Workshops for Diversity Competency Development Announced
The County will launch its new Diversity Competency Development Workshops in August with the one-day sessions being offered twice a week on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday schedule.  The workshops are a hands-on experience where participants will learn how to better manage "cultural collisions" routinely encountered in a large organization.  Highlights include:

• Awareness and assessment of one's own values, experiences, and perceptions of others
• Looking beyond obvious differences to find the similarities in people
• Learning how to understand the viewpoints, norms and styles of others
• Addressing culturally biased behaviors to resolve conflict, solve problems and increase performance
• How to recognize the positive value and productive contributions of people with different backgrounds and perspectives
• Communicating effectively with people of different cultures, backgrounds and perspectives

The workshops are part of the County’s Diversity Management Plan adopted in 2006.  The plan calls for Mecklenburg County to be a model diverse organization, and employees will have the knowledge, skills and abilities to implement the plan.  Phin Xaypangna, from the County’s newly formed Organization Development unit, has been meeting with department leaders to review Diversity Competency Development goals and objectives, and to initiate department sign-up.   Pilot sessions were conducted in June with employees from a cross-section of departments and members of the Diversity Council.  The feedback was very positive and used to customize the workshop materials for this program.  
All workshop sessions will be a mixture of participants from across various job functions and levels.  To manage the large number of workshops needed to deliver the program, departments will be divided into tiers.  Departments not in the first tier of workshops beginning in August will attend sessions later in the year.
For a list of dates, and to register, go to myHR on MeckWeb.  The class size is limited to 32 people.  The complete Diversity Management Plan is also available on MeckWeb and CharMeck.org.  If you have more specific questions, contact Phin Xaypangna at 704-432-3919 or email her at phin.xaypangna@mecklenburgcountync.gov.