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Intercultural Practice and Equity · Internal leadership
Team culture is not a values statement. It is the accumulated result of a handful of ordinary decisions: how a job is posted, who sits on the panel, what the first month feels like, who gets the interesting work, and what happens when somebody asks for something they need. Four lessons on finding those decisions and examining one of them properly.
40–45 minutes · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning
Culture is not what a division says about itself at an all-staff meeting. It is the accumulated result of a few repeatable decisions, nearly all of which belong to somebody with a name.
A job posting is a filter. Most of what it filters out was never a requirement of the work, and the filtering happens before anyone in the division sees a name.
People form a working conclusion about their future in an organization during the first weeks, and revise it every time work is handed out. Both of those moments belong to a supervisor.
One process, walked end to end as the person going through it, with each step's barrier, the people it stops, the owner, the first fix and a date when somebody checks.
Choose one workforce process you touch, walk it end to end as the person going through it, write the barrier review, make the first fix inside your own step this month, and give the check a name and a date.
Most divisions describe their culture in the language of intention: we value different perspectives, we support each other, everyone belongs here. Staff read those statements against something else entirely. They read them against the posting that required a credential the work never needed, the panel of three people from the same unit, the first month where nobody said what good looked like, the stretch assignment that went to somebody else, and the accommodation request that disappeared for six weeks. This module treats team culture as the sum of those decisions rather than as a mood. It looks at how a job is posted and filled, what the first weeks teach people, how work and supervision time get handed out, and who is quietly asked to do unpaid work because of who they are. It ends with a barrier review you can run on one workforce process in about six hours, and a first fix that needs nobody's permission.
A values statement is read against the last posting, the last panel and the last canceled one-on-one. The processes are the culture.
Keep the workforce decisions in view while you draft a posting, plan a selection, welcome a new employee, hand out a project, hold a one-on-one or examine a process for barriers.
Walk one workforce process end to end this month, write the five review fields for each step, make the first fix inside your own authority, and give the check a name and a date.
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
Minnesota Management and Budget administers statewide hiring practice for executive branch agencies; this section covers the state's approach to recruiting and hiring a workforce that reflects Minnesota, including information for job seekers with disabilities.
Federal guidance on disability discrimination in employment under the Americans with Disabilities Act, including what employers may ask, what qualifies as a reasonable accommodation, and the difference between essential functions and preferences.
Free, practical guidance on workplace accommodations by condition and by job function, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor; useful when a unit wants to know what an adjustment typically involves before assuming it is complicated or expensive.
Minnesota's advisory council on disability policy and rights, including employment information for Minnesota employers and workers with disabilities.
National standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including the governance, leadership and workforce standards on recruiting, promoting and supporting a workforce responsive to the population served, and on educating that workforce.
Federal guidance on accessible information and communications technology and documents, used here for the requirement that application systems, onboarding materials and everyday work tools be usable with assistive technology.
Practical guidance for writing documents people can act on, applied here to job postings, onboarding materials and the written route for requesting a workplace adjustment.
The design reference for this curriculum: multiple ways to engage, culturally responsive materials and accessible instruction without timed or scored interactions.