Developing Through Differences

One of the great things about West Michigan is how easy it is to travel from an urban center to pristine farmland or the Lake Michigan shore. As MarcQus Wright, a Diversity Development specialist for start-up Quality Collaborators, points out, you will encounter a diverse urban experience in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, and with only a 15-minute drive you can be in the center of a rural community.

“There are vast pockets of differences,” says Wright. “Between Holland and Grand Rapids, there are a lot of differences. Sometimes people accept another; sometimes, not. It can be hard and sometimes, people do not understand the differences.”

Also a living center director at Grand Valley State University, Wright sees the Grand Rapids community as segregated in terms of social and economic diversity. He sees this on a micro level at the college, where students from inner city neighborhoods learn to live and study with the sons and daughters of farmers, where a first-generation immigrant can share space with a student from an affluent suburb.

Whether it is social, economic, racial, ethnic, religious, or otherwise, there is often a need for specialized and targeted training to help individuals understand, identify and discuss these differences and diversity issues.

As the West Michigan community continues to grow and diversify its business base, Wright and his Diversity Development partners see the lines of difference becoming ever more prominent, fueling an increased need for diversity and leadership training. Thus, the birth of Quality Collaborators.

A need for quality collaboration
While presenting on diversity issues to local, state and national conventions, Wright and Scott Jensen, an assistant director of Housing and Residence Life at GVSU, were impressed by the strong attendance for their programs. They saw a clear and unmet demand for training and activities to help professionals work with others in a diverse and sometimes unfamiliar world.

Knowing that the company would focus on team development for diverse groups, Wright and Jensen tapped a pair of colleagues that would help make their company as diverse as the groups it would serve, colleagues Michele Bookie and Brandie Tenney.

“They round out the team; they bring in different experiences,” says Wright. “All four of us across the board are a good team and can offer the services (companies) are looking for.”

Tenney cut her teeth working with male engineering students in Missouri before returning to Michigan as a student housing administrator. Bookie, another veteran of student housing, is a social justice advocate with team development and customer relations expertise. A feminist and ally to the gay and lesbian community, she has worked with the Women’s Center at Grand Valley State University.

“I bring in a different perspective,” says Bookie. “MarcQus and Scott see it one way. I bring something different to the table, a different passion.”

The partners’ different passions and approaches shape the programming offered to customers. Their diverse expertise allows them to structure training around the needs of companies with regard to both visible (race and gender) and not so visible (sexual orientation and religion) differences, including some often not thought about.

To date, the company has presented on several college campuses as well as at the national university conference Association of College and University Housing Officers-International and regional conferences.

Finding your True Colors
Wright recently presented True Colors, one of the Quality Collaborators’ leadership development programs, to about 30 people from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Non-Profit Leadership as part of its staff retreat.

True Colors is a leadership style that uses colors to identify different leadership and development styles. It helps individuals identify their ‘brightest color,’ giving participants a common language and a means to discuss differences with each other, explains Susan Morales-Barias, director of the center's Nonprofit Leadership Institute. This ‘brightest color’ helps individuals identify their work style, values and preferred work environment.

“It has allowed us to openly talk about our differences and uniqueness,” says Morales-Barias. “We can honestly say, ‘That’s me. I’m a green;’ It gives us a common language.”

Any organization can benefit from this type of training because there is always a need for individuals within a company to interact with each other, and usually an opportunity for them to learn better ways to do so. It benefits leaders by enriching an individual’s leadership style and providing them with more tools, says Morales-Barias. “MarcQus did a really good job explaining the concepts and was really respectful of the colors. He presented the different colors in positive ways instead of negative ones. Everyone was able to own their color in a positive way.”

Professional businesses as well as academic institutions can benefit from the training offered by Quality Collaborators because it can help various levels of management better communicate and relate with each other. For example, within an academic institution, the administration and teachers can learn how to react to a student of a culture different than their own as they begin to understand his or her unique background. “It’ll help the administration, teachers and students relate and succeed,” says Wright. “It’ll help everyone and that’s a plus.”

Within a professional corporation, the Quality Collaborators strive to help top management, middle management and line workers understand colleagues, subordinates and supervisors. “Not all customers are the same. Corporations have to welcome the differences in their customers to increase customer service and the type of customers they have.”

Bookie can attest to that — it was personal customer service that helped fuel her participation in Quality Collaborators. There are stores that she chooses not to return to because of culturally inconsiderate conversations that she’s overheard between workers. “These workers are not exposed or think about how others will react,” she says. “They don’t know that what they say or do will affect others.”

It is these differences that Quality Collaborators strive to educate their customers about.

“I’m not making assumptions, but it seems like in West Michigan, there’s a good opportunity to ignore differences; people are more sheltered,” Bookie said. “It’s not always going to be like that though. Development (has) got to be there. They’ll never get the opportunity if they don’t look to do it.”