In the field we will be dealing with people of different backgrounds, accents, looks and drives. What do these human differences mean to you as it relates to your function in directing their operation in the creation of new medical devices? In other words, what value do you associate with human differences? Another way of expressing this is: What effect have human differences had on you as a being productive or counterproductive?
As an educator with experience with others from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, I can attest to the fact that those difference will not make a major difference. The only potential hinderance could be in language barriers, but an interpreter or certain language requirements could ameliorate that issue. In general, when I think of the things that make us different, I think of how those differences can contribute to making something better. For example, companies will often hire people who have attended different types of colleges and who have varied work experience. This encourages diversity in creativity instead of have the same old ideas from the same types of individuals.
Only certain human differences impact my outlook on another people in the workplace. It’s not looks nor demographic backgrounds. However, what the person possesses in character, life experience and knowledge make me view and work with others differently. In the workplace, character shows through acting with regard, honor, and ethical behavior. Displaying a great standard of ethical behavior is an aspect of that will influence productiveness. From our own life and educational learnings, I define experience as the collection of feelings/thoughts that a person has throughout their day about their work and other people based off their experience. This can influence me to be either productive or counterproductive depending on how members of the workplace come together to cooperate and share resources or services in an office ecosystem.
Dealing with people of different backgrounds has helped to broaden my global perspective. In my current role I work internationally and collaborate with people from all over the world. To answer the original question, this has helped me be more productive in the workforce and meet goals faster and quicker than I would have ever been able to alone. It has been easier for me to solve problems by looping in people with different perspectives and it has helped me to look at situations from many different angles. In addition to solving problems and being more productive, working with people from different backgrounds has also allowed me to learn more about different parts of the world and different cultures. It has been very interesting to understand this kind of history. Originally, I thought that it might be difficult to overcome the language barriers involved with working internationally. However, it has helped me learn how to articulate my thoughts better, be clear and concise, and be an active listener. This has helped me be more productive in the workforce. I am wondering if there are any hurdles you have encountered by working with people from different backgrounds and how did you overcome these hurdles?
I have not had experience working in the field just yet, but I believe this question can be related to teammates in a classroom setting. Coming from a small town in southern NJ, there really isn’t a diverse group of people and that was something I got used to at NJIT. I have noticed that group projects are the most productive when the team members come from different backgrounds. It can be very useful when people bring something different to the table, which often stems from their experiences. This helps to point the project in a new direction or get over little hurdles along the way. As for looks, that is something I have not found to negatively impact my experiences. Accents, on the other hand, can be difficult to decipher, but that also does not hinder the person’s ability to contribute to the team. I am looking forward to meeting different people from all walks of life when I go into the field. I hope to learn from them and take advice from any personal experiences they may have.
Meeting with people coming from different background is an amazing experience after moving to the States. I get to personally learn about my colleagues by engaging in their cultures, rituals, food and festivals. We get involved with many different types of conversations that led me to look at life at different perspective.
Similarly, in professional aspects, I came to learn that people of different backgrounds come with different ways of thought process, research approaches and talents. We share each others' perspectives and learn to think outside the box.
There aren't any counter productive thing that have encountered while working with individuals with different background and upbringing. In my current role i am working with team members who are located all across the global so the only "counter productive' thing might be time zone difference. Otherwise it has been very beneficial working with individuals from various backgrounds as it provides a different perspectives to things and also gives glance as to what they are doing and how their work ethic is.
Diversity in the workplace is necessary in order to synthesize different perspectives towards a common goal. People specialize in some things more than others because of their backgrounds and drives, and bringing those specialties together can propel a project forward to a place it wouldn't be without human differences.
Human differences also make the workplace more exciting! At my internship, I've been able to speak to people coming from other states or spent some time around the world, and much of their experiences are quite fascinating and sometimes humorous to hear. It creates an understanding and builds camaraderie with another which is much needed in a team.
The best part of having different humans collaborating in one unit is that there is a plethora of knowledge, culture, and personalities to go around. I have noticed several people from other countries or languages, when they speak they think differently because their languages are not as straight forward as English nor do they have direct translations. This contributes to different thinkings and abilities to a group instead of being very bland. It brings a sense of unity and cohesiveness to a group, where everyone can feel equal as they contribute and not feel left out.
Ive personally experienced this first hand, in a lab group project, where one girl did come from another country and her methods were slightly different than what my group and I had thought to use. The reason being is that, where she was from, they didn’t have the amount of resources nor easy access to them, so she would improvise a lot, and these improvisations were actually cheaper and contributed to the same results we would have gotten, had we used our original method. She actually helped the group stay under budget for our hefty project, and it was a personal gain to the team to have her on board because we would have never thought of something so creative yet simple and effective.
@sara I think that its a very interesting question you pose about how diversity impacts different departments and working environments. While Karen mentioned how human differences shouldn't have an effect on regulatory, I believe that it is a key aspect of regulatory. Within the department, there are certainly set rules and regulations that must be followed that won't vary from person to person, but when interacting with global regulatory bodies, the regulatory company liaison must be prepared to engage with people with different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs in order to have a productive conversation. An example that a colleague of mine in regulatory told me was when submitting any paperwork to China's regulatory agency, extra care must be given to providing very detailed data as there is political pressure on the employees in China to provide extremely detailed reports on every data point given. Therefore when interacting with Chinese regulatory agents, you must be patient and understanding with the long review sessions as they may be legally reprimanded if they don't review thoroughly. These different interactions are an important part of working in regulatory. Another department where human differences is very important (and very positive) is in new product development, where different opinions and experiences can serve to develop devices that are more inclusive to a broader population.
I personally like to work in an environment where people with different backgrounds, socioeconomic and cultures work together to accomplish a goal. Especially, fields like regulatory having cultural diversity will help a lot. Knowing most of the norms and cultures will assist them to approve products that are accepted by all walks of life.
I have been working with some of my labmates from other countries. Through them, I have learnt some efficient technical skills which I wasn't familiar with. Also, meeting other people in the gym helped me to have simpler food and a healthy diet which is pretty different from ours. I have always learnt from people with different backgrounds.
Human differences can be very beneficial to producing medical devices, but they can also have their drawbacks. When it comes to engineering itself, differences in thoughts, perspective and experiences can be a huge benefit looking at development from different angles. Someone who may want to develop a device with plastics due to the lower cost and ease of manufacturing may have a good material pitch, but maybe there are concerns of shrinking or defects that they might not be aware of that someone else may bring up. Due to this maybe it is better to use metal stamping or multiple components. These are the types of conversations that can help develop medical devices to be better than originally designed. There are also cases where a company is international and employees who know different languages and cultures can be very beneficial. My company is developing a product for manufacturing in Turkey and the engineers in the US are helping develop the product. The lead engineer is Turkish and this is very beneficial because it is easy for him to communicate with the engineers in Turkey. Some things that may not be beneficial are language barriers, especially when it comes to writing procedures and specs. Someone who does not know English may write something that they think means one thing, but could mean something totally different and incorrect. While differences are definitely a great thing to have at a company, there can sometimes be drawbacks to having them.
As mentioned, in the field we will come across and work with many people from a wide variety of backgrounds. I think this is inevitable in all fields and just in life as a whole. In relation to working together for the creation of medical devices, I believe that having different backgrounds, experiences, motivations, cultures, and more is a positive thing. Although there are times when this variety can cause a barrier to productivity (could be language barriers, knowledge barriers, etc), I see these different experiences serving as an opportunity for more ideas and useful opinions to be brought to the table. Someone may be able to point out an aspect of a medical device that no one else realized or noticed. Having a melting pot of cultures also could allow for the creation of a medical device that can serve a wide range of people in many areas instead of just one small, focused group. This is also a great opportunity to learn from others who may have more insight on something than you based on their life experiences and culture. The value that I associate with human differences in the workplace is creativity and innovation. So much uniqueness and creativity can come from just being in a group of individuals who are all different from one another. Human differences have had a large effect on my being productive as an environment filled with different people, ideas, and opinions is very stimulating to me.
I think having a difference in people that you are working with is essential in any workplace environment. It can also help you keep in mind the medical devices you make have to fit many people in a population, not just one type of patient. Unfortunately bias is a thing, so that can translate into the medical devices and drugs that we make. I think when you immerse yourself in an environment with different types of people, it keeps the idea of diversity in healthcare at the forefront.
I think that working with people with different backgrounds brings diversity in the workplace. It can be refreshing to encounter people who aren't from where you're from or who think like you do. It gives the opportunity to have an open mind to solve problems & to collaborate on projects. I don't believe that cultural differences can impact productivity but company culture can be positive or negative & can have a great impact on productivity. At a previous employer, cultural diversity was well represented and well received by management however the company culture was almost toxic. I learned a lot while there from my colleagues and I learned what is not acceptable from management. Today, I still rely on those relationships with my colleagues that I developed.
