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April, 2014
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We've probably all have heard that a culturally diverse workforce is more creative and innovative than a homogeneous one. It's become the "diversity meme," so much so that there is hesitancy on the part of many people to question that statement.
However, in over twenty years, and with at least 100 clients, I've seen three key potential problems with a diverse workforce, and worked on solutions for each of these.
1- Your workforce is visibly diverse but people aren't talking to each other.
2- People are in department, ERG or functional silos, by demographics. You don't see an actual cross-section of people.
3- Your workforce looks like a demographic cross-section, but almost all of that diversity is at the lowest level, and each level above gets more mono-cultural.
I'm going to share potential problem #1 and one of the solutions from my experience with real clients. I'll share the problem #2 and #3 in subsequent newsletters.
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Special Spring Offer
good until April 30
Do you want everyone in your organization to champion diversity and build the inclusive culture you want?
We are offering you
* The license to print and distribute my new ebook "110 Ways to Champion Diversity and Build Inclusion," to all of your managers and employees. This book provides practical, doable, and creative actions that when taken will have a dramatic impact on your organizational culture
* The ability to customize the book with your own title page.
* A live webinar or teleseminar (your choice) customized to your organization and industry
"How to Champion Diversity and Build Inclusion"
(You'll also be able to record the program for your diversity library)
All three are only $2500.00 until April 30 (regularly $3500.00)
Buy now! Save $1,000 and you can schedule the telesminar or webinar any time
New E-Book
110 Ways to Champion Diversity and Build Inclusion
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Buy it here for only $9.99
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What people say about the book
"This is a simple tool filled with a variety of good ideas that when implemented will certainly help set the tone for a more inclusive and rewarding workplace. Actions do speak louder than words and this booklet gives you and anyone in your organization 110 ideas to get started on."
Nadia Younes
Group Adviser, Diversity and Inclusion
Rio Tinto
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The organization was very diverse on all levels but
employees stayed in their own groups and didn't talk to each other. The CEO discovered that putting people from different groups together, who knew nothing about each other didn't automatically equal innovation and collaboration.
Impact:
People made assumptions, based on other ethnicities, department and job functions. They talked about each other, but not to each other. Other departments were not valued, and conflict between two people was usually attributed to difference in race, religion, sexual orientation, or other dimension of diversity. It took longer to get work done, and very few new ideas were generated.
Reason: We found that employees in the organization were primarily used to being around people just like them
when they were not at work, and knew very little about people from different backgrounds, other than what they heard from members of their own community or the media.
There was a lack of trust and there was tension between groups. Employees only asked people who were like them for help, and didn't offer help to people who were not like them.
Communication styles and ways to express disagreement or resolve conflict were different. No one wanted to say the "wrong thing," but their actions were based on wrong assumptions.
Solution:
Employees need to see people who are different as individuals and not as
monoliths. In order to work well together they had to learn to be comfortable with each other, which meant they had to talk to each other in a new way.
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Our process: We created opportunities for people to interact,
and
engage in a dialogue process where they got to know about each other and find commonalities. They also found new ways to work together.
How it worked: We brought a cross-section of employees together. First we introduced the topic of biases and assumptions, and took them through a brief exercise to show how to filter out biases and test assumptions
. We put them in small diverse working groups and gave them non-threatening personal topics to discuss, like how they came to work at the company, their favorite game growing up, or what they wished they had learned in school.
After several rounds of dialogue they were given a task or real problem to solve as a group.
The ideas they generated in their diverse groups were amazing.
Afterwards, there continued to be a reduction in tension, and an increase in sharing of resources. People who were previously at odds over beliefs worked on group projects together.
You may think, "can't we all just get along," or "I don't have time for this, just do your work." Actually,
the sooner you get people talking, and learning to trust each other, the faster they'll generate new ideas,
the better they'll serve your customers, and the less energy and resources you'll spend micromanaging, or resolving petty conflicts.
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Diverse teams or organizations are more creative, if people first get to know each other as individuals, establish trust, and focus on one task or issue together.
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