Latino Jew makes the case for workplace diversity

-First of two parts–

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO–As a Jew who has lived in Argentina, Puerto Rico, and in different states in the mainland United States, Bernardo Ferdman has absorbed portions of numerous cultures and belief systems. Add to that the facts that he also is a professor, psychologist, and family man, among other roles, and one begins to understand Ferdman’s teaching that people need to bring to the workplace all of their identities, not just one or two aspects. Similarly, he counsels, employers will benefit from a heterogeneous work force.

In his role as a professor at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant University, Ferdman served as editor of the just-published Diversity at Work: The Practice of Inclusion, an anthology for which he has written the preface, conclusion and several chapters, and for which he and associate editor Barbara R. Deane solicited commentaries from more than 30 people who have dealt with workplace diversity.  His first chapter may be downloaded for free from the internet.

Collaborating with others in such a volume was “very appropriate,” he said smilingly during an interview in his book-lined office on January 10, “because how can one person appropriately speak to inclusion?  We need multiple voices.”

The concepts of multiple voices, perspectives and ideas–along with Ferdman’s own bilingual background–are keys to understanding what Ferdman teaches and practices not only in the classroom but as an organizational consultant and as a co-chairman of the Latino-Jewish Coalition. The latter group, started years ago by the American Jewish Committee, is now under the auspices of San Diego’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC).

What is the value of diversity in the work place?  Ferdman responds that one needs to recognize that “diversity exists; it is not something that is really a choice.  Diversity is a human condition if you look at it broadly.  We are different ages, different genders, different personalities, so there are different types of differences. It is simply the nature of being human that in human groups and organizations you are going to have differences.”

There are also different political philosophies, races,  nationalities, sexual preferences, religions, physical abilities, academic majors, work experiences, sports capabilities, hobbies–the list of differences goes on and on.

Ferdman’s advice to employers is that “you lose out on a lot of possible resources if you are not taking advantage of all the people out there.  If you want to have the best possible people for a particular job and you are ruling out half the population because of their sex, you are losing out on a lot of potential resources.  And so, just extending that argument across many other groups, you are going to get one reason why diversity is so important: simply tapping into a greater range of potential and possibility.”

Beyond that, he said, diversity “is consistent with the values of this society as well as many others. We claim to be a society where there is opportunity and room for everybody.  We claim that we are a home to many different types of people and we need to make that happen.”

Yet, all too often, companies narrow the field of potential employees rather than expand it.  There may be a preference for people of the same race, the same religion, or perhaps from the same university; in other words, hiring decisions are based “on what people are comfortable with, or used to, rather than what is really beneficial for the collective outcome.” This is an unproductive business practice, Ferdman suggests. “You want to get talent from wherever it’s from, not just based on some visible superficial identity.”

Having people from different backgrounds and cultures working together doesn’t automatically produce harmony, of course. Even among the fabled crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise in Gene Rodenberry’s paradigm-creating 1960’s science fiction television series Star Trek, in which people of different races, nationalities, and planets worked as a team together, there were conflicts that had to be negotiated.  McCoy, the emotion-prone doctor from Earth, often clashed with Spock, the logic-driven executive officer from the planet Vulcan. Chekhov, a Russian-born navigation officer, constantly remembered a different version of Earth history than Kirk, the crew’s American captain. Sulu, a Japanese navigation officer;  Uhura, the  female communications officer from the United States of Africa; and Scotty, the chief engineer, also brought elements of diversity to the Enterprise’s bridge.

Ferdman and his fellow authors are concerned not only with having people of various backgrounds working together, but also in creating the conditions in which the differences are appreciated and utilized.  If an employer creates “the right climate” for these differences, “you are going to have a lot more innovation and productivity and combinations–synergy you might call it,” Ferdman said.   It’s important, for example, that people not  be put off by differences in the way other people express themselves or interact with their teammates. Some people may be prone to use a lot of hand gestures while expressing themselves; others may tend to stand close to their colleagues in a discussion. Closer proximity is fairly common in Latin America; yet in North America it may be misinterpreted as someone invading another’s personal space.  Employers need to help workers anticipate, understand and deal with such differences so as to create the right climate for the alloy of new ideas to be forged from these different mental metals.

As unproductive as it is to exclude any group from the workplace, so too is it unproductive for employees to hide, subordinate, or stifle aspects of their identities in order to “fit in” with the team, Ferdman said.

“The classic case is someone who is gay and can’t talk about his or her life and actually lies about it and makes up stories,” said Ferdman.  “But in my workshop, I talk to people who have a religious identity that they feel that they can’t share, or who don’t have the same ideas (as their co-workers), or don’t like to talk about football, or like to do things that others might find distasteful.

“I had one workshop that a leader in the Salvation Army participated,” Ferdman continued.  The man “talked about his tattoos, which you never would have assumed he would have under his Salvation Army uniform.  But as we talked, he talked about how he really uses that on certain occasions.  How he connects with the youth.  It was a great example, and I was really moved.  I loved hearing him talk about it. I don’t have tattoos.  I don’t have them on myself but why should I impose that on others?”

There is a well known Chasidic story about an 18th century rabbi from Tarnow, Poland, Rabbi Zusya.  “Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said  ‘In the coming world, they will not ask me: “Why were you not Moses?” They will ask me: ‘Why were you not Zusya?” ‘”

In his own life, said Ferdman, “I spent a lot of time in my younger days trying to assimilate and I thought ‘Wait a minute, that doesn’t work so well and I certainly don’t like it–it creates anxiety and reduces effectiveness.'”  So now he presents himself to people as a man of multiple identities–among these, certainly, a Jew and a Latino.  “As I have been able to draw on myself and help others do that for themselves, it gives more power and more effectiveness and is more enriching,” he said.

Beyond promoting self-acceptance, the linking of the various aspects of one’s life–one’s various identities–“in a sense make me a better teacher, and being a teacher makes me a better consultant, and I do coaching as well. I’m a certified coach.  I bring all these things together and I just try to make the boundaries not be rigid because they all inform and feed each other… I do sessions about bringing your whole self to work; I help people map their identities and think about how they support and affect each other.”

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Next:  Ferdman compares and contrast Jewish communities in Argentina, Puerto Rico and the United States and tells of the work in San Diego of the Latino-Jewish Coalition.

Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World.  He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com