To start, Karin McCabe at McGough Construction is a 22-year industry veteran. McGough is known as a world-class construction business based in Minnesota. Karin is the director of one of their eight resource Centers for Excellence; equal opportunity and outreach. This role focuses on internal and external efforts that create more inclusion and diversity.

“Diversity,” Karin says, “is the multi-varied experiences and world views we all bring to the table, the lens in which we view everything. We address diversity at McGough as a benefit to the company, a tool for innovation, and a challenge to achieve. An opportunity and challenge to achieve a more inclusive work culture. Our culture is dominant. What we recognize and see is built into the Caucasian mindset. It doesn’t create a place where people feel they belong. We want to change that.”

I begin by giving a brief overview of Dr. Milton J. Bennett’s Intercultural Development Continuum (see Episode Resources for links) to shape our conversation and provide insight into the stages we go through to create cultural change. In learning about any culture, we all start with a monocultural mindset or an ethnocentric view based on a self-perspective. It makes sense that we start with our worldview, a familial view. 

To shift from a monocultural mindset, learn these three essential stages and reach acceptance and adaptation, or an intercultural mindset. The stage where we adapt and implement cultural change. 

 Initially, we miss differences and nuances because we are in denial. We only see our perspective or our own culture. We are absorbed in it and don’t know anything different. We know movement out of denial occurs when we start judging differences as good or bad, right or wrong, this way or the highway kind of language that creates polarization. 

Polarization can last forever unless we open up to the next stage of developing an intercultural mindset, minimization. We start de-emphasizing our differences by minimizing facts and calling out ‘fake news,’ for example. If we don’t want to stay stuck in the ethnocentric stage, we need to begin to accept differences by deeply comprehending the facts and experiences of others. 

A way to move through this stage is to gather information and assert self-leadership. Start conversations that go below the surface. Like conversations moving the focus from self-focus to interest and desire to know the other. How is the other experiencing a hiring process, or is an advancement path even an option? We talk about that. 

My family made a change in lifestyle that I use to explain how you can apply the stages to make changes in a family culture. Naively (denial), I didn’t think Matthew, Olivia, and I changing our diets to become more plant-based or vegan would cause a stir. Learning this intercultural development continuum helped me understand why changing something like a family culture can cause disruption, like changing the culture in a workplace or making changes in our democracy. Disruptions and meaningful conversations are essential components of an intercultural mindset. 

This journey to become vegan started about ten years ago. So, of course, it would take others time to accept our decision and make adjustments (or not) to our extended family traditions. I can now better understand others’ stages and empathize as they work their way through the stages. One can’t force people through the stages, and we know some people never muster up enough curiosity to move on to the next stage. They would instead take up residence in the stage of development than move through the stage to grow and shift their perspective. I can accept that too. 

I experience acceptance as a relief. The discomfort and tension subside. When the three of us accepted plant-based living, we could identify the internal struggle we each went through, from denial to polarization to minimization to acceptance. On January 15, 2021, we implemented our plant-based diet with a 95% rule for flexibility. 

Adaptation, the final stage toward an intercultural mindset, is where the fun part is, in my opinion. Using my family culture change as the example again, old recipes are looked at with a fresh view, a newness. Ideas like using chia seeds as a substitute for sugar and plant-based JustEggs as egg substitutes brought new fascinations and a desire to taste test everything. Curiosity spurs growth and expansion and brings in the joy factor as you figure out what you can let go of and what will work. Plus, I now have a new population of vegans to hang with and explore their lifestyles. Through this process, I expanded my sense of belonging by embracing a new community that is the cultural competency goal. 

Karin describes how she grew up the eldest in a big, loud, loving family with six siblings. Her sense of belonging at home expanded her desire to create a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. 

She was born into a leadership role. Civil servants as parents underscored a sense of duty and servant leadership that she has built upon over her 22-years at McGough. A company dedicated to developing and strengthening relationships through diversity within the construction industry. Please find out how Karin is directing internal change through inclusion, diversity, and cultural competency at McGough Construction and how she is changing in the process. 

Knowing the following three standard terms and definitions will facilitate a more profound listening experience in this podcast episode. 

• Diversity means a unique mix of differences: race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, ethnicity, physical abilities, age, relation, national origin, beliefs, political affiliations, and life experiences. 

• Inclusion is, for our purposes, how differences are addressed in the workplace. This means going beyond meeting outside directed quotas like hiring a certain number of minorities. It means finding ways to respect and find ways to honor their contributions and having a voice in decisions that affect them, the company, and the community. To summarize, each person is seen, heard, and respected.  

• Cultural Competency has to do with the skills used to effectively understand and communicate across differences. All parties are aware of their implicit biases. Leveraging diversity by embracing differences as an added benefit and not judging as something wrong or bad. 

Our series intends to broaden awareness, expand our ability to empathize, spark ideas for more inclusion and diversity, and broaden our understanding of cultural competency. Why not learn new ways to be inclusive, celebrate our differences, and bump our cultural competency in the workplace DOWNLOAD

Next week, Wendy Sullivan, founder and CEO of WENRICH PD Construction, LLC, talks about her entrepreneurial journey navigating the real estate and construction industries. We dive into her surprising experiences with diversity and inclusion and her work with McGough Construction.