Have we, Sauve Scholars, embraced diversity?

Receiving an email of complaint a few weeks ago made me disappointed and reflective. We had failed to fully be present in the sessions that we have had guest speakers at home. The complaints were around not being entirely attentive while listening to our lovely guests, for example sleeping during the session. Of course the guests would be offended … But, is it all true?

To what extent have we, Sauve Scholars, embraced diversity? Here may be a place to start. 

Leaving as part of the Sauve family for nearly six months, I have always been amazed by the massive diversity that exists in our small community. But, the question goes around the extent that this diversity is understood, and is a positive force in working together.

Chatting about the came up issue in the house, opened my eyes to a reality; we have not wholly embraced the existing diverse culture. No one was sleeping during our guest’s peach. Someone was carefully listening with closed eyes!!! Closing eyes is an effective way of concentration, reflection, and listening in some of our cultures and communities. We might not know enough about each others’ cultures …

Diversity is a positive force in our Sauvé family. We should understand it and realize how to work with that to make it a reinforcing factor. Now that the program is coming to its end, I think we could have recognized and known our cultures more in depth. The beginning of the Sauvé program could be a space for bringing high degree of awareness about cultural differences. It is a ladder that starts with trying to be politically correct. The next rung is to understanding ethnic, cultural and gender differences. From there we can see the broad dimension of diversity. We can then go higher and step on the rung of accepting different perspectives, and finally get to the highest rung and value differences.

I would never forget the amazing personal and professional development program that we had in and outside the Sauvé house. However, if I could start the program all again, I would suggest a more structures plan to focus more on group building and promoting skills to facilitate climbing the awareness ladder, early in the Sauvé year.

The experience of living in a beautiful house with 12 incredible people from all over the world would remain the highlight of my life forever. However, spending quality of time and focusing on some skills at the beginning and during the program, might have even made this experience richer. In a series of sessions we could focus on self-monitoring and speaking about our own background and unique qualities. We do not know enough how our housemates have been behaved back home and what are their expectations of being behaved in the house. Earlier we knew about our differences and similarities, earlier we could form stronger and more transparent friendships. Managing diversity and the related conflicts would be much easier if we know enough about each others` backgrounds and culture. Then it is the time for being an ally and championing each other with different background.

 Sauvé program taught me in order to effectively use diversity as a positive force in our group, we should be able to hold two truths at the same time: a) we are all different; b) we are all the same. It was a journey from self-exploration to exploration of otherness and to the beauty of integration. As we moved on, we went deeper and deeper, from visible diversity to the invisible diversities. It was incredible to realize who maintains and who avoids eye contact when talking to me, as well as how close we stand to one another in our conversations. To establish a sense of privacy we need different spaces. But, how do we establish our space and how do we manage to respect others` spaces?

Body languages and facial expressions are integral part of our communications. Let me give you an example. Imagine you enter a country and the first body language that you face is thumb up. This is offensive in my culture. Can you believe that? It has a special and humiliating meaning in my country. And, it took me a few days to get the whole story.  There are tens of other examples that we could have talked about at the beginning of the program and still we might not know completely about each other. For example, how comfortable each of us is with silence; how long can a period of silence be maintained before it is considered uncomfortable or a void to be filled; what value each of us give time; how late is too late, what are the signs of authority; what behaviours indicates superior/subordinate relationships; what role do factors such as age, sex, class, occupation, nationality, and … play in determining hierarchy in relationship; and etc.

 Sitting in my cozy room, looking outside the window, drinking my mint tea, and thinking to what extent we know the answers to all of these questions. It is nearly the end of the program. How effectively have we been working with diversity? Sauvé program was a practice which helped me: know myself and my framework better, gain knowledge about others’ frameworks, do not make assumptions, use inclusive language in and outside the house, avoid stereotyping and generalizations, be aware of the judgements I make, adopt an attitude of respectful curiosity, develop empathy, encourage open communication, and be an ally.

All of these improvements happened by the nature of the Sauvé program and throughout time. Planning and making strategies from the beginning of the program for fostering community and group building would facilitate accomplishing these goals earlier and to a larger scale.