Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

Difference is a part of any and all social interactions.  You may pay attention to it, you may ignore it, but it is there.  All groups, all conversations, all interactions, all relationships contain difference…it is one of the basic building blocks of everything social.  How the people involved deal with their shared difference is a key relational determinant.

Difference is also a natural social catalyst…it changes social groups.  Whether the social group is a family or a neighborhood or an organization, when you introduce additional diversity into that group (or pay more attention to existing diversity) you are going to change that group in some way.

Diversity disrupts because it always brings tension with it. Tension activates human emotions, demands different relational skills and informs patterns of behavior. Whether a social group is moved towards realizing better outcomes or lesser outcomes depends on its willingness and ability to deal with the tension in a healthy functional way or not.

In some relationships, difference is avoided.  Close friends sometime avoid issues that they disagree on.  I have worked with senior leadership teams that are not willing or able to really disagree with each other.  My family used to have big and long conversations about politics…it was easy and fun for us to do this as we mostly agreed politically.  We do not agree politically any longer…and now we pretty consistently avoid political conversations. Our desire to avoid that conflict has disrupted this aspect of our relationship, and our ability to be whole and real with each other.

Sometimes difference is not avoided, but rather becomes the central focus and a source of conflict and dysfunction.  These groups silo and segregate and are disrupted in a different way.

Sometimes groups have the skills and maturity to hold on to the tension of difference and use it. They are able to explore the intersection.  These groups are innovative, they learn and adapt and they become greater than the sum of their parts.  These groups are able to synthesize and recombine the variety of knowledge, perspectives, narratives, heuristics and experiences that they have access to; all of which is wasted in the other groups.

Diversity disrupts…it pushes groups in new directions.

Diversity work also has to be disruptive.

And here is the catch.

We have a lot of organizational and community leaders that say really, really nice things about diversity and inclusion today.  I think that they sincerely like the idea of diverse and inclusive places to work and live.

But.

They are not crazy about disruption.

Lots of people really like the ideas of creativity and innovation; but lots of people do not like the tension, uncertainty and risk that actually feed innovation.  Lots of people like the idea of being physically fit; but lots of people do not like the work involved in actually making that happen.

If you are doing diversity and inclusion work in your organization or your community it is going to be disruptive.  If you are not rocking the boat in some way you are likely not doing anything.

When did you last ruffle feathers?

Be good to each other.