- Feb 23, 2020
What Diversity Offers
- Randall Rogers
- 0 comments
Diversity means far more than simply employing a mix of different ethnicities in your business. But, as I say this, I fear this is what comes first to mind of business leaders when pressed for a definition. To think of diversity in such limiting terms diminishes the true potential of what a macro-level (definition of) diversity offers a company. Therefore, let's get clear on what diversity really means.
Firstly, and to re-state the above, diversity within the workplace can mean employing different ethnicities within your business but it also means employing or embracing different (or a diverse mix of...):
Experience levels
Life experiences
Socioeconomic backgrounds (wealth, education, home)
Age range
Professional experience
Gender
Perspectives/views/mental models
Know this: diversity matters; especially when it comes to improving and innovating for the future. To compete effectively, to ideate breakthrough innovations it requires (more than ever) bringing together a highly diverse mix of thoughts, experiences, and sensibilities to represent and voice the 'whole' of a situation or system you wish to transform.
For most companies, this remains an operational blind spot; a 'miss' of significant proportions. So... given the above, what can we say diversity offers? Well, to begin with, it offers a future to those companies inclined to embrace it. More than this, it addresses the reality today that "all things are connected" and, therefore, to fully understand an issue, problem, and/or an opportunity it requires a diverse mix of people to solve.
Diversity, just like a company's business processes, represents a potential competitive advantage of the highest order. As such, for those companies who embrace, promote, and practice diversity, the future is yours to shape. For all others, your fate is less certain, less optimistic, less rosy.
One could say, without embracing diversity you have no future at all. This, ultimately, then is what diversity offers - A FUTURE!
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