Lens 5 of the Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model (CDEM) – Culture Influences How We Show Up at Work
A few months ago I introduced the Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model™ (CDEM), a new way to understand how our Caribbean identity forms, evolves, and expresses itself in the diaspora. Created through real-life experiences, this model provides the language many have been missing to describe their complex cultural journeys. At the heart of CDEM are six interconnected lenses that help individuals understand their relationship with Caribbean culture.
The Six Lenses of CDEM
Here’s a brief overview:
- Where You Start Shapes the Journey: Whether you migrated as an adult or were born in the diaspora, your connection to Caribbean culture starts somewhere. That starting point matters.
- Where You Live + What You Seek = How You Connect: Living in Brooklyn versus Milwaukee isn’t just geography, it’s a different experience of Caribbean culture. Where you live + your intention shapes your connection.
- Cultural Anchors Keep Us Rooted: Food, music, language, celebrations, spirituality, and family. These are the touch points that carry memory and transmit knowledge.
- Your Identity Will Shift, That’s the Point: As we age, our relationship with culture evolves. It’s not loss, it’s recalibration.
- Cultural Identity Influences How We Show Up at Work: Our work ethic, ambition, and how we navigate professional spaces are all shaped by cultural values.
- You’re Not Either/Or, You’re Both/And: Being fully Caribbean and fully American/Canadian/British at the same time is not a contradiction, it’s our strength.
Lens 5: Culture Influences How We Show Up at Work
In this episode I dive deeper into Lens 5 of the Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model (CDEM): Your Cultural Identity Influences How We Show Up at Work.
For many of us raised in Caribbean households, work was never optional. It was survival. It was sacrifice. It was proof that migration meant something. From an early age, we absorbed messages about discipline, education, responsibility, and achievement. So when we entered American professional spaces, we brought that same foundation with us. But Lens 5 of the Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model reveals something deeper.
Cultural identity doesn’t just shape what jobs we pursue. It shapes how we show up at work. The directness that makes us efficient can be labeled aggressive. The focus that makes us productive can be read as antisocial. The work ethic that makes us exceptional can also lead to burnout.
Many Caribbean professionals are navigating two sets of rules. We come into corporate America playing soccer, while the workplace is playing American football. Hard work is necessary, but not sufficient. Visibility, relationship building, and self-advocacy matter. Code-switching becomes strategy, not betrayal. Achievement often feels like repayment for sacrifice, not just personal success.
Naming these patterns changes everything. Instead of internalizing workplace friction as personal failure, we begin to see cultural mismatch. We make conscious choices about when to adapt, when to set boundaries, and when to let our full selves show. Lens 5 is not about abandoning who we are. It’s about transforming how we navigate so we can thrive without losing ourselves.
About Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model (CDEM)
The Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model (CDEM) isn’t an academic theory. It’s a reflection of real-life stories: mine, my family’s, my friends and stories heard through the podcast. It’s grounded in observation, personal growth, and years of conversations in our community.
I created this model not just to help me understand myself, but to help us understand each other better. My hope is that it gives you language to articulate your experience, connect across generations, and build cultural confidence wherever you are in the diaspora.
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