From Where I Stand

“We never talk to them of our necessities, but of their with no hope for assimilation. advantages.” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations That is a key point to be made. Acculturation must always precede

The theme of this year’s iLandscape is One Fiesta: All United/ assimilation. If there is no need to acculturate, there will be no need Todos unidos. When we were considering what the industry needed to assimilate regardless of the grumbling of the presently dominant after the last two years, everyone agreed _ a party. Almost every culture. The immigrants of the 1920s had to assimilate because their culture knows how to party _ Oktoberfest, Chinese numbers were not robust enough to survive, Latinos New Year, Diwali, Carnival, Bastille Day, Mardi do not have that challenge. Gras, the list goes on. The more we talked, the When was the last time any of us sat down and more we came back to the idea of an old world considered what it means to be born, raised, and live Mexican street festival. The plaza, fountains, in America? It is almost impossible to examine your colors, flowers, food, music, and drinks. The more own culture in a vacuum. When we think about what we talked the more we could smell the carnitas, it means to be an American, we usually use patriotic elotes, and cheladas. clichés. When examining culture, it is helpful to

This theme wasn’t just about a party. The look at two cultures side-by-side to identify the reason we used both English and Spanish was a similarities and differences. We are in uncharted reflection of the cultures that make our industry waters when it comes to our current population great. Never before, have our cultures had to rely growth and demographic shifts — how can we on each other for our success and safety. The possibly understand where we are going if we don’t English and Spanish phrases eventually merge even know who we are. together as One Fiesta. The best parties are the Over the next year, ILCA is committed to ones where everyone is invited, so let’s get to it. finding that out.

Some context, by 2050, the population of This winter at iLandscape, ILCA will debut one Italy will decline by 11%, Poland 12%, Japan 16%, and Russia 18%. Birth rates are plummeting in Culture of our most ambitious educational programs yet. This multi-part series will examine the similarities developed nations and a pandemic showed deaths and differences between Latino and the American can quickly outpace births. These declines have the cultural values in the workplace. This program power to destroy economies. The United States is bucking this trend for one Club will be entirely in Spanish and is aimed at better equipping field staff with an understanding of the reason and one reason alone _ Latinos. According American workplace. It will rely on hard data, to the Pew Research Center, the Latino population storytelling, and sharing personal experiences. of the United States will grow from 42 million in 2005 to over This is part two in an ambitious plan to alleviate our labor crisis 128 million people by 2050 _ a tripling in size. This is a result of through cultural understanding. Part one arrived last year in the form authorized immigration, unauthorized immigration, and higher birth of a webinar run by Bernie Carranza entitled, Lost in Translation: The rates among US Latinos. Five Things Businesses Must Understand About the LatinX Culture.

Twenty years ago, one in 10 workers was Latino. Today, one This webinar was attended by 130 companies and an updated version in five workers are Latino. By 2050, one in two workers will be will be presented at iLandscape 2022 in English. We borrowed the Latino. In addition, Latinos are 10 years younger than their American term “Americanos” from Spanish since we don’t have a clear term for counterparts. As more white and black Americans grow old and those ingrained with American culture. retire, millions of Latinos are filling these jobs. These are staggering For those who attended the LatinX webinar, they were and unprecedented statistics never before seen in US population greeted with paradigm-shifting information. This was a simple, growth. straightforward examination as to how cultural differences exist, can

These numbers are likely less surprising to the landscape be misinterpreted, and just taking a few minutes to understand cultural industry. About 65% of the Illinois landscape market is already underpinnings reduces frustration and builds loyalty. Latino. Latinos and US-born Americans have been working side- After the popularity of the LatinX webinar, we realized we were by-side in the landscape industry for decades. Yet how much do we merely scratching the surface of this topic. The Board commissioned really understand about one another? the creation of a new 10-person subcommittee with five anglo-

It is not accurate to compare Latinos to European immigrants Americans and five Latino-Americans. It would be the awesome such as the Irish, Italians, and Germans entering the workforce in and daunting responsibility of this group to talk through our cultural the 1920s. Those immigrants arrived in smaller numbers, ghettoized differences and develop training for the members. This committee has themselves, but quickly had to acculturate because of their modest been dubbed the Latinos & Americanos (L&A) Committee. populations. Latinos have such massive numbers, that the only The L&A Committee respects they have a tough task ahead of comparison is women entering the workforce in the 1950s. The them. Conversations about culture are hard and uncomfortable. We workforce and culture is actually bending towards them. all love talking about the festive parts of our heritage, but holding up

Much of the US economy speaks Spanish even if most a mirror to our culture — both good and bad — takes guts. The goal Americans do not. Latinos are the first group not to have to of the lecture series is threefold: deepen understanding, build respect, acculturate. Many Latinos can live their entire lives in this country, and avoid creating stereotypes. The ten volunteers on this committee speaking limited English, and still survive. The massive amount of are showcasing a level of courage and vulnerability that must exist for Latinos who have immigrated, as well as the high birth rate among these conversations to happen. US Latinos, are setting up a showdown of languages and cultures. The biggest obstacle to respecting another culture is that we It is very likely that if the collectivist, family-based culture of Latin run behaviors through our own cultural lens. Take for example, Americans and the individualistic, entrepreneurial culture of America time. There are very few global cultures as obsessed with time as don’t make amends, the nation will become bilingual, bicultural, Americans. Time is linear and flows like a river. Once it is gone, it

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is gone. Time is money and we are incredible respectful of other people’s time. If we are in a meeting or interaction, and we exceed our time, we will stop the meeting right then and there, even if we aren’t on to the good stuff. We set deadlines not based on task, but on a length of time that simply seems reasonable in our minds. We are taught to be prompt and our deadlines are crystal clear — tomorrow means tomorrow.

Latinos, on the other hand, view time as multi-active. Time cannot be controlled by clocks and schedules, it just happens. Punctuality is less important. What is occurring in the present is of utmost importance than what could occur in the future. Completing a transaction with a friend or coworker is more important than staying on time. Latinos view deadlines as suggestions because human beings are involved and human nature is unreliable. Latinos use the concept of “mañana” which in Spanish means tomorrow. That does not literally mean “tomorrow.” It means, I’ll get to it when I can.

Now, mash these two distinct concepts together and you can see how frustration can build in the workplace. Americans pride ourselves on efficiency, Latinos on group cohesion. If we view the Latino concept of time as lazy, and Latinos view the American concept as unrealistic, how can we work together on landscape projects without conflict? The simple answer is: develop a better cultural understanding so we don’t misinterpret normal behavior as abnormal. In short, learn to live with each other.

This is just one of dozens of differences between our cultures that manifest in the workplace. Americanos wonder why it’s so hard to promote Latinos? Why do they leave for small raises? Why do they not participate in benefits plans? Why do they turn job sites into picnics? Why do they not ask more questions about tasks they don’t understand? Why are they quiet in team meetings? Why don’t they give a firm handshake and look you in the eye?

Latinos then turn around and wonder why American companies are making management more horizontal when Latinos prefer a vertical structure. Why Americans speaks in “I” statements and are so comfortable taking credit. Why Americans are so confident and comfortable with uncertainty. Why Americans prioritize climbing the corporate ladder? Why Americans value privacy, even with their own families? Why Americans value standing up for their beliefs over compromising their beliefs to preserve harmony?

The awesome task of the L&A Committee is to answer those questions. They want to provide context for the answers because the alternative is cultural misunderstanding that leads to employee dissatisfaction or attrition. The answer for Americano employers is not always to learn Spanglish and riff a few phrases. A better first step is to learn exactly how to pronounce a coworker’s name. Then let’s go from there.

The landscape industry doesn’t have a lot of advantages when it comes to dominating the labor market. With Latinos, at least it has a head start. The landscape industry has always been a welcoming home to immigrants whether the Dutch, Germans, or Italians. ILCA recognizes this introspection is not easy, but let’s face it, these conversations are a long time coming.

The L&A subcommittee will be the first to admit they are not experts. They are simply 10 landscape professionals pausing to examine their careers, conflict, and perseverance through a cultural lens. This iLandscape, make it your top priority to send your field staff, Latino managers, and ESL employees to this lecture series (it’s free!).

Oh, and just wait, Phase III of this effort is to bring both cultures together for a conversation 50 years in the making. However, let’s have one hell of a fiesta first.