Andean Affairs Public Diplomacy Desk Officer Renato Ramaciotti (center, standing) conducts a group debrief during off site training with the public diplomacy affairs section in WHA, Feb. 7. Photo by Emilie Bruchon
By Renato Ramaciotti, Rebecca Marquez, and Matthew Lamm
In recent years the Department of State has focused significant attention on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts, both domestically and abroad. The objective is twofold: to bolster employee performance and morale by increasing diversity and inclusion, while also informing recruitment and retention efforts so the Department’s workforce better reflects the diverse population of the United States.
When Embassy Montevideo first established its DEIA council, the composition skewed towards younger employees, with a heavy emphasis on social justice issues. While crucial to starting a conversation and significant in its impact, this approach did not resonate with the whole mission, since it lacked a common message and tangible objectives all could work on collectively.
“I was frustrated by the politicization of the language around DEIA,” said Matt Lamm, the founder and chair of Embassy Montevideo’s DEIA council. “I saw it as a barrier for attracting participation and engagement in the council. I believe there is widespread Department agreement that diversity, especially a diversity of viewpoints, is beneficial to the practice of diplomatic tradecraft. I was searching for a way to depoliticize DEIA work to really bring to fruition the idea that DEIA concepts are skill-based, contributing to every facet of our mission and therefore relevant to every person working in our mission. When my colleague, Becky Marquez, approached me with her concept of incorporating the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) into our council, I thought it was exactly what I had been searching for.”
To frame the discussion, the mission adopted the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC) and the IDI as the foundational method for its DEIA initiatives. IDC and IDI are academically vetted and cross-culturally validated tools developed by Dr. Mitchell Hammer, professor emeritus of international peace and conflict resolution at American University. These tools provide a path to building an interculturally competent workforce able to shift perspectives and bridge behavior across cultural, gender, racial, ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, accessibility, and gender-identity differences. IDI is a 50-question confidential assessment, administered digitally, that measures group and individual intercultural competence, defined as the capability to shift cultural perspective and appropriately adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonalities. Intercultural competence has been identified as a critical capability in several studies focusing on multicultural team effectiveness—in a nutshell, diplomatic tradecraft whether at home or abroad.
Embassy Montevideo selected two DEIA council members for training and certification as qualified administrators, and the entire mission (locally employed staff and U.S. direct hires) took the assessment. The qualified administrators—Matthew Lamm and Marquez—hosted three two-hour interactive feedback sessions to review IDI concepts and let individual employees reflect on where the assessment showed they fall on the IDC, while presenting the embassy’s overall intercultural competency profile as the sum of its parts.
The embassy community participated enthusiastically, and responses to the IDI generated immediate, actionable results.
“Using the IDC as a framework and knowing our group orientation from the IDI means our DEIA council and post leadership have a clear direction for skills-based development that is immediately useful,” said Marquez.
Montevideo arranged a series of 30-minute training sessions to build skills in navigating differences, targeted specifically to the group competence on the IDC.
“People have approached me after training and say, ‘I used what I learned yesterday in a meeting today, and we reached a much better solution than I expected,’” said Marquez, noting that these same skills improve post’s effectiveness when working with local interlocutors.
Embassy Montevideo’s work caught the eye of Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Wells in the Bureau for Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA). He immediately sent out a call to train three qualified administrators from the three offices he supervises: Andean Affairs, Brazil and Southern Cone, and the Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination. All three offices took the assessment, held group debrief sessions, and were given the opportunity to reflect on their assessment results during an individual debrief session that included next steps to increase their intercultural competency skills. During the Andean Affairs’ group debrief, an in-depth, organic discussion ensued on the disparate treatment of Civil Service, Foreign Service, and contractor team members in the workplace and how to bridge that gap.
“Passion for DEIA work is not necessarily an indication of intercultural competency. The IDI assessment can helpfully clarify where each of us stands on the latter,” said Ecuador Desk Officer Jonathan McMaster, one of the team members. In other words, the IDI provides a common language and objectives all can aspire to in terms of improving intercultural competency internally at work, and externally when interfacing with foreign interlocutors.
The assessment has since spread to the Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in WHA. All team members took the anonymous, confidential assessment (only the qualified administrator could see results) and participated in a group debrief during an off-site exercise focused on strategic planning and overall team performance. All team members, if interested, received an individual debrief to review their inventory results, including next steps on how to increase their intercultural competency skills.
The overall objective is to make the IDI as ubiquitous as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The opportunity for all employees at all levels of the organization to take the IDI, reflect on the assessment, and build their intercultural competency may pay dividends in boosting internal Department team performance, informing and improving hiring and retention, and most of all, understanding between one another. This can critically increase the effectiveness of Department employees when they engage with foreign interlocutors, and move policy priorities forward.
Renato Ramaciotti is an Andean affairs public diplomacy desk officer. Rebecca Marquez is the consular chief at Embassy Montevideo. Matthew Lamm was a human rights officer at Embassy Montevideo.