?? Racheal ‘Dami’ Odunewu的动态

Ten years ago when I first moved to Springfield, MO, I never imagined how difficult it’ll be navigating the cultural changes and the challenges that came with it. One challenge especially was settling into my first job after college as a hospital operations manager. I was the only Black/African manager with 33 direct reports (one Black, 2 Romanians, 2, Asians, 28 Whites). Let’s just say about 3 months into the job, a group of team members made their way to HR with a page-long list of complaints against me. In that moment, I was ready to pack up my things and leave Springfield, never to return. Thankfully, my boss Ronnie Lightfoot had my back. Together, we came up with a game plan and the rest is history. What I would have referred to as discrimination back then was simply what I call a multicultural chaos. Ever since George Floyd, there has been a demand for employers to step up their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Sadly, this creates even bigger issues in the workplace. What do I mean? When employees from diverse backgrounds are brought together and expected to work together without prior awareness or exposure of our identities and/or origins, what naturally happens is a clash of what we all know. Our natural instinct is to protect ourselves and our territories from each other. How can we then work together? The more we become aware of each other’s cultures, the more we can interact with ease and understanding. The more we feel safe to share our spaces and work together. When I first envisioned Purpose Connect, I saw a transformed workplace. While matching employers to qualified diverse talents, we want to ensure that employers and their teams have what they need to foster a safe diverse environment. Early this year, I launched the Ultimate Team Party (UTP) with the intention of providing trainings for understanding races and ethnic backgrounds in the workplace. Today, I am happy to announce the launch of the revamped UTP which provides an expansive cultural competency training in collaboration with some amazing friends—Cindy Mergen, Krista Peryer, Justyn Pippins, and Vanessa Bussie. Our next class is on Wednesday, June 28th from 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM. Registration deadline for this class is Monday, June 26th. Click for more information and grab your seat today! #springfieldmo #diversity #diversityandinclusion #diversityequityinclusion #humanresources #hrleaders #leadershipdevelopment #leadershiptraining #chiefdiversityofficer