Is Your Team Diverse Or Just Look It?
by Miki Saxon
Shortly after I started writing Leadership Turn I did a post about diversity, ending with this—
“Another way to look at it is that any increased spending on diversity development is an investment and will be more than offset by the increases in innovation, productivity and revenues. If spending $100 results in a bottom line increase of $1000, did you really spend the $100, or did you gain $900? $900 that wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t invested the initial $100.”
How do you define diversity?
True diversity isn’t just diversity of race, gender, creed and country, but what I call the new diversity—all those plus diversity of thought.
Think about it, if a manager really works at it she can create a rainbow-colored group who all think the same way—George W. Bush’s initial Cabinet was ethnically 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, but more and more that refers to how people think, rather than how they look.
So what should you do to ensure that you’re building a truly diversified team?
Here are five key points to keep in mind when you’re both hiring people and managing/leading them.
- 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.
Finally, remember that if you’re totally comfortable, with nary a twinge to ripple your mental lake, your group is probably lacking in diversity.
How do you hire and manage diversity?
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: lumaxart on flickr
April 17th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Great post! I work with some pretty unique personalities, and psychologically diverse atmospheres may not be the most comfortable, but they’re great breeding grounds for ideas.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Thanks, Brock. Comfort isn’t always the best goal, since diverse thought and personalities breed innovation not comfort.
But it sounds as if you’re enjoying your discomfort which speaks volumes about your MAP!
April 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
My office engages in some diversity of sex and skin color, but they’re stuck at only truly valuing rank and position. Any way to get them beyond that when they don’t seem to even see others?
April 24th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Hi Kiva, my apologies for the delay in answering you. I’ve been thinking about what you asked.
I’m sure you’re not the only person struggling with, and being frustrated by, these attitudes, so I decided to respond at length a full post next week.
I hope you’ll come back.