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Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg once said, “No city on earth can match New York’s rich ethnic
diversity; we’re truly the world’s second home.” Bloomberg’s comment was
right on the money, but not only is New York City a melting pot of
ethnicities, its millions of residents are just as culturally and
economically diverse.
In any sizeable city, people from a vast array of ethnic and sociological
backgrounds live together in co-ops and condominiums. Managing these co-op
or condos that are homes to residents from varied backgrounds, language
groups and cultural perspectives can sometimes pose distinct challenges.
Say What?
Peter Grech, president of the New York Superintendents Technical Association
(STA), admits that language and cultural barriers with residents are some of
the biggest obstacles in his profession.
“When I take over a building and certain residents or staff members speak
other languages, and their English isn’t good or is non-existent, it’s
usually because the former super spoke that language,” says Grech. “The
staff didn’t need to learn that language, and now another super comes in who
may speak yet another language and now it takes time to get over this
barrier.”
Grech says the learning curve for basic conversation in some languages, such
as Spanish, is not as steep as it is with other, more difficult languages.
“How do you learn Japanese?” says Grech. “I started to learn a little – five
words basically – but often you can communicate with hand signals that show
people what to do, or if you are lucky other staff members will know that
language. You just muddle your way through.”
Politically-Correct Holidays
This past holiday season, while the nation debated whether we should say
Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays and a mini-culture war ensued,
superintendents and managers in the city were already dealing firsthand with
the perennial issue of holiday decorations. While most New Yorkers are well
accustomed to living alongside the religious observations and cultural
traditions of a wide array of people, deciding which holidays to acknowledge
building-wide can sometimes be tricky.
“When you have a large number of non-Christian residents, how do you deal
with the Christmas holiday?” says Grech. “It seems to be something so
simple, but sometimes it becomes an issue. It’s the same thing with other
celebrations, such as Hannukah. Do we light a menorah, or put up Christmas
trees, or both?” Grech says that regardless of the final decision—which can
often be arrived at by simply asking residents what they’d like to see in
their building—it’s important to think about issues like language and
holiday observance and act with sensitivity to the differences between
people.
A Step in the Right Direction
The fact that Grech and his colleagues are thinking about and evaluating the
situation in their building communities and looking for solutions that sit
well with most residents is a step in the right direction, says Myrna
Marofsky, president of ProGroup, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm
specializing in diversity awareness and training.
Marofsky explains that when dealing with such diverse populations it is most
important to get to know the residents as individuals, not as a group or an
ethnicity. “You want to get to know people as people,” she says. “Don’t make
assumptions that are based on personal stereotypes. Instead, get to know
people, appreciate their differences and don’t merely tolerate them.”
That’s exactly what Grech does. “Now, I just simply ask the residents what
they’d prefer to do,” says Grech. “We usually celebrate just the bigger
holidays, but I still find out.”
Beating Barriers
Grech’s longtime hands-on experience relating to his residents—whether there
are language or socioeconomic diversities—have helped him to overcome many
potential barriers, but for others who aren’t certain how to handle such
complexities, diversity training experts can offer some advice.
To help deal with possible conflicts between different residents or between
residents and staff, or even board members, Marofsky suggests the “check,
check and double-check” system.
“First,” says Marofsky, “You check yourself—could there be some lack of
understanding on your part? Second, you check the other person—what is their
perspective on the situation? And finally, double-check—what’s the best
management policy in this situation? What does the company expect me to do
as a business manager?”
“The biggest challenge is to honor the differences in a way that also makes
good sense for the job,” Marofsky continues. “You won’t make accommodations
that wouldn’t make sense for the maintenance of the apartment building.”
But even the most equitable, socially aware and on-point manager will
occasionally have to cope with differences of opinion or cultural habit that
lead to clashes between residents.
“An apartment manager may have to deal with judgments or offensive comments
from one tenant to another,” says Marofsky. “For example, one neighbor’s
culture may include cooking particularly savory or pungent foods, but
another neighbor just says, ‘it stinks.’ That can create a lot of tension.”
Marofsky recommends evaluating each conflict and brainstorming possible
solutions. “This problem may be an opportunity for management to create a
newsletter that highlights the ethnic differences of the residents,” says
Marofsky. “Yet if people are constantly acting inappropriately, management
also may not want them in the building.”
Fortunately, Grech’s building hasn’t had to deal with such residential
quarrels. “I’ve never had that problem,” he says. “If there is a problem, we
would deal with it by talking with each person and getting everyone to
understand each viewpoint. If necessary, they can go through mediation.
There may be slight misunderstandings, but I haven’t experienced anything
big—most residents are reasonable.”
Too Late?
Many management companies do provide diversity training, but according
to Lindy Korn of Diversity Training Workplace Solutions in Buffalo, New
York, most diversity training is implemented too late to defuse built-up
animosity and resentments between residents, staff, and/or board members and
management.
“Most training is done because there has already been an incident,” says
Korn. “When you work together to solve a problem, the size of the problem is
irrelevant—the problem is the fact that a small problem can become so big.”
To help prevent incidents in the first place, Korn urges management to
provide a safe, comfortable environment where residents can complain about
any issues.
“It’s really important to have a workplace that entrusts residents and staff
with the ability to make a complaint,” says Korn. “If you’re getting
complaints early, before they ignite into bigger problems, then you’re doing
something right.”
The New York Association of Realty Managers (NYARM) is another group that
recognizes the need to address these issues, but rather than a specific
course labeled “diversity training,” NYARM instead offers what it calls
“people skills training.”
“Everyone understands the same body language universally,” says Margie
Russell, NYARM’s executive director. “The communication isn’t such that the
person is standing in front of you is speaking a foreign language, but you
can communicate to someone just by your tone of voice and mannerisms and
gestures and facial expressions.”
According to Russell, NYARM’s “people skills” class covers topics like
“managing and supervising employees” and “building occupant relations.”
“Incorporated into each are those areas that are basic to all human
interactions: eye contact, empathetic listening, etiquette and so on,” says
Russell. “Specific to managing and supervising, we cover recognizing people
with potential, capitalizing on people’s strengths, keeping exceptional
people enthused, winning people’s cooperation, order-giving techniques, and
so on.”
“Once we tackle the human skills side, we look at indirectly utilizing
‘strategic thinking’,” explains Russell. “The manager must determine the
root cause of the problem. Is lack of follow-up an issue, or is it perhaps a
lack of creative problem solving? Too often a request is made by a tenant
that appears to be against policy, and we on the management side may say no
much too fast without really thinking it through. This becomes problematic
because the resident feels that their request was dismissed too fast,
without a sense of thoughtfulness. The feeling of not having been taken
seriously can linger for a long time, and may come to a head at some point
in the future with an unrelated situation.”
When trying to break through barriers and build a closer-knit, more
understanding community, Korn reminds managers that control is not
necessarily the issue.
“It’s not a matter of who is in control—it’s a matter of communication,”
says Korn. “If you can’t communicate in a way that the other party will
understand, you won’t be understood, and they may take it as criticism or
failure.”
Managers and superintendents should work together to develop effective
training strategies, promote consistent messages, build communication skills
between residents and management and resident to resident, and respect the
vast, vibrant diversity that is New York.
Lisa Iannucci is a
freelance writer and a frequent contributor to The Cooperator. |
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