What is Diversity?
by Miki Saxon
Last Thursday we looked at the need for women employees (with clout) considering the new reality where women have become the majority of early adopters.
Let me make something crystal clear; diversity involves far more than people looking different—true diversity will occasionally make you uncomfortable.
Not the discomfort that stems from bigotry, but the kind that that rattles our assumptions and makes us think.
Rather than reinventing the wheel I am reposting (with light editing) something from several years ago that hits the true diversity nail on the head.
Is Your Team Diverse Or Just Look It?
In an earlier post about diversity I ended with this—
Another way to look at it is that if spending $100 results in a bottom line increase of $1000, did you really spend the $100, or did you gain $900? That $900 that wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t invested the initial $100.
Any increased spending on diversity development is an investment and will be more than offset by the increases in innovation, productivity and revenues.
The real question is how do you define diversity?
Old diversity focuses on diversity of race, gender, orientation, creed and national origin.
New diversity includes all of the above plus diversity of thought.
Think about it, with a little effort a manager can create a diverse group who all think the same way—George W. Bush’s initial Cabinet looked diverse, but their MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) was homogeneous.
It’s far more difficult to put together a group of totally diverse thinkers. Managers tend to hire in their comfort zone and more and more that refers to how people think, rather than how they look.
So what can you do to ensure that you’re building a truly diversified team?
Here are five key points to keep in mind before and after hiring.
- Avoid assumptions. People aren’t better because they graduated from your (or your people’s) alma mater, come from your hometown/state or worked for a hot company.
- Know your visual prejudices. Everybody has them (one of mine is dirty-looking, stringy hair), because you can’t hear past them if you’re not aware of them.
- Listen. Not to what the words mean to you, but what the words mean to the person speaking.
- Be open to the radical. Don’t shut down because an idea is off the wall at even the third look and never dismiss the whole if some part can be used.
- Be open to alternative paths. If your people achieve what they should it doesn’t matter that they did it in a way that never would have crossed your mind.
Most importantly, if you’re totally comfortable, with nary a twinge to ripple your mental lake, your group is probably lacking in diversity.
Flickr image credit: lumaxart
