Cultural Competency and Workplace Wellness: Dr. Patty Delgado on Harnessing IO Psychology to Support the Hispanic Latino Workforce

Is your organization ready to thrive by embracing cultural competency and employee wellness? Join us as we explore this critical topic with Dr. Patty Delgado, PhD, CEO of Bridgify Group and co-founder of Encuentra Institute. With her rich background as an industrial organizational psychologist, Dr. Delgado provides invaluable insights into the unique challenges and strengths of the Hispanic Latino workforce. Discover how navigating dual identities in professional settings can impact mental health and organizational culture, and learn about the transformative power of lived experiences and the concept of "familismo" or familism.

Throughout our conversation, Dr. Delgado sheds light on the role of Industrial-Organizational psychology in fostering inclusive and effective workplaces. We discuss how IO psychologists collaborate with HR and other departments to implement training, development, and organizational strategies that emphasize cultural competency. By highlighting the benefits and potential limitations of familismo, Dr. Delgado provides a nuanced understanding of how cultural values can influence professional environments. She also emphasizes the importance of specialized masterclasses designed to equip Latino professionals and their allies with the skills needed to excel.

The final segment of our episode delves into the evolving corporate landscape and the pivotal role IO psychologists play in navigating these changes. From the transition to remote work during COVID-19 to the integration of AI technologies, Dr. Delgado emphasizes the necessity of maintaining a human-centric approach in organizational planning. Listen to her insights on the importance of empathy, psychological safety, and work-life balance, and how these factors contribute to overall organizational success. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with Dr. Delgado and discover how IO expertise can lead to streamlined processes and profitable outcomes for your business.

Connect with Dr. Delgado today!
https://www.thebridgifygroup.com/

Transcript

Marta Hamilton: 0:05

Welcome back amazing listeners to another episode of the Telewellness Hub podcast. I'm Marta Hamilton, your host, and today we get to speak with Dr Patti Delgado. She's an experienced industrial organizational psychologist, also known as IO Psychologist, with 20 years of experience, the CEO and founder of the Bridgify Group, a boutique research firm, and co-founder of Encuentra Institute, which focuses on supporting organizations with effective strategies to prepare for the future workforce. With expertise in the science of human behavior in the workplace, cultural competency and business psychology, dr Patti's scope of work focuses on bridging research with people management and workplace practice. I'm really excited because today we're going to get to talk about all kinds of topics, about the intersection between culture and mental health, and so welcome, dr Patti. Do I refer to you as Dr Patti? Dr Delgado, what do you usually prefer to go by?

Dr. Patty Delgado: 1:05

Dr Patti is perfect, that's the best. That's you as Dr Patty. Dr Delgado, what do you usually prefer to go by? Dr Patty is perfect, that's the best.

Marta Hamilton: 1:09

That's how people address. That's perfect, okay. Okay, just checking, because Dr Patty is actually one of my mentors through an amazing venture mentor program called Pioneers 21, located in El Paso, texas. So shout out to them, pioneers in El Paso, texas. So shout out, shout out to them Pioneers To Pioneers 21 is how I got connected with with Dr, with Dr Patty, because she also she's an author, a board member of various organizations, she's been featured in multiple podcasts, she's a Hispanic Latino workforce expert and and leader in the national Hispanic community. So her background kind of led her to serve and provide some mentorship for me and I'm very grateful and I have gotten to hear her speak not just kind of providing support and input and insight for tele-wellness hub, but also just in terms of the Hispanic community, about being I was inspired about being a Latina leader in the workplace and so it feels so wonderful to get to share her insight with the world, so I feel like I don't get to just keep all of her wisdom.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 2:23

Yeah, what a pleasure to see you and to see how you've grown and just everything that you've been doing. It's amazing and the work is so, so needed in our community. So thank you.

Marta Hamilton: 2:37

No, thank you so much. Well, I want to start with asking first, why do you do the wellness work that you do?

Dr. Patty Delgado: 2:46

first, why do you do the wellness work that you do? So the wellness work that we do, and why we do it, is because we see such a need and disconnect between our community, our Latino Hispanic community, and other better ways of doing things right or better ways of maybe looking at the mindset of how to advance your goals and your successes. In IO Psychology, of course, our work is based off the workplace, so IO Psychology is a branch of psychology that applies all the psychological theories and principles to organizations and to the workplace. So, although we're not working one-on-one with clients, as my clinical colleagues in psychology do, we're working one-on-one with leaders. We're working one-on-one with people in the community that are leading nonprofits, that are leading counties and cities, and so a lot of the principles and the wellness that we do is around how to amplify your leadership, how to amplify your team building, how to amplify your cultural competency, and it really is a lot of this mindset work that I know you and I have had many conversations about that intersect with a lot of the clinical psychology work of mindset. And so we do this because we know that, especially with our institute, which is called El Puente Institute, that focuses on the Hispanic community we know the Hispanic community has so much to give is a large percentage of the population is going to be here a long time because the median age is 30. So they're going to be in the workplace a long time. Yeah, they're very young, and so we know that our population is going to need this support, going to need this new way of thinking.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 4:21

The biculturalism, binationalism, all of that really it's people are toggling two lines right now. Right, biculturalism, binationalism, all of that, really it's. People are toggling two lines right now, right, being American, being Colombian or Puerto Rican or Mexican, and so there's a lot of psychological features and aspects that come in with the benefits and the successes of toggling this line. But then also there's some downfalls and some of what we call shadow sides of being able to toggle this line and still show up authentically in your workplace. So, yeah, there's a lot of intersections that we see between the clinical side and now the IO side, and we're actually, as an industry, starting to come together and really start having these conversations because they are such a big part of our community.

Marta Hamilton: 5:06

Well, I'm so curious to learn more about that shadow side, the benefits. But first, can you talk a little bit about what kind of workplaces you specialize in working in, Because I started thinking this impacts everything. Right, the culture can impact everything. Every workplace, from service, I'm thinking education, community workplaces Is there a special area, an area of specialty that you have? I don't know if I asked you that before.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 5:37

Yeah, well, right now we're very lucky to be able to work with all different kinds of organizations. So we do have nonprofit clients, we do have clients that are corporate clients. We even have clients that are part of the construction industry, right, because they service a Latino workforce, and so we basically are showcasing ourselves as experts to help any type of industry that is struggling right now to align their people, workplace and organizational tactics and strategies, make them very clear, so that everybody knows what success looks like. So we've had an opportunity to work with different types of industries and different types of people in these industries and, like anything and I'm sure, as you know, in the clinical side, every person's different, every organization is different. There's, you know, there's nuances to one organization that's not the same to the other.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 6:26

So we really approach our work and our clients with this very broad level way of diagnosing or assessing the organization and then start, you know, drilling down on what are the pain points, what are the challenges, what are the successes that this organization is having. So we do kind of also follow a diagnostic type process, an assessment type process when we're talking with our clients, whether they're from banking or whether they're from nonprofit. We've even trained nonprofit boards right now because they want to increase their minority representation on their board. So we're training these boards on how to be culturally competent when they're working with each other and you know, advocating for new voices to be part of the room and then when they're working with the particular population that they're serving. So, yeah, so it really serves anybody right now, and which makes it so wonderful to be able to reach so many different types of people.

Marta Hamilton: 7:22

Yeah, that's incredible Cause my, my mind was spinning in terms of all the, all the work that you could do, all the wellness work, all the lives transformed. Uh, on an organizational, for business level, I'm thinking for any leaders that are listening right now, um, and thinking, man, we need this for for our business, right, cultural competency, and just looking at at human behavior and decision-making and, like you said, everyone is different, Every organization is different, and then within that organization there are so many individual differences. I'm sure it's really exciting to work at that level. I think a lot of people don't necessarily know about industrial organizational psychology. That's why I'm really excited to talk to you.

Marta Hamilton: 8:03

You're my first IOS psychologist that I get to interview here, yeah, so I think this is going to really be an opening for a lot of listeners. I know I didn't know much about it until I stumbled upon a course in college, so I think this is a fascinating field and we talked a little bit about in your overview of why you do the wellness work you do. We talked a little bit about the benefits, kind of segued into the benefits of the IO psychology work for organizations, but also kind of the shadow, the hard side, about identifying, maybe, having you said, walking that line right between two different cultures, or bringing in aspects of your cultural identity and strengths into the workplace. But also there's a hard aspect, a shadow side. Can you give some examples for those listening of some of that shadow side, so that they can be familiar with what that looks like, whether it's in the workplace or with coworkers, or in themselves?

Dr. Patty Delgado: 9:07

Sure, yeah for sure. So you know, io psychologists mainly come into an organization as an internal consultant, right? Or some organizations are hiring IOs as part of their strategic planning staff or even their C-suite, which is an amazing. Any leaders listening. That's an amazing move to make is to have this IO viewpoint at the table when you're talking about strategy, right? And so when we go into organizations that, specifically, are focusing on how to create cultural competency amongst their teams, amongst their culture this might be a global organization or maybe just an organization that wants to increase their diversity numbers or just increase the inclusion aspect of their culture Cultural competency is the best methodology that we promote and that we advise organizations to really start, you know, taking under their wing and integrating in everything that they do. So it could be done in trainings, it can be done integrating within their strategy if they have a year-long strategic plan, and so forth.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 10:12

But when we talk about cultural competency and we start digging deeper to the individual person, we always tell everybody in our classes and in our master classes and our workshops that it's really about your own lived experience, right? Everybody's lived experience is different the way that we were raised, the way that we were brought up to see the world, the lenses that we see the world are completely different. The way that we were raised, the way that we were brought up to see the world, the lenses that we see the world, are completely different. So we always make sure to highlight that part of cultural competency that it's very unique to each person. So when we talk about, let's say, specifically the Hispanic community, since you and I are both part of the Hispanic community when we talk about cultural competencies and the shadow sides of the community, an example of what that would look like would be, for example, familismo, which is a very, very common research term in the Chicano research.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 11:03

So when we talk about the Latino concept of familismo, which translates to familism, we're able to showcase that family is a big part of the Latino community. We're a collectivistic community, so we make decisions based off of the people around us, the insights of the people closest to us. So when we talk about shadow sides of our cultural identity, sometimes when we utilize too much familismo, we can actually be very exclusive because we're not listening to the voices outside of our immediate circle. We're not listening to, maybe, experts or insight outside of our immediate circle, and so it could really be detrimental if you're wanting or needing that perspective, right, and so that's an example of a shadow side of familismo. Although it's wonderful to have family and to for us that we share that in the Latino community, but when we, when it's that in the Latino community, but when we, when it's too much and we have that continuum, when it's extreme, then we are possibly missing out insights and perspectives of others outside of our immediate circle of familia.

Marta Hamilton: 12:03

so that's an example of a shadow side yeah, no, that's incredible to think about, about that in that way we often think of. You know this collectivist identity, cultures and and the family-orientedness is just a wonderful value, which I could see it is. It's a wonderful thing. But that shadow side and highlighting it and looking at strategies, does it sound like you work on strategies to identify it and use it as a strength, but also have an awareness? It sounds like being able to do that. Yeah, that would be incredible.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 12:35

Yeah, so that's how we kind of fall into the, the wellness side and the mindset side of an individual or professional, since we're working mostly with professionals and we're able to tap into that part of psychology where, yes, it's creating awareness, it's creating disposition, it's creating opportunities for people to self-reflect and reassess and how they show up in the workplace, which also then translate in how they show up personally.

Marta Hamilton: 13:00

I could see how this work that you do within an organization would probably impact so many different departments. Right, you mentioned the C-level suite. I'm thinking marketing, I'm thinking HR, I'm thinking all of it. I mean, do you work with all departments? This is new to me, so I was curious about that work. What parts of an organization does it impact? Typically your IO, psychology work?

Dr. Patty Delgado: 13:28

Yeah, so IO psychology usually intersects a lot with human resource departments and other type of process improvements departments that are doing any sort of process improvement. There's just an intersection. So usually an IO kind of lands in HR because there's a lot of training and development in our field that we become experts to. There's a lot of organizational development in our field. We also focus sometimes on performance management. If you're an IO psychologist, that focuses on that. However, there is a lot of other areas of the organizations that an IO psychologist can sit.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 14:02

It just really depends on what their expertise is research, is research translation and is organizational strategy. So I I provide insights and advising at a very high level to an organization to then create very simplistic strategies for departments to move forward on, for teams to understand where they're going and goal setting things like that. That's my expertise as an IO. I've also have experience in training and development, done a lot of training, curriculum development and just training of different types of content. So it just depends on the IO and that's the beauty of our industry that people are going into a lot of different parts. Now, with AI becoming so big in the workplace and in the work that we're all doing, there are IOs that are now focusing on how to integrate AI into organizational policies and processes and things like that. So IOs have a lot to give when it comes to organization success. Yes, it's a great, great field.

Marta Hamilton: 15:03

Wow, yeah, no, it sounds so exciting to be a part of, because there are so many moving parts in an organization. Yes, and that intersection that you speak of, I could totally see that and I wonder, with the work that you've done, you shared a little bit about the shadow side and your experience and expertise in research. Could you share some of the sides of the benefits that you see when it comes to looking at culture and the workplace, or maybe even share a little bit I don't know like a case study you don't have to name names but some examples of when you saw an organization or company that you've worked with or individuals that you've worked with really be able to grow because of and thrive in whatever goals they have right and find success because of the work that you've done with them.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 15:58

Yes, definitely, we have so much, we do so much different types of work, but one specifically is a masterclass that we offer our professional Latinos and our allies that are serving a Latino workplace or a Latino community, right, and in this masterclass we go very deep into cultural competency, but specifically into the Latino community. And we don't talk about what we say food, fun and flags right, those are very surface level culture talk, right, what kind of foods do you like or what kind of tacos do you like? And all this very surface level cultural awareness. We go deeper into these very deep values. What we call the rice is the roots of the latino community and we have simplified this very complex, dynamic, uh, concept into a way that individuals that are part of the community can reflect on how those deep values show up for them, how allies of our community can understand just what those deep values are and how they can help amplify those for the people they're serving. So in our masterclass we teach about these values of familismo, as I said, values around relationship building, values of personalismo, simpatia. There are words in the research and in our background that represent how these values show up and each culture has values, right? Of course, culture is a group of people with shared beliefs and assumptions, right, if we even think about any kind of culture. And so when they share a belief and assumption, that's how the culture starts creating, even in an organization. They have values, and organizations have a mission and a vision and so forth. So within the master class, we help these individuals figure that out for themselves, and 92 percent of our participants that are hispanic that have entered the master class felt like they were, they better understood who they were, their cultural identity as Hispanics, and they felt seen. They're like oh, I'm not alone in how I'm feeling this way.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 17:57

94% of our participants really appreciated the emotional support that we gave during the masterclass Because, again, like we, from a psychology perspective, we talk about creating a safe space, right, a safe space where conversations can happen. So 94% of our participants appreciated that we did that, that we implemented something like that, and so we just get a lot of different comments Like I really love the terms. You know, by understanding this, I understand myself. I know this self-awareness has been amazing. There's just a lot of great feedback from this one masterclass and that's the powerful impact of this kind of work that we're seeing.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 18:39

And that's a little fluffy, right? People say, oh, it's culture work. It's fluffy and I'm sure a lot of clinical psychologists appreciate it, but in the corporate world it's not always appreciated, but it's so needed. Right now we're all talking about authenticity in the corporate world. It's not always appreciated, but it's so needed. Right now we're all talking about authenticity in the workplace and showing up authentically. We need to have tools and trainings and workshops that help people really amplify that for who they are and so they could show up authentically.

Marta Hamilton: 19:08

You bring up such an important point of authenticity and knowing yourself is the first step Like, how can I show up as myself?

Marta Hamilton: 19:17

I'm first really doing a deep dive as to, well, what are my values, and creating a mission statement being so important.

Marta Hamilton: 19:24

I've learned right in your business and it's driving everything really your decision-making, moving forward, your plans, your goals, really being able to have an awareness of your value, your individual values, for your organization as well.

Marta Hamilton: 19:41

I could see how that's so huge and so often I think the unknown brings uncertainty and fear for people and I know it from an individual perspective, from, I guess, a therapy perspective, the clinical perspective, but I imagine an organizational it sometimes, if we don't have an awareness of others' cultures or identities, there could be quite, you know, uncertainty about okay, I don't, I don't want to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing. Um, like a hyper vigilance of you know, I don't want to say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing but also a fear of, of I don't understand that culture and especially, you know, a little bit of a sensitive topic right now, but immigration is a huge topic that's in media and, you know, often sensationalized and could, could, could bring some uncertainty and the unknown and some fear. So I think it is very needed. Your work is is very needed, especially with the Latino community.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 20:44

Yes, and right now, as you say that it brings up the statistic data point that you know, by 2040, the US population will be more multicultural than ever. Over 60% of the population will be multicultural, meaning they're from one or two different cultures and they are showing up that way, like just them, choosing where they want to show up and from what culture. So if we're not, as a society, talking about the importance of being culturally competent or having this awareness without fear as you mentioned, right, Because the fear is what causes and the unknown is what causes, kind of, like you said, that rub and in workplaces that can then lead into no productivity and disengagement and so forth If we're not talking about this openly and with a sense of empathy and a sense of curiosity, then how are we going to prepare our workforce for what's coming ahead and this multicultural world that we're now looking towards, that's happening automatically by itself. So it's our ability and the competency for individuals and organizations to effectively interact, work and communicate with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, identity backgrounds right, Because we also don't you know, we're also layers of different identities.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 22:08

If we're part of the LGBTQ plus community, or if we're part of a veteran community, or we're women or men. There's a lot of different other identities that show up for a person. So it's not just cultural although the research does say cultural is very much a large impact of how people show up and make decisions and interact and have relationships but the other identities also do show up for people. So we need to understand all of that. We need to understand what that looks like and it's very complex. It's very, very complex, so we're simplifying it for the workforce and for leaders and organizations and the people in their organizations of identity involved.

Marta Hamilton: 22:59

I would be overwhelmed. So that's incredible, basically, that an IO psychologist can help simplify it in a really effective strategy. I guess there's an assessment similar to clinical, there's strategizing, planning and ultimately you know you even mentioned success, so probably an opportunity to define what success would look like. And I think you bring up a really wonderful statistic I wasn't aware of that, you know, in terms of the 60% of the nation being having more than one culture to identify with and the impact that that has in the workplace and our need for empathy. I love that that you brought that up the empathy.

Marta Hamilton: 23:37

Yeah which you don't always think about when it comes to like corporate world, so from an outside perspective, but you know that the missions and the values of so many corporations are to make an impact in the world in a positive way. So I love that you can be that bridge which I know you're at Puente Institute, the Bridgified group, kind of bridging that gap. I love that kind of coming together.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 24:04

Yeah, you know the we, we were because of COVID. Organizations, from a psychological perspective, had to shift quickly, right, Of course they had to shift, they had to. Everybody went online. Organizations were they were scattering and they weren't. They had to shift, they had to. Everybody went online. Organizations were. They were scattering and they were. They weren't sure.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 24:19

Leaders were unsure what to do, but they did it. They saw that productivity increase in some instances. They saw a lot of positive outcomes that came from this rapid shift that happened in the workplace during COVID, worldwide, not just here in the US. Then also another shift from a high level, if we're looking at organization and psychology from high level, that happened was the murder of George Floyd. When the murder of George Floyd happened, there was a shift in the way that we're looking at DE&I and the way that we're looking at how we interact culturally competently with each other, with respect and so forth. So now that was another large shift and so we're seeing these shifts happening overall in the workplace that leaders today sometimes can't keep up, and that's okay. We understand that. We know that there's a lot going on.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 25:05

And now the shift that's happening right now is AI. This AI shift is shifting right the way organizations are doing work productivity efficiencies, productivity efficiencies. So leaders today must be on their toes to be less reactive and more proactive when they're doing their strategies, their strategic planning, when they're looking at their future of their organization. The biggest thing, though, that they miss and we see it in the research and there's a lot of data around it is they miss the part about the people. They focus a lot about the strategy and how much. What do we need to do to make this particular type of profit, which is all fine, right, but then, but you do need the people to do that, and even though AI is out there, they're still going to need a person, is still going to need to be the one that's typing in that information and so forth.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 25:51

So I my biggest thing today to share is that we cannot forget that the people of the organization make the organization, the people and their values and who they identify as how they show up authentically. If the environment is a psychological, safe environment, all that matters. That's why the wellness part that's come into corporate organizations is so needed, and that was also part of the shift. I think wellness kind of snuck in and right like wellness came in, and then now it's a work-life balance is really a big thing and it needs to be there. I think it was a very needed shift that the wellness and the psychology field needs to be in organizational thinking and proficiencies, because it's a big part. It's about people, everything is about people, so I always tell you that we can't forget that part.

Marta Hamilton: 26:44

No, absolutely. What a great reminder and I'm just so thrilled that you're willing to come on and share with us because you are, dr Patty a big part of this radical change that's happening and I feel like not a lot of people get to know about IO psychology. So I love that you shared an insider's peek, a little peek into that world and the change and the decision making and that bridge that happens for corporations while they're changing and adapting to look at the people. How can people get in contact with you? What's the best way?

Dr. Patty Delgado: 27:25

The best way is LinkedIn. So we're big LinkedIn users. You can find me individually as Dr Patricia Delgado, or you can find El Puente Institute or the Bridgeify Group on LinkedIn. You can also go to our website, thebridgeifygroupcom, and we're also on Instagram as well. We're trying to be a little bit better on Instagram.

Dr. Patty Delgado: 27:44

However, a lot of our clientele falls under the LinkedIn umbrella, so that would be the best way to connect with me and to just again let's have conversations Like what options do organizations have as leaders? What are you missing? What are you doing really well, how can an IO like myself and my team because the majority of our team are IOs, 80% of our team are from the IO field how can we come in and help you just sort things out, kind of like just clear the air and create some space so that you can think clearly and then decisions are made more efficiently, with evidence, of course, with research, and then ultimately, the impact is going to be a positive one for the people at the end of this strategy, and so IOs are really good at that and that's how you, if you need any of that help or just want to feel a little bit of space for things to breathe and grow and foster into something beautiful and something efficient that makes a lot of money, then we're definitely the team to be calling Awesome.

Marta Hamilton: 28:41

Thank you so much, Dr Patty. Thank you for being a part of our wellness journey. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Appreciate it.