is dominant culture (and what isn't), and how being a part of the dominant culture can sometimes cause you to be blind to other perspectives
• Why everyone else is forced to adjust to the dominant culture, and how multicultural people sometimes struggle to identify with all parts of themselves
• Why cultural engagement offers a sense of belonging, and why cultural disengagement makes it more difficult to navigate difference
• Sara offers examples of people straddling multiple cultures and how they navigate within them, as well as examples of frames vs. filters
• How identification and engagement are the keys to recognizing and navigating your own culture, and why it is important to recognize your advantages

• Free Activity to Resolve Cultural Disengagement

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why the first step in developing cultural competence is to "see self", the secret to more effectively understand yourself and understand others
• Sara offers a simple exercise that can help you better define and understand your culture, and she explains how uses this question in training to create an eye-opening experience
• Why it is important to differentiate your cultural descriptors by whether they are frames or filters, and how frames and filters differ
• Sara defines her personal frames, such as being White, cisgender, and female, and her filters, such as being extroverted, competitive, and a woman small business owner
• Why identifying your filters is critical in seeing yourself and understanding how you relate to the world and the people around you
• Why paying attention to your interactions throughout your day can help you see how your filters often make your decisions for you
• Why it is so important to understand your own culture and see yourself, and how this can help you better understand others when you first understand yourself

What is your culture? It's a deceptively simple question…but the answers you arrive at can help you understand yourself and understand others in a more personal way. Take a moment to think about it and list as many identifying factors about your culture as you can.

Now, let's talk about the difference between frames and filters. Frames are descriptors about you, immutable facts such as your ethnicity, your age, your gender and your sexual orientation. Filters, however, are the ways you interact with the world, such as being highly focused, introverted or patient.

Your frames are defined traits, but your filters are subconscious tools you use to make decisions. It's within these subconscious filters that you can get to the heart of how you interact with difference. These filters inform many of the choices and decisions you make, and truly "seeing" yourself and your filters clearly can enable you to understand yourself and understand others better.

We often allow our subconscious minds to make quick decisions for us; it's a natural process and one that generally happens in the background without our active mental input. However, developing cultural competence requires us to take a look at these filters on a conscious level.

When you understand the filters through which you interact with the world, you can begin to consciously change your filters to better suit your interactions. This can be transformative, and it's the key to improving your skill in cultural competence.

In this week's episode of the What's The Difference podcast, I gave an example of trying to teach fish about land and air. Fish only have experience with water, and so teaching them about land and air would mean first teaching them about their own environment so that they can identify and recognize how land and air differ from their experiences in water.

There are parallels between teaching fish about land and air and recognizing and learning about difference in people and in cultures. For us to understand someone else's very different experiences in life, we must first create a reference point by understanding ourselves. Then we can begin to see and acknowledge the difference.

Here's an exercise to try: in the coming week, really begin to pay attention to your filters and how they inform your interactions and choices. Observe yourself and your moment-to-moment thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and try to recognize when your filters come into play. In doing so, you may begin to recognize patterns in yourself that can truly help you understand yourself and understand others on a more effective level.

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• What patterns and challenges people often struggle with when developing their cultural competence, and why the sense of "having to give up" is a common obstacle
• Sara gives a hypothetical example to illustrate the importance of how you deliver a message to get your intent across effectively
• Why shifting our filters isn't about giving anything up but instead can be a powerful way to "add on" in our messaging
• Why Black women are often given the message that to be "professional" or "promotable", they must have the "right" hair
• Why we don't have to abandon our preferences but instead shift how we see and understand those preferences
• Why people often retreat to their "favorite tools" if they're in a lower stage of effectiveness, and how moving out of our automatic responses gives us more effective tools
• Why pushback from the perspective of the dominant culture often comes from fear of losing out, whereas from a nondominant culture it comes from frustration
• Why we must first recognize and acknowledge the frustration someone from a nondominant culture may feel
• Why shifting our filters allows us to be more effective in navigating difference, and why being intentional isn't about losing something but about gaining

One of the most common forms of pushback against DEI work is that people often feel like they're being forced to "give up" something…often something they consider to be a key part of their identity.

However, one of the benefits of cultural competence — the ability to navigate the differences that make a difference — is that it gives you new tools to be able to use rather than taking anything away from you.

As I explain during this week's solocast episode of What's The Difference podcast, it's like a mechanic having a favorite tool, a wrench for example. Adding more tools to the mechanic's toolbox doesn't mean they can't still use that trusty wrench…but that wrench may not be the right tool for every situation. Cultural competence gives you more options, more tools to use so that you can choose the one that fits the situation. It doesn't strip anything away from you. That favorite wrench is still there, waiting for the moment when it's the right tool for the job.

Communicating effectively often requires tailoring your messaging to your audience. You probably wouldn't communicate with a teenager in the same way you would communicate with your grandparents, for example. Cultural competence allows you to more effectively communicate across differences by adding new tools and filters you can use to better understand a situation.

Again, this is additive, not subtractive. You don't have to give anything up to add new communication skills. Your existing skills are still there, you are just adding another layer of depth to them.

So often, the pushback we as DEI practitioners see from the perspective of someone in the dominant culture is coming from a place of fear. The unknown can be scary — but that's precisely why developing your cultural competence can be so powerful. It can help you tackle unfamiliar situations more effectively. The work is hard, but it is always worth it.

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

• How the New York Post recently featured an article titled "(company) slammed for diversity training that urged workers to be 'less white'"
• Why "White" is a frame but "whiteness" is a filter, and why the first can't be changed but the second can
• How our dominant culture is White, cisgender, straight, able-bodied, and male, and why it is vital to recognize the difference between the frame of White and filter of whiteness
• Why it is important to approach, think about and discuss the topic of White vs. whiteness from the later stages of cultural competence development
• Why clarity, not judgment, is the key to better understanding the role of race in our individual interactions and our organizational structures and systems

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why organizations do more and more DEI work but seem to make no real progress, because they focus on Minimizing the differences instead of maximizing them! focused on Minimization
• How to determine if your organization is operating from Minimization, and what impact this can have on your workplace and your team
• Why being in Minimization will predictably bring lukewarm compliance and wasted resources without getting results.
• How to do DEI work with intense and effective commitment Why Minimization means being unable to differentiate the "differences that make a difference" when you need to be able to differentiate
• Why the Minimization stage can be a difficult barrier to hiring, retaining and promoting diverse talent
• How the inability to differentiate can also be costly in your market and within your relationship to existing and potential customers or clients
• Why cultural competence is shown to be a key separator between the lowest performing and highest performing teams

If you've been following the What's The Difference podcast for a while, you know that there are five stages of cultural competence that individuals and organizations move through as they learn to navigate what makes us all different from each other. Today, I want to talk to you about the third stage, Minimization, and its impact on your organization's DEI work. Minimization is the stage that the vast majority of organizations and individuals find themselves operating from. The big problem here is that the first three stages (denial, polarization, and Minimization) are the ineffective stages, and it isn't until the fourth stage where we can recognize and accept our differences that we are able to successfully navigate across differences and create a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace.

So what exactly is Minimization? This is the stage in which we focus on "equality" by attempting to treat everyone as "fairly" as possible…without taking into account the differences that make a difference. It's about setting the finish line for the marathon at the same place for everyone, without taking into account how close or far away everyone is starting the race. Minimization attempts to treat everyone equally and turn a blind eye to their differences, without recognizing that sometimes they really are "differences that make a difference".

This is why many organizations who have the best of intentions spend time, money, and resources on DEI work without actually moving the needle, and the Minimization barrier can be a difficult one to cross if you aren't able to see and recognize the differences that make a difference.

So what can be done to ensure that the DEI work you're doing gets traction and makes a difference? First, you need to identify where your organization is within the hierarchy of cultural competence. Look at your leadership team, at the managers within your organization. Are you hiring, retaining, and promoting diverse talent? If your leadership team doesn't reflect the organization as a whole, this is a strong indicator that you're in the Minimization stage.

The next step is to begin doing the difficult, important development work to help you move out of Minimization and into the fourth stage, acceptance. This requires a strong buy-in from your entire organization and an ongoing commitment to development, individually and collectively.

According to the findings of researchers Martha Maznevski and Joseph Distefano, diverse teams that lack cultural competence are among the lowest-performing teams. The good news is that teams that are both diverse and culturally competent are some of the highest-performing teams. Cultural competence makes a dramatic difference in a team's ability to work together and operate at the highest levels. So, while the necessary development work can be difficult, the results speak for themselves.

Research shows that cultural competence results in greater diversity and higher levels of engagement and inclusion. DEI work is vitally important, but before it can make an impact we must move our organizations out of the first three stages of cultural competence and into the higher fourth and fifth stages, acceptance and adaptation. Only then can we begin to gain traction and move the needle forward.

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

How to Connect with Sara Taylor:

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara

Verona Mitchell (she, her, hers) is a certified intercultural development & diversity executive coach and global leader aligning DEI performance with personal, business goals and strategies. Her strengths are DEI management, leadership and intercultural development for both personal, groups and teams. Verona aids business in discovering the beauty and value of intercultural experiences and diversity as a part of their return on their human investment (ROHI). That's Verona's term, ROHI.

In 2003, 2005 and 2017, she delivered groundbreaking research on cultural frameworks to communication at the Worldwide Conferences on Culture and Education at John Cabot University and George Washington University, both in Rome, Italy. She holds both a B.A. and M.A. in Organizational Leadership and has credit towards a Phd. in Public Policy Administration with specialization in International Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs). Verona is a certified intercultural development & diversity executive and a global leadership professional who has dedicated her career to aligning DEI performance with personal and business goals and strategy. She yields from New Orleans, Louisiana and resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• How Verona's career path led her to doing diversity, equity and inclusion work, and how that work naturally aligns with her interest in understanding people
• How the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police has created a sea change in global DEI work and shined a light on the level of inequities we face in society today
• How businesses, organizations and individuals are struggling to deal with the reality of the racial inequities that led to George Floyd's murder
• How increased awareness of racial inequity has started a difficult but important conversation in many organizations, and how DEI work needs to adapt
• How DEI practitioners have a unique opportunity to help organizations make positive changes in their workplaces
• What new trends have developed since the murder of George Floyd in the DEI space, and how individuals are increasingly feeling empowered to speak out
• Why authenticity and telling stories is crucial to effectively deliver the diversity, equity and inclusion message
• What advice Verona would share with new DEI practitioners just entering the field and uncertain how to start the necessary work

Additional resources:

• Website: https://cultivesimpact.com/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/veronamitchell
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cultural-perspectives-consulting-&-associates-llc
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cultivesimpact
• Twitter: @IMVERONA

Sara Taylor earned a master's degree in Diversity and Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. She served as a leadership and diversity specialist at the University of Minnesota for five years and as director of diversity and inclusion for Ramsey County, Minnesota for three years.

Sara is the founder and president of deepSEE Consulting and has worked with companies as large as Coca-Cola, General Mills, 3M Company, AARP, and numerous others. She has a new book, "Filter Shift: How Effective People See the World," that explores how our unconscious is actually making choices and decisions for us, all without our knowing — and how to change that.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why we typically pay attention to and notice another person's visible actions and behaviors, rather than the thoughts that drive those actions
• How our unconscious filters are what drive our thoughts that lead to our actions, and why recognizing and paying attention to filters is the key to breaking the feedback loop
• Why, in any unpleasant interaction, it is important to stop and consciously consider the filter the other person is experiencing that started the interaction
• Why in the workplace we often focus on rewarding positive behaviors and reprimanding negative ones but don't consider where those behaviors are coming from
• Why the conscious thought isn't always a part of the process and is sometimes skipped when unconscious filter leads directly to action
• How we sometimes have well-worn "go to" filters that cause us to skip the conscious thought process and go straight from filter to action
• How repetitive experiences and interactions can form pathways that help us unconsciously make decisions
• Why the thought step, the one we often skip, is the important one that we need to expand on and spend more time in
• Why taking the time to think allows us the opportunity to decide whether there is a better response to the situation
• Why it is important to consider what advantages and disadvantages your filters may give you in your interactions with others

Additional resources:

• Website: www.deepseeconsulting.com
• Twitter: @deepseesara