21 May: Chasing dreams of cultural diversity

“For me, cultural diversity is my life,” Annelie Wambeek starts off. “I was born in Sweden, am part Sri Lankan, part English, have Dutch ancestors and have lived in Spain and other countries. So I was a real third culture kid. Cultural diversity has been one of the constants in my life.” Maryam Nejmaoui sees great value in diversity when collaborating: “It generates diverse perspectives and approaches that together deliver the best result.” Alex Terpstra also sees a huge benefit for the bank from diversity: “If we are a true reflection of society, we can make more complete decisions – and that means better results for ABN AMRO.”

Cultural diversity and bias

Given these benefits, you would expect cultural diversity to be a priority for everyone everywhere. But of course it isn’t that simple. Maryam: “The biggest obstacle lies in the bias surrounding cultural diversity, whether conscious or unconscious. We label certain culturesin terms of certain actions or choices that actually have more to do with individual people than their cultural background. And most labels are not even based on reality.” According to Alex, we need to be patient: “We need to raise awareness gradually. One diverse employee is nothing. If you are alone, you won’t have much impact. It’s too difficult to initiate change, and you often see people in that situation get discouraged and leave the bank. I believe in approaching it on a big scale, setting targets.”

Cultural diversity and work

Do our interviewees manage to keep their working environment diverse nevertheless? For Annelie this is very personal: “Following a severe burnout I started to examine what really gives me energy. That’s how I discovered that I’m an interculturalist. I didn’t even know there was a word for that.” Annelie is now part of the Diversity & Inclusion team and works with colleagues around the world: “Being a bridge between cultures feels like second nature to me.”

“Without cultural diversity and a good mix in terms of gender and ability, my team would be incomplete,” Alex states. “Within Operations where I work, we discuss this topic regularly. I also select my team on the basis of diversity. And the Operations Management Team, together with the ABN AMRO Diversity Network, periodically organises awareness sessions for managers about why inclusion matters.”

For Maryam Nejmaoui, cultural diversity does not stop after office hours: “In addition tomy cool job, I also participate in other initiatives, such as coaching secondary school students with a non-Western background. I give them the guidance that I lacked at their age.”

Cultural diversity and dreams

There’s nothing wrong with dreaming. So if our interviewees had a magic wand, what wouldthey change? Maryam thinks for a moment: “Hm… being open to learn from each other's cultures. Giving each other the opportunity to ask questions to get a better understanding of the differences and similarities. I think initiatives such as the Ramadan Experience are a good example.”

Alex would use his magic wand to stop differences from feeling scary and make them feel instead like “necessary, welcome additions that can be great fun”. Annelie would make everyone realise that we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. “People aren’t able to look at something in a purely objective way. When we look at the behaviour and actions of a person from another culture, it is always through the lens of our own cultural conditioning. I believe that if everyone realised this, intercultural awareness would be greatly advanced.”