How photos can help you understand diversity

Why I keep talking about diversity and visual communications

At VisualsSpeak, we start conversations with photographs. When people select photographs in response to a question, they naturally select things that reflect their values. Values are deeply held, and tell a cultural group how to discern good from bad, and right from wrong. Our cultural values are at the core of what drives our beliefs and assumptions.

Diversity is quite complex. The Four Layers of Diversity from Gardenswartz and Rowe begins to show many of the factors that form who we are and what we believe.

This myriad of factors influencing our cultural values provide many opportunities for differences to arise. Some of the most difficult ones to accommodate are when two or more people hold a common value, and yet the behavior they each use to express that value is different.

But we are saying the same thing.

Have you ever been talking to another person about a value, say honesty, and suddenly discover you have different ideas about what that means? Especially in what might be considered gray areas. Here are some examples to test yourself about honesty.

• Is it OK to tell ‘little white lies’?
• Is it OK to drive over the speed limit if you don’t get caught?
• Is it OK to download music off the the internet without paying for it if everyone else is doing it?
• Is it OK to add someone else’s photo to your blog without getting permission?
• Is it OK to share handouts from a workshop with a colleague?
• Is it OK to take something you learned at a conference and use it in your training?
• Is it OK to not say what you think to avoid making someone else feel bad?

Are your answers: it depends, never, sometimes, always?

If you are talking to someone who says they are honest, do you assume they would answer these questions the same way you do? Do you know that for a fact? How would you perceive this person if you discovered that your definitions of honesty are not identical?

Surprise!… Everyone ’sees’ things differently.

If you ask a group of people to select photos that represent honesty and then ask how it represents honesty to them, something else occurs.

First of all, there will be differences in how people see the pictures. Some people may not be able to relate to another person’s choice as having anything to do with what you have asked them to represent. Sometimes these differences are dramatic, sometimes more subtle. This process often sparks conversations about those differences and what they mean to each person. This can be a gold mine of information for you as the facilitator.

In this example, having your clients use photographs to talk about honesty offers them a way to talk deeply about their beliefs and perceptions both literally and figuratively. You are extending an invitation to them to express what is most dear about their personal values in a non-threatening way.

Through this process you can open the door to multi-dimensional discussions instead of ones that maybe ask an ‘either/or’ question. Is honesty like a tree that has deep roots and many branches? Or is honesty like a whale that makes waves when it comes crashing down into the water in which it lives? Is it situational; do you select different pictures to represent honesty at work and honesty at home?

You can apply this process to a lot of other topics such as: trust, integrity, commitment, respect……etc.

What do we do with all this information?

It depends on what your goals are for the group. Beyond that, I often find the issues that surface are fairly consistent.

• How do we take the vast diversity of viewpoints we have discovered and use them for good?
• How do we reach across communication style differences?
• What do we do when our values are different?

These questions get answered as we develop cross- cultural effectiveness. Instead of being bothered by differences, we start developing curiosity. We begin to embrace other perspectives as having the potential to deepen our own. We see a myriad of possibilities in any situation. We learn to adapt our own style to meet the other person.

Awareness of diversity emerges from the conversation about the photos.

Awareness about diverse perceptions happens naturally and consistently. How people label the process may be different. Some people might call it diversity while others use words like culture, cross-cultural, intercultural or other variations.

But differences surface, and values get called out along with the differences in perception between people. As a facilitator and trainer, the better I get at understanding how to assist people in reaching across differences, the more effectively I can serve my clients.

© 2007 VisualsSpeak LLC