Jennifer James addresses The Masters ForumJennifer James addresses The Masters ForumA Recipe for Organizational Goulash
by Michael Finley
Copyright (c) 1995 by Michael Finley
Gary Hamel, who addressed The Executive Roundtable in December, described the four corners of a major intersection in Toronto, each of which housed one of Canada's largest banks. The nation's banking brains were entirely clustered in one spot. They hired from one another, imitated one another, and breathed the same air as one another.
What were the odds, Hamel asked, of a startling new idea occurring within any one of those four banks?
That example highlights the problem of achieving diversity within organizations. We see diversity as a sorry obligation; James suggests we see it instead as a strategic opportunity.
Mention the word diversity in most organizations, and up go the hackles. We call in the corporate lawyers, or the public relations team, anyone who can protect the organization from the disruption of forced inclusiveness.
The argument from nature is powerful. In genetics, lack of diversity is called overbreeding. Purifying bloodlines weakens the breed -- the Heinz 57 is more durable than the pedigreed dog.
Metallurgists know that a mix or alloy of metals is invariably stronger than any metal on its own. In nutrition, we know that no single food, no matter how wholesome, can long sustain healthful life; the body seems to be whispering one word over and over to us: goulash.
But who wants their organization to be goulash? How can people wildly different from one another learn to work in teamly tandem? Can people with jarringly different values work effectively toward a single shared goal?
Diversity of "abledness" is especially complex. A person can be handicapped psychologically or physically. The disability can be easily identified or difficult to detect. The disability may arouse our sympathy or our prejudices.
So topsy-turvy has multiculturalism turned the workplace that discrimination, once a classic intellectual virtue, is now synonymous with bigotry.
Achieving diversity in many organizations means reversing polarity. Yesterday the firm boasted its elite corps of white-shirted Harvard men. Today it must boast the opposite. The successful organization, like a Benetton ad, is made of the widest possible variety of workers, whose combined knowledge outstrips anything they teach at Harvard, and whose genuine disagreements create an unmatched dialogue for real-world, exhaustive, honest, and creative decision-making.
By this logic, the choice for managers is a critical one -- craziness (diversity) or extinction.
From a demographic standpoint , there really isn't any choice. Studies show that the people who will be taking the most jobs in the next fifteen years simply won't be white males. Here's a list of who will be filling new positions between now and the year 2000:
15% ........ white males
42% ........ white females
7% ........ nonwhite males
14% ........ nonwhite females
13% ........ immigrant males
9% ........ immigrant females
Challenged to diversify, many organizations protest that they are within compliance of all Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employment guidelines. But to make diversity an operational advantage, we must go beyond mere compliance to an enthusiastic embrace of every kind of employee.
The truly multicultural organization is proactive about diversity. Nondiscrimination is no longer the objective; a team providing wisdom and intelligence broader than a single intersection in downtown Toronto is.
1. Identify the barriers to diversity within your current organization.
2. Improve the way you rate and track employee skills.
3. Mentor your minority employees.
4. Confront your own limits.
5. Educate, train, and transform.
The fifth point is where even the best-intentioned companies fall down. It's not enough to post EEO statements on your personnel office bulletin board. Policies must be posted everywhere; wherever it is not posted, it will be not be assumed to be in effect. Consider putting notices where the rubber hits the road -- in every employee's pay envelope.
A slip of paper with a few phrases of bureaucratese is just the beginning. All employees, new and old, should feel the organization's commitment to diversity. Workshops, video programs, audio tapes, continuing education classes and a good reading list backed by books in the company library are all ways to impress the importance of the new vision.
Talking about diversity must not be a top-down monologue. Make it interactive. Some organizations have achieved success using role playing exercises. Survey the opinions of workers on how diversity efforts are going -- for success stories as well as for areas needing improvement. Make the topic an official item of discussion in employee evaluation sessions.
Finally, take the message outside the company walls. Let the larger community know what the new vision is and how it is working. Visit schools. Let the media know about your commitment, so they can spread the word. Find out what other companies are doing. Establish internships and mentoring programs so that new hires are not left out in the cold.
People applying for jobs must not be in the dark about your organizational attitude. The more open you are about your desire to include all people in the hiring process, the stronger the pool of applicants will be.
The single largest untapped resource in any enterprise is the wisdom of the people who work in it. The more diverse the workforce, the greater the resource. It's as simple -- and as challenging -- as that.