Hello, everyone. Hello. Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for joining this session on the impact of culture. One size does not fit all. My name is Pat Mayers.I am a senior manager of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Seismic, a cloud based technology company out of San Diego, California. However, I am housed in Houston, Texas and it's raining cats and dogs outside. So I hope you'll be able to hear me and let's enjoy this session.

Let's see what's the best way to interact. Maybe if you have any questions, I'll stop midway through. I, I only have about seven slides and this presentation is 20 minutes. So there is so much to cover, but I've tried to be diligent with the time. I am so passionate about de I please forgive me if I get so wrapped up in my passion and end up not having sufficient time to do everything but our technical individuals, Star Wars individuals here from women in tech, they're gonna keep me on it and on time. Hopefully, fingers crossed. So let's go to the next line. We're gonna do just a brief definition of culture. There is personal culture, organizational culture. But there is al also some definitions, hundreds of other definitions of other types of culture. So with me being a diversity and inclusion, it's difficult to define diversity just because who we are as diverse individuals has so many multipliers. None of us is uni dimensional. Let's say we each have so many different dimensions of diversity. Like our race, our age, our sexual orientation.

It's, it's just so many. Oh I hope it's raining in spring. I don't know if you can see the ra if it's raining up in spring. Our ethnicity, everything is part of diversity. There are tons of definitions also. So for example, a gen y woman who's a single mom has a different set of needs than a married baby, boomer, baby boomer here uh who's a grandmother for the first time. I have four awesome grandkids. But while we're both women, they are different generational perspectives that just leads us to different worldviews. So our culture truly forms our views, how we act everywhere. It's just who we are. So just a reminder that culture is just that so important. Such an important part of our identity that the intersection between diversity and culture is super, super important. There. One of the other definitions of personal culture is the group's shared values and beliefs. But the one that I really like also is the behavioral interpretation of how a group lives, their values in order to survive and thrive our culture really helps us thrive next slide. So we'll talk about organizational culture. Each organization has their own culture, their values, their mission, their vision. And in 2023 I can honestly say that I look at those values and that organizational culture to see if I belong.

Some of you may always hear now, belonging is a very, very important part of the de I practitioners world because every employee wants to feel like they belong. Women and allies want to feel that they belong, that they are a part of the organization. The definition of culture started way back from 1817, John Taylor created a definition of culture. So can you imagine way back in 1817, people were already thinking about what culture really really means organizations truly achieved culture connectedness. When employees identify with everything they represent historically, cultural connectedness depending on unplanned in person interactions. That beca became harder today, that organizational culture connectedness is even harder post COVID post pandemic era because we're now switching into working models between the hybrid, the remote the on site that organizational culture connectedness is now even harder to achieve.

So hr leaders are trying to find ways where that belong in this will really connect, help connect our employees to the organizational culture that organizational culture connectedness really increases performance retention. Uh Research shows that women employees feel less connected with the organizational culture than their male counterparts.

Uh 23% versus 26% when it comes on to the hybrid work format. So I council advise leaders to ensure that women employees continue to experience cultural connectedness that they should invest in moments when women experience culture strongly because it's a big indication of staying at the job that retention piece is very important. So next slide mhm Culture is so complex and this slide just tells you a couple of the complex nature of culture, knowledge, belief, art, morals, law custom. There are so many other capabilities and habits acquired by us humans as a member of society which envelopes our culture.

As I stated before, culture really sits on top of the dimensions of diversity. And like I also said, diversity dimensions always remember this are race, age, gender, it's sexual orientation, its language communication, all the ways that makes us rich humans in our differences.

So as a black person, I share the same race as all the blacks, but I am Afro Latina. So that means I share little of the same cultural perspective with a black person from Kenya. For example, we are just such rich individuals that looking at each other just by our race, gender, sexual orientation, we are so much more than that. So when we look at someone, let just think about their cultural dimensions that makes them who we are, we are working for organizations that are global. So if we're forming a women affinity group, er G employee resource group at Seismic or I work, we call them communities of belonging. But if we're forming uh women employee resource group, for example, at a company, culturally, let's take into consideration that women from a black woman in the US concerns might be a little bit different from a black woman in the UK. So if your company's employee resource group is for women at a global level, let's consider the diff the many cultural differences that exist even within the same race. We really will never understand diversity.

If we do not understand the cultural differences that we all bring to the table, we always um we say we want to bring w we want women to bring a voice to the table. But oftentimes that voice, if not the voice that leaders really want to hear, they want to hear that voice that sounds or that similar to the thoughts and culture of the others that may be in the boardroom. So one of the things that we as women, we voice our opinions, make our voice heard, still bringing our old selves to work. So culture simply envelope so many different aspects. I am going to stop halfway here. Pull up my chat if it comes up to see anyone has any questions so far. Where is my chat, cha cha cha on my chat for some reason, can't see my whole screen. OK. Uh oh There you go. I did see it at the bottom of the screen and it didn't pull up any questions, any questions so far about just culture, who we are, the organizational culture we like. Um As I stated, one size does not fit all. We are all individuals and we have to know each other, learn from each other to see how we work with each other at an organizational level and at a personal level, no questions. OK. So let's talk about how we connect women through the organizational culture.

I did a research with um Washington State University 55 years ago, five years ago, go about, we did a survey over 10,000 women in different organizations and ask them some questions in a survey about how women feel connected to the organizational culture or what the organization can do for us to feel connected.

And when I say women, we know that we are talking about um allies also. So not just um women, but everything that I normally mention includes our allies, also our transgender employees, our non-binary employees. So I'm just using women in a broader sense of the world but word, but it includes our allies and other women also. So peer recognition um In our survey, 43% of women rated that peer recognition was their top cultural moment. Feeling recognized and appreciated by peers was very high on the list. It a lot of women said that it helped them build emotional proximity. It improved their, their engagement. Leaders should always encourage if there are any leaders who have a team, encourage managers to prioritize carving out time for employees to recognize peer support and facilitate peer recognition at. I love what we have at work. We have a Slack Channel called Why We Win. And in that Slack Channel there uh oh gosh, on a daily basis, there is approximately 50 to 100 holes as to why we win. And the why we win channel is to recognize peers who just do something simple. Someone jumped on a call and helped a customer, for example, um achieve one of our products, manage one of our product products, our product and engineering group who work together with our customer experience group, for example. And I just love reading it.

I I just love reading all the shout outs that they provide on that channel. So peer recognition was one of the top 37% of women explain that manager support was also important for them. And I, when I saw that I was wondering, manager support to me is number one on my list. But I was surprised to see pure recognition on top of that list. But manager support was uh 37% said manager support on difficult experiences was a moment that they truly recognized. Uh Performance review feedback was 41% and 38% of women reported organizational culture through communication was important identity. We are all different. So managers and supervisors who oversee a multicultural workforce should be given the opportunity to learn about the work related values of the employees participate in professional development. Our one self is our cultural being. I only have two minutes, but I just wanted you to think about your own identity. 2 to 22 to 4 things that you were born with that are so important to you. For me, my race and my religion is important to me. So consider your gender, your ability, your say think of those 2 to 4 characteristics that's important to you. That's what you bring to work. So we're all different. There's no one size fits all for our cultural identities.

And I am gonna stop here any questions because we have like one minute, any questions? Oh, rain stops. No questions. Unbelievable. Well, in conclusion, thank you first for participating and please take into consideration our own culture when we're working, the organizational culture.

Hopefully it matches to your values and your morals and your ethics. And if it doesn't, it may be time for you to think about either leaving, but I see more and more organizations willing to change, willing to adapt. So please please thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Feel free to reach out to me on linkedin. This is my email address. Thank you.