January 26th, 2010
A lot of leaders, organizations and communities say the right things about diversity and inclusion today. Unfortunately (at least from my perspective) that is about as far as it goes. I see very few organizations and very few communities that are actually doing anything of substance regarding diversity and inclusion.
I think that a great deal of this is due to the fact that diversity and inclusion are poorly understood. We are applying a 20th century understanding to an increasingly critical 21st century set of issues.
We cannot expect leaders to champion issues in any real way if they do not fully understand them. Everyone says that they “get it” regarding diversity and inclusion because they know that they are supposed to. Some of them even believe it.
I think that today most business leaders and community leaders are not really clear on what diversity and inclusion truly mean and I think they are even less clear on what the actual value of diversity and inclusion is. Too many still approach these issues from the perspectives of liability, compliance, being “nice”, tolerance, charity, etc.
So I am on a bit of a Reset and Recalibration Tour.
Many of my presentations and workshops right now include a solid foundation of What and Why. I am going to quickly touch on the What…
Diversity means difference. It does not mean race relations, special treatment, quotas, affirmative action, gender or compliance. It means difference. Difference. Difference takes many forms. I personally focus on four kinds of difference that I think have significant meaning to our organizations and communities:
- Identity Diversity: differences in our social identities – this is the kind of diversity that we tend to think of when diversity comes up and includes things like race, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, orientation, education level, geography, age, profession, etc.
- Cognitive Diversity: differences in our thinking styles, perspectives and problem solving approaches.
- Affective Diversity: differences in our feelings and emotions about situations and our understanding of them.
- Behavioral Diversity: differences in our actions and behaviors, such as communication style, relationship skills, work styles, etc.
Some important characteristics of difference:
Difference is relational. It exists in the context of relationships…and that is the only place that it exists. Diversity (difference) does not exist in people, it exists between people. Nobody can be different on their own, they have to be different from someone…there is a relationship inherent. And so this work is largely about the nature of our relationships. This is also one of the reasons that the Diversity vs. Talent debate which bubbles up from time to time is fundamentally misinformed…talent is an individual attribute, diversity is a shared attribute.
Difference is generative. Difference always contains the potential to create something new, regardless what kind of difference. Difference shared will generate tension or create something new, such as the learning from a new perspective or different experience or the introduction of a hybrid. But it has to be shared, and in a lot of organizations there is a tendency to avoid, deny or ignore difference to avoid potentially uncertain or uncomfortable conversations.
Does your organization have a solid grasp on what diversity is? If not, are there things that you can do to help them reset their understanding and recalibrate their approach?
Be good to each other.
Right on! Diversity = difference. Also agree that diversity of thought has the potential of being generative. In fact, not long ago I wrote a blog on that subject: How diversity of thought can be a competitive advantage.-
In there I mention that Henry Chesbrough, (executive director of the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley), thinks that opening the corporate doors to diverse ideas is the best way to embrace diversity. But for this to work, a company must have a culture open to outside ideas and a system for vetting and acting on them to convert them into products and services.
It is sad that many companies are incapable of harnessing the richness diversity can offer because, as you imply, instead of "opening the corporate doors to diverse ideas." in a lot of organizations "there is a tendency to avoid, deny or ignore difference to avoid potentially uncertain or uncomfortable conversations."
When people are willing to talk to each other and not only respect, but enjoy their differences, there will be more transformative conversations that will bring opportunities and enlarge the vision.
Thanks for taking the time to write about this important issues.
Dr. Ada
Thanks for reading and sharing, love the post that you shared as well!