November 20th, 2008
At the heart of the matter…where the real struggle lies.
Had an interesting conversation with a client this week that has stayed with me now for a few days. We began working with her team a couple of months ago around issues of diversity, inclusion, and culture change and have done some really good foundational work. The workshops and dialogues that I have facilitated have been well received and generated a buzz of ideas, questions and energy. I have even received several e-mails from workshop participants after the fact, regarding the topics we are working on and how they were incorporating some of the new tools and ideas into their work.
But now we are entering the messy, complex, confusing and sloppy part of the transformation. At the real root of the conversation with my client, was her simple question; “what do we do now?” There are a number of specific steps we are getting ready to take, but truth be told there is no one obviously good, simple answer at this point, because we are dealing with human beings.
Part of why she was asking that question is because there are some folks who have taken the information, ideas and tools from our workshops and acted on them. But many have not. And this is where the real struggle lies. This work, at its root, takes place in our hearts and minds. Again, we are dealing with complex, unique, flawed and beautiful human beings and this work goes back to individual attitudes, values and beliefs…and ultimately those are beyond our control.
There are things that we can do within the context of work to drive certain behaviors or end certain behaviors, but we cannot force the internal stuff to change…those attitudes, beliefs, values, perspectives are all beyond our control. We can work to influence them, we can try to select for them, but they are ultimately beyond our control. When can punish someone for an act of violence, but we cannot force them to stop having violent, hateful beliefs. If I am your boss, I can find ways to make you be at your desk by 8am, but I cannot make you like it, believe in it or agree with it.
While we cannot control it, if we want real culture change in our organizations we have to find ways to help that internal stuff evolve (attitudes, values, beliefs, etc.). In the long run that is the most important stuff. But working on the internal and important stuff is much different than just managing behavior…in fact focusing on behavior can actually get in the way of working on the internal stuff. I can think of some great examples of this from my childhood.
There were times when my parents very much wanted me to do or not do some specific thing. But they felt that it was a decision that I should make for myself. In the end when I had made a decision that was not the decision that they wanted me to make, they overruled me, ultimately making the decision anyway! My parents were trying to control the internal stuff (my values, priorities and choices), but they could not…so they resorted to controlling my behavior, which they could. This is probably not terribly uncommon for parents (or managers) but we miss an opportunity to be involved in the exploration and development of attitudes, beliefs and priorities here.
Again, while this internal stuff is beyond our control, it is actually where we should be focusing our efforts. Focusing primarily on directing the behavior of others leads us toward very inauthentic relationships and a very inauthentic culture. We must be more focused on the internal stuff, and that requires patience and a certain amount of faith in people…two things that we do not have to have if we just manage behaviors. This is hard work, sloppy work, frustrating work but it is incredibly valuable. Part of why it is hard and sloppy is due to the fact that we are all wired differently and we are all at different places regarding issues related to diversity.
It is one thing for me to see that there might be some flaws in the system, it is a much different thing for me to come to understand that I am a part of those flaws (regardless of my intentions), and still another thing for me to realize that I am part of a flawed system, am benefitting from that flawed system and must do something about it if I am really the person I claim to be. This leads me in a much different direction than simply learning to say the right things about race, ethnicity, gender, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, etc.
This very issue gets to the heart of why many diversity and inclusion efforts have still not delivered on their promise. Even organizations that are known for diversity work, that brag about it and are awarded for it, often do not actually have the culture to match. They support the right events, use the right photos and say the right things. But below the surface are some of the exact same attitudes and beliefs (conscious and unconscious) that get in the way of real growth and organizational evolution.
Last week I made a short presentation regarding diversity and inclusion to a small group of folks that I examine and learn about new topics with, and I spent a fair amount of time talking about some of the fundamental business cases for diversity and inclusion. A close friend of mine, who is also part of this group, reminded me that while the business cases are strong, that is rarely what actually influences behavior. It may work for some, but it is not necessarily going to be the thing that influences or changes personal attitudes, perspective, values or beliefs.
This is not unique to the issues of diversity and inclusion. A lot of what we pay attention to in the world of business and management and organizational development are the tangible things…the things that we can put our hands on and measure easily. Inventory. Profit and loss. Turnover. Observable behavior.
I believe that real leaders (which are in short supply from what I have seen) know that it is the intangible assets that really matter. It is the things you can’t put your hands on, can’t weigh or measure that really matter in the long run, but it requires a different kind of leadership to focus on those things. Trust. Inclusion. Real collaboration. Real innovation. Dialogue. Engagement. The ability to have honest, candid two-way conversations. Meritocracy. Shared learning from mistakes. Valuing difference.
The failure to understand, appreciate and focus on these intangible assets is precisely how organizations end up:
- With a stagnant and unhealthy culture
- Adrift with ethical challenges
- Without the ability to adapt even in the face of obvious and massive trend changes
- Out of step with stakeholders
- With a damaged brand
- Unable to compete for talent or market
We focus on the easy and obvious stuff and ignore the complex, yet really important stuff at our peril. A lot of organizations have gotten in the habit of saying the right things about diversity, but when you get down to it, they are doing little and often times do not even really understand diversity and inclusion. Actions speak louder than words and organizational resources are allocated to real priorities.
To capitalize on our intangible assets requires us to lead in a different way. It requires us to rely on our title less and our relationships more. It requires us to become a little bit more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty, it requires us to be better communicators, better question askers and much better listeners. It requires us to love people rather than blame them, it requires faith in people rather than in policy, it requires us to without remorse constantly challenge our assumptions and the status quo. It requires us to lead…all of us. What will you challenge today?