I recently read a blog posted by Viva Chen, The Careerist, titled “White Man’s Burden” (http://thecareerist.typepad.com/thecareerist/2011/03/white-mans-burden.html) and it was interesting to notice the comments this blog generated. Briefly, this blog was about a mid-west white male lawyer who is suing his firm for discrimination. He is bitter about being denied a partnership, seemingly in favor of women and/or minorities. Several men commented about this blog, mostly cheering on the “victim” and bemoaning their current plight as the majority currently not in favor.
Indeed, many law firms are working to improve their diversity, with special attention to hiring and elevating more minorities and women. The challenge that we hear repeatedly from Diversity Leaders inside of law firms is that retention of women and minorities is the real issue. It seems the environment inside of their firms often leaves those outside of the majority challenged to survive, if not thrive. In addition, beyond the firm, clients and markets are beginning to demand more cultural understanding in order to win business.
I propose the Cultural Competency model as a mean to achieve the desired results. Cultural Competence is defined as the ability to successfully interact with people of different cultures. I heard an example of the important of cultural competence at a workshop on Law Firm Diversity earlier this year. Seems a senior partner at a law firm was ready to close a deal with a client who was an Orthodox Jew. When they reached agreement, the partner extended a handshake, as is the custom is the United States. In fact, this is NOT the custom in the clients’ culture; therefore the client resisted the extended hand, resulting in both parties feeling very insulted. The bottom-line was no multi-million dollar deal for the law firm.
The world is quickly becoming more flat and the global economy is growing, the impact being that we all may increasingly be faced with the need to interact across cultures. In addition to transacting multi-cultural business, there is also an opportunity to practice cultural competency within the current law firm environment seeking to welcome diverse professionals. One approach is to moan and groan about the need to modify our comfortable ways of relating. An alternative is to embrace these changes rather than resist them, grow the pie and generate a bigger share for everyone. The old boy network has been successfully growing white male lawyers for years. How about extending the club membership to others?
In the short run, the economy may make this difficult, but in the long run, Cultural Competency is a viable answer. Although law firms operate as highly autonomous environments, we should be wondering how long can this model of success last? More and more, teamwork, cross-selling and diverse teams are required to get and/or keep the business.
In answer to the “White Man’s Burden” I say, don’t become a victim; embrace inclusion and figure out how to create a win/win for everyone.