Rice Bowls
Posted: Wednesday, March 24, 2010
by Kevin D. Moore
Knowledge Driven & Moore LLC
I, like many others, consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to diversity. In many ways, throughout my career as a leader, I had no choice but to be very knowledgeable in diversity if I were to be successful. But not everyone who thinks they know diversity truly does.
The fact is that no matter how much you think you know about diversity, you probably need to know more!!!
That being said, I am extremely thankful that I learned a very valuable diversity lesson which fortunately did not result in me losing my leadership career.
You see, I have been leading people for the past 28 years and even graduated from a college specifically designed and engineered to teach and instill leadership in all of its graduates. One would believe (especially me) that I would not fall into a common trap of making diversity mistakes. But, I painfully discovered that I don't know everything.
Picture this, I'm standing in front of a large organization that I am the leader of for the very first time. While in front, I'm presenting my vision and some of the near-term goals that I have for the organization. In addition, one of the things that I wanted my organization to know was that we were going to look at and review all of our business processes in all areas so as to ensure efficiencies and remove those processes that were not efficient. In other words, I informed them that there would be no "Rice Bowls". Everything would be reviewed.
Once I was done talking, based on the positive reaction of the audience, I felt pretty good. Actually, exhilarated is a better word to describe my feeling. So, imagine my shock and surprise when a man from the audience, who appeared to be of Asian descent, walked up to me afterwards and asked me what I meant by the term "Rice Bowls"?
I innocently responded with, "What do you mean? What did I mean about "Rice Bowls"... I mean no "Rice Bowls". You know...no areas will be closed off and limited from review. You know...nothing will be "Close Hold". Unfortunately, it became obvious that he did not understand my meaning.
So there I was...struggling to find a way to explain a term that I grow up with in the military and had heard many of my own leaders use without any problems...and this man just stood there with a blank expression.
Not so lucky for me, in an effort to come up with an explanation that would enlighten this guy, the image of an Asian man squatted over a bowl of rice and eating popped into my head. Basically, an image I have seen time and time again in Vietnam era movies.
It was at this very moment that I realized that I had offended this man. Well, actually he wasn't offended until I apologized to him and explained the image that had just popped into my head and why. Now, he was offended!
How could it be that a term I grew up with in the military and learned as a leader was in fact offensive? More importantly, how could it be that I had been using it so freely for so many years?
Fortunately, I have used this experience to frequently remind myself that I really don't know everything there is to know when it comes to diversity. To be truly knowledgeable in diversity requires one to constantly seek knowledge in diversity.
Needless to say, I no longer use the term "Rice Bowls" unless I want something to eat.
Copyright 2010 Knowledge Driven & Moore LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Gregory,Thank you for your very thoughtful comment!Kevin
He was way too sensitive. Too many are. You were focused correctly, he was not. He was looking for something. You were success oriented, he was victim oriented. Diversity also means being able to be ourselves. Watch what I do, not what I might say to see the man I am.Jack,First off...I appreciate you writing a comment and your kind words. However, I have to disagree with you when it comes to the man that inadvertently schooled me. I don't believe he was victim oriented. He truly had no idea that the term "Rice Bowl" was being used in a negative fashion. He actually was one of my sharpest people. In my opinion, he just wanted to understand what was being communicated to him. To this day, I am extremely happy that he asked the question. His sincere question and my sincere answer made me a better leader. Again, thank you for your comment and insight.Kevin
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