Language and feedback from others give us clues that reflect our mindset. Movement out of a monocultural mindset happens in stages from denial, polarization, and minimization to accepting our differences, even celebrations, and adaptation that brings systemic change. An intercultural mindset takes empathy and a desire to understand another’s journey.

Our three-part series focuses on learning the plight of two industry pioneers in the trades working toward inclusion, diversity, and cultural competency.

Karin McCabe of McGough Construction and Wendy Sullivan of Wenrich PD Construction, LLC are forging pathways to address systemic racism. This work is done together with many voices being heard, asserting meaningful conversations, and taking action to change policies and procedures, and examining hiring practices. It encourages looking at every aspect of the dominant culture and applying a multicultural mindset.

A step toward systemic change is acknowledging that the construction industry was built through a monocultural mindset. White males created a dominant culture through their point of view. Makes sense when thinking in that way. No blame, just naming what has brought us to this point.

Inclusion in action could mean gently nudging the dominant culture of business leaders to move through the stages of denial, polarization, and minimization as they reach an acceptance of ownership in how they perpetuated the dominant culture. To be inclusive, we need to know how we have been exclusive, explore ways to stop excluding others, and provide reparations to minorities from now on, if possible.

Karin and Wendy agree that the construction industry has a long way to go. That is why their life mission is to bring inclusion and diversity into the limelight by creating pathways to cultural competence within their companies and externally in their communities.

Wendy Sullivan is today’s guest mentor. She is biracial. Her mother is a descendant of slaves and knows generational trauma, and her father is Caucasian.

Imagine if your family were descendants of slavery. Taken from their home country and ripped from their lives with their families, never seeing them again. Tortured and beaten. Organized to live with others speaking differing tribal languages and traditions. Being forced to work and live together for their lifetime. They were not allowed to accumulate or build wealth or even build a better future for their offspring. What’s inherited is enslavement to a family that controls every aspect of your life.

Imagine further dehumanization by being assigned a number to replace your name. Your voice is not heard, and your humanity goes unacknowledged. There are no reparations for a lifetime of suffering. The family you bring into the world suffers the same indignities. Where do you find your self-worth and sense of belonging? Where is your place in the world? How do you embrace your humanity and build a legacy where generations can prosper? How do you free yourself of these atrocities that are never acknowledged? 

 “Generational Trauma is precisely what it sounds like,” according to Dr. Melanie English: “trauma that isn’t just experienced by one person but extends from one generation to the next. “It can be silent, covert, and undefined, surfacing through nuances and inadvertently taught or implied throughout someone’s life from an early age onward,” licensed clinical psychologist and parenting evaluator Melanie English, Ph.D., tells Health. 

Our society is awakening from its monocultural mindset to the history we need to reckon with and the generational trauma we need to heal. It isn’t pretty. The language of denial, polarization, and minimization are undulating around us (an estimated 20 million Americans). Maybe we hear ourselves. The reckoning will continue. We must nudge ourselves and others forward to accept our history, not perpetuate it, and stay stuck in a monocultural mindset. How can we include generational trauma into our intercultural understanding? Wendy shares insights and wisdom from her life.

You will hear resiliency in Wendy’s voice as she explains what she learned from moving 13 times in her youth and being an only child with working parents. I have never met anyone with so many mentors who have helped Wendy along the way. It helps that she isn’t shy and knows how to ask for help. Her father, who passed away last year, was her first mentor in real estate, Sullivan Real Estate. Owning property is part of her ancestry and award-winning salespeople. Her father won an award for selling the most encyclopedias back in the day.

Wendy explains how she acquired 47 distressed properties over 19 years through Wenrich Property & Development, LLC, and then sold them off until 15 properties were left. Her openness to talk about how she participated in the 2008 real estate market collapse with others, how she recovered, and what she learned is refreshing.

In 2011, an electrical fire brought her house down, which turned into eight years of feeling displaced before her two sons and daughter moved into their new home. A journey that needed another mentor to help her navigate insurance claims and a long-drawn-out lawsuit with a contractor. You will also hear of Wendy’s lingering regret healed through her daughter’s open heart. Did I mention her resiliency?

Find out why Martha Hendrickson and the following three organizations helped Wendy find her footing and put her in a position to give back:

1. Associated General Contractors of Minnesota (AGC)
2. Association for Women Contractors (AWC)
3. National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC-UM)

You will also hear how Wendy met Karin, more mentors like McGough Construction and Target. Plus, Wendy’s big news and plans for 2022 with Wenrich PD Construction, LLC.

We covered a vast terrain as I listened intently a second time. My eyes widened. My ears enlarged. My vocabulary broadened. My heart expanded. My desire to change the world grew. Let me know how this meaningful conversation impacts you?  DOWNLOAD

Here are the three terms and definitions we are working from:

• 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 competence has to do with the skills used to understand and communicate across differences effectively. 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.

Next week, Karin McCabe and Wendy Sullivan join me as we get more into the practical ways McGough Construction is becoming culturally competent and how you can lead with more cultural competence too.