Cultural Values Lecturette Outline
Does the Difference Make a Difference?
I. Values Continuum
A. Values fall on a continuum, and our culture teaches us preferences on each continuum.
B. Our value preferences may fall anywhere on a continuum. Although we can move along the continuum somewhat, we tend to have a preferred place—one where we are most comfortable or to which we turn during times of stress.
C. We also have learned behaviors that are attached to our preferred value on each continuum.
D. We can have different values and exhibit the same behavior, or different behaviors to support the same value.
E. We tend to see a behavior and jump immediately to an interpretation or evaluation of the behavior without first adequately describing that behavior.
F. If we see different behaviors—or suspect different values—we cannot know what they mean without asking the other person. Using Describe, Interpret, and Evaluate is an effective way to approach behaviors we don’t understand or that seem odd. (See Activity 6, “A Value to D.I.E. For,” on page 17)
II. What Difference Does the Difference Make?
A. Once we have asked the other person to interpret the behavior so we know what it means to her or him, we can decide whether that behavior makes a difference.
B. There are four areas where a behavior does make a difference in a workplace:
1. If the behavior reduces productivity
2. If the behavior threatens legality—including the laws of the organization, called policies and procedures
3. If the behavior is unsafe
4. If the behavior increases costs
C. If a behavior does none of the above things, then it is not a difference that makes a difference, and allowing someone to behave in his or her own manner is an important way to demonstrate that diversity is valued.
D. If the behavior does not make a difference, identify how you might modify your own response to it.
E. If the behavior does make a difference, identify how you are going to tell the individual that the behavior must be modified in this workplace.
Note: Telling someone a behavior does not work in this organization—because it is one of the differences that make a difference—does not mean the behavior is bad or wrong in all contexts. Asking that a behavior stop for one of the above-listed four reasons need not be a negative judgment—only an evaluation about the particular workplace.