MY GREATEST CHALLENGE
BUILDING CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Doing business in 170 countries and working with ing her and were kind of frustrated. My son was really
100,000 business partners means you need the abil- disturbed by the fact that they couldn’t understand her.
ity to communicate with diverse communities and be a He looked at them and said, ‘She’s asking you if you want
culturally sensitive organization. To shed light on how water or snacks, what’s so diffi cult about that?’ I was
an individual or organization becomes more culturally standing nearby and I thought, ‘Gee!’ My son didn’t see
competent, Cathy McCluney, manager, IBM Innova- grandma that often because she lived abroad, but that
tion Center, ISV and Developer Relations, moderated a exposure he had to her culture, understanding that she
presentation by Fanee Harrison, director of diversity and was just being grandma, had helped him develop toler-
inclusion at the Boeing Company, and Shahla Atashroo, ance for her accent and the way she was communicating
former director of application development, Sprint. Here and it gave him that edge.
are excerpts from the seminar.
Recently, I attended a high-powered engineering course
offered through Cisco. There I am with fi fty men—the
only woman in the class. I was getting nice and comforta-
ble and then someone asked, ‘Are you in the right class?’
I looked at them and said, ‘Yes, I am, but are you?’ I tried
to reach out to them, but I could tell there were a few
who weren’t comfortable having me there as a woman
engineer.
Understanding culture and cultural diversity is important
because it helps us understand the values and attitudes
and behaviors of others. It helps us to avoid the stere-
otyping and bias that can undermine our efforts and it
plays a critical role in the development and delivery of
services.
Everybody has a culture. A culture is what we inherit;
it could be what we learned, but it’s very dynamic. I’ve
given you an example of myself: Born in Persia, I came to
the United States. I am a US citizen and I have inherited
an American culture. I am also Christian, and there is a
culture I follow, celebrations I observe. As an Iranian-born,
I also have a culture unique to Persia. So it’s important
when you look at an individual you do not form opin-
Shahla Atashroo ions, because you could be dealing with a multi-cultural
Retired Director of Application Development individual.
Sprint
When you talk to my children, who come from the same
The fi rst time I came to really think about why being culture as I do, but were born and raised here in the US,
competent in a cultural diverse environment gives you you’ll fi nd that they have adopted a sub text of my cul-
that edge was after observing my six-year old son. He is ture. I followed my parent’s culture. I learned from them,
24 years old now. but the new generation has adopted their own version of
the culture. So culture is learned, but it is also dynamic
My son was playing with a few other team mates in the
and it changes continuously.
house and grandma was at home. My mom, English
is a second language for her, speaks Farsi and has the What causes diversity within the same culture? Factors
hospitality of a Persian. She kept asking the little boys as such as age, gender, geographical location, socio-
they were playing, ‘Would you like snacks, something economic status and so forth.
to drink?‘ But the boys had great diffi culty understand-
66 WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2009
www.womenofcolor.net
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