Valuing Diversity – Where From? … Where To? (Part 2)

When it comes to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility (DEIBA), much has changed in the past 40+ years, but still not enough. Where in your own DEIBA consciousness did YOU begin, and how do you hope to evolve in that consciousness?

By Lewis Griggs

 

PART 2: WHERE TO?

Part 1 of Valuing Diversity covered the “Where From?” portion of this article, covering these topics:

• Setting the Scene
• The Importance of Recognizing and Honoring Differences
• The Illusion of Some Attempts to “Value Differences”
• Attempts to Avoid the Appearance of “Discriminating”
• The Myth of “Equal Opportunity”
• What Is Diversity Really About?

Part 2 builds on that foundation and gives guidance for the journey of “Where To?”

Why Value Diversity?

Most people don’t “value” diversity until they perceive it to be in their personal self-interest and/or professional benefit to do so. I am talking specifically about long-term self- interest and/or enlightened self-interest, which, of course, is a value judgment. In fact, it is enlightened self-interest that constitutes the sound reason for valuing diversity, whether at the personal, interpersonal, or organizational level. For many, the main reasons for engaging in the valuing diversity process are to reverse past wrongs, to assuage guilt, to act affirmatively or ensure equal opportunity just because it’s “fair.”

None of those reasons are sufficient to bring us to the meaning of enlightened self-interest, however, for none of those reasons allow us to place positive value on the fact of our differences from others. And if we do not experience the real benefits that come from changing our relationships to those different from ourselves, then our fears of defeat are realized. I’ve indicated that valuing diversity occurs at the personal, interpersonal, and organizational level and that at all three levels there needs to be discovery and recognition of our personal self-interest and professional benefit if we are to justify embarking on the diversity journey in the first place.

So since that is a lot to accomplish all at once, let’s start with our personal self-interest and presume that the first unique differences to be valued are our own. I shouldn’t need to make a case for valuing oneself; most people recognize that the qualities we appreciate in ourselves and those that others like, or love, or respect in us are likely to be those relative and/or comparative things about us that stand out in some way as being different, or even unique. It is most often the qualities that differentiate us that others refer to in describing us and that they admire in us. Even though our similarities may be prerequisites to our being liked or respected, those prerequisites are not usually the ways in which we generate the greatest love, admiration, respect, trust, or recognition.

Actually, all Valuing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging and Accessibility work should begin with a greater understanding of exactly who we are—culturally, demographically, and ethnographically as well as with regard to age, race, religion, gender, gender identity, country, community of origin, language, sexual orientation, education, class, and so on. Most agree that an important goal in life is to become our fullest selves, to be the most we can each be, which of course means being the most unique and different we can be—because the most I can be is very different from the most someone else can be, given our differences in the only DNA in the history of life on Earth, individual life experiences, privileges, crises, traumas, perspectives, talents, and personality attributes.

To become the most we can each be, then depends on becoming conscious of our differences and giving them energy and freedom of expression. Once we “get” that, it’s ideally an easy leap to recognize that somebody else’s uniqueness also needs to be fully expressed if he or she is to be his or her fullest self, and furthermore that we play a part in allowing and encouraging that individual’s freedom. In recognizing that it is in our self-interest to allow others to be their fullest selves and in theirs to allow us to be our fullest selves, we come to recognize our interdependence and to feel safe in our relationships with one another. The only limits are whatever boundaries are required to maintain each other’s “safety.” And these boundaries should be limited to the essential ones.

In interpersonal relationships, self-interest then becomes one of mutual fullness, where each person not only allows but encourages the other to grow, to see who he or she is, how his or her behaviors affect us, what he or she looks like from the outside, and so forth. By creating a relationship in which each person focuses on the fullest possible expression of the self, we bring to the relationship the energy required to create synergy in the space between us. (How synergistic relationships are formed and work is the subject of my coming article Valuing Relationship, The Heart of Valuing Diversity.)

In the context of the workplace, training efforts have long been devoted to getting people who are very similar to each other to work better together. Adding, if you will, 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 (each number being an individual relatively similar to another) so that similar people complemented each other was thought to be a lot more productive than just being in the workplace together and not working effectively. With affirmative action and equal opportunity programs, the focus shifted to getting diversity into the workplace (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5), and even most managing diversity work has been focused on adding those individual differences in a way that can be as complementary and result in an enhanced outcome of a common goal.

Of course, managing heterogeneity is more difficult, at first, than managing homogeneity. But today, in most organizations, communities, and countries in this rapidly shrinking global village, we do not have the ease and simplicity of working in a homogeneous environment. Gradually, therefore, necessity being the mother of invention, we are becoming aware of the multiple opportunities presented by having a heterogeneous work environment. More and more individuals and organizations are recognizing that diversity is in their self interest that in working toward personal, professional, or organizational common goals, there is much to be gained in the relationships formed with “different” others.

For organizations, there is an increasingly larger demographic talent pool from which to choose workers. More and more, organizations can remain competitive only if they can recognize and obtain the best talent, value the diverse perspectives that come with talent born of different cultures, races, and genders, nurture and train that talent, and create an atmosphere that values its workforce. One of the many rewards organizations begin to see when they establish a diverse workforce is an increased market for its services or products.

Who Should Value Diversity?

It’s obvious that all of us—senior executives, middle-level managers, workers and employees, customers and clients, every individual in any organization that employs people or uses volunteers to accomplish any end, to manage or execute any internal function or external service, or to produce, sell, and/or deliver any product—have an opportunity, if not a responsibility, in our own self-interest, to gain knowledge of, become comfortable with, and ultimately value, our own and others’ differences.

Both democracy and free enterprise—which I regard as the most radically progressive and “liberal” systems on earth—are intended to be fully inclusive and participatory. Neither is perfect, and neither can be left unregulated anymore than our personal freedoms can be unregulated, but each system serves us well only insofar as it garners our full participation and inclusion. I find it ironic that people devoted to business pursuits not supportive of full inclusion are thought of as “conservatives” and people devoted to participation and inclusion are regarded as “liberals.” Placing high value on full participation and inclusion ought to be seen as “conservative” given that it is these factors that conserve the benefits that flow from both democracy and free enterprise.

Just as all of us need to participate in democracy in order for democracy to work for all of us, all of us need to participate in free enterprise, government enterprise, nonprofit enterprise, and educational enterprise can’t be full unless each individual expresses himself or herself fully in every relationship, our various organizations can’t be fully productive unless the individuals within are fully themselves and the internal and external relationships are fully engaged. In the same vein, a community or a nation or the world we live in cannot be fully functional without the fullest possible participation and inclusion of all its members.

Where Should Diversity Be Valued?

Where should diversity consciousness be raised? Well again, the answer is a broad one— everywhere. On an international scale, it’s easy to recognize that doing business with other countries, other customs, other languages, and other practices demands greater knowledge of the many individual differences that enter into our personal, interpersonal, and organizational relationships. In some respects, it is a “forest-and-tree” issue; clearly, one kind of forest is very different from another kind of forest. From a distance it seems almost irrelevant that each tree within the forest has its differences from the one next to it because from a great distance the similarities dominate our view.

The same metaphor applies whether we look at the differences that mark us internationally or nationally. It is an illusion to presume that on a national level we have homogeneity and need only deal with our similarities. Obviously, within our own culture and geographic boundaries each individual comes from a different group and set of groupings, as indicated previously. Without stereotyping individuals and making easy presumptions that every individual in a group shares the same values and behaviors, nevertheless, gaining some knowledge and insight about the groups from which an individual comes is useful in knowing that individual. But we need to remember to hold that knowledge in a neutral, safe place as we explore the extent to which it may or may not be true for that individual. We must allow ourselves to experience the uniqueness of that individual above and beyond and aside from all of the traits that we associate with the groups to which that individual belongs.

On another scale—in the community in which we move through our daily lives, often without knowing each other—on the bus, in the restaurant, at the airport, in the supermarket, at the post office, it is not as necessary to value each individual’s diversity as long as we are valuing each person’s rights.

In these impersonal settings, “tolerance” of diversity is usually enough, unless Serving individuals in these environments is part of our work. But when it comes to the workplace, as I have suggested all along, it is vital that we move way beyond mere tolerance for individual differences; here, there are tasks that must be accomplished, and they rely on cooperative and collaborative interpersonal relationships.

For close relationships to work, in any setting, they must be enhanced rather than depleted by our differences. In our families and in our most intimate relationships, of course, differences must be understood and not just tolerated. The degree of intimacy may be less in the communal transportation facility than in the communal workplace, and greater in the family and other intimate interpersonal relationships, but it’s only the level of intimacy that is different; the process of valuing one’s own and another’s differences is exactly the same. And so it is everywhere that we need to do this valuing diversity work.

When Should We Begin Valuing Diversity?

When should valuing diversity work be initiated? The answer is now. There is no reason not to embark on our diversity work within ourselves, within our relationships, within each and every organization in which we work, and with each and every outside customer or client with whom we interact. It is less useful to spend three years developing and refining diversity strategies than it is to simply begin by doing. A first step might be simply awareness raising as a foundation for later work; by now, we know that as consciousness expands, behavior does, indeed, change.

Our programs will improve as we move forward and uncover more and different needs specific to our situations, but the need for diversity training is not likely to disappear. Think of all the Phrases most of us grew up with: “Practice makes perfect.” “There’s no time like the present.” “Any decision is better than none.” “If not now, when”? “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” They all make the same point. So let us begin.

How Do We Begin?

We know that organizations today are facing complex challenges. Most of these are dynamic, interrelated, and systemic in nature; that is, they are intertwined and capable of affecting the operations of the entire organization.

More than any other challenge, perhaps, the diversity challenge affects the organization at all levels: personal, interpersonal, and organizational as well as local, national, and international. The scope and direction of valuing and managing diversity programs ideally, must be developed within the context of broader challenges facing the organization as a whole. Diversity responses, in other words, need to be well integrated into the organization’s overall strategic responses Systemic thinking is critical to diversity issues.

Yet it is situational priorities that determine how and when the organization can respond to specific diversity challenges. Obviously not all organizations have the resources, time, leadership, or consciousness to do it all, much less do it all at once. Important as the diversity challenge is, “imperfect” management of the complex interventions required is a better way to develop a strategy that works for your organization than planning for years a “perfect” strategy that never gets practiced. So let us briefly consider some issues currently being addressed in organizations and how valuing diversity and relationship are at the heart of these issues.

• Conflict resolution. Conflict is inevitable in any organization. However, enhancing relationship patterns among managers and employees alike can keep disagreements from escalating into conflicts.
• Employee relations. Employee surveys and audits provide an assessment of the work climate and point out key areas needed to improve employee relations. Focusing on diversity and relationship issues can effect significant changes in the organizational climate and bring to the surface the key problem areas employee surveys have highlighted.
• Empowerment. Successful organizations know that empowering employees means valuing their diversity, which brings out their creativity. The process of empowering people can begin on any of the three levels (organizational, personal, and interpersonal), but true empowerment for all can happen only when responsibility is assumed at all three levels.
• Leadership (on all levels). Today’s leaders know that success in the twenty-first century will come to those who grasp the fundamental importance of relationship within their organizations. The days are gone when a leader of an organization achieves objectives solely through charismatic leadership or personal power. Managers and supervisors make the transformation from technical expert to manager of people, especially increasing their personal effectiveness working with diverse groups. If organizational objectives and organizational success are to be realized, all of today’s leaders, at all levels, must focus on relationship dynamics and assume facilitative and enabling roles.
• Learning. For learning to take place in an organization, personal, interpersonal, and organizational flexibility is critical. Individuals need to be receptive to new information, and the organization as a whole needs to constantly adapt itself. At all levels, learning is an ongoing process that depends on strong internal relationships among employees and between managers and workers, and external relationships between the organization and the customers and clients it serves.
• Productivity. It is important to consciously identify barriers to productivity at the organizational, personal and interpersonal levels. Managers and supervisors, as always, must demonstrate authority, delegate tasks, solve problems, be effective and innovative, demonstrate leadership, and empower employees but without resorting to the energy-depleting relationship patterns of control, manipulation, blame, denial, mistrust, racism, prejudice, and so on.
• Synergistic teams. Individuals face intense pressure to conform to today’s team-oriented Both the team and the organization can be effective only when all the components that make the team effective work together in dynamic unity, that is, where the total is greater than the sum of the parts. Individual members of the team need to be their fullest selves and take personal responsibility. Enhancing interpersonal relationships, especially in structured teams, and obtaining total participation, commitment, and shared responsibility are what ultimately improves the creativity of the team and, by extension, the productivity of the organization. Teams typically operate within an organizational culture embedded in old personal and interpersonal relationship patterns. Depending on whether these organizational relationship patterns are energy depleting or energy enhancing, the team will or will not be effective.
• Trust building. Trust and trustworthiness are the foundation of effectiveness in today’s organizations. As Max Depree states in his book Leadership Is an Art (Dell, Y. 1989), “Structures do not have anything to do with trust… people build trust… relationship counts more than structure.” The critical question is how to build trust in a constantly changing and diverse workplace. We must increase our knowledge and acceptance of our differences, create awareness of relationship dynamics, demonstrate the effect of energy-enhancing and energy-depleting patterns, illustrate the power of relationship among diverse individuals in the organization, and enable employees to begin the crucial steps to build trust.

In Conclusion

The challenge we present here—to discover the personal self-interest and professional benefit of truly Valuing the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging and Accessibility of all with whom we live and interact and work—is complex and time- and energy-consuming.

We ask that you not be overwhelmed, that you do as much as you can with the resources you have, and that you take from these pages at least what you can personally use now, leaving the rest only until you feel and benefit from the life change it brings and continue to do more.

---

Adapted by the author, Lewis Griggs, from Chapter 1 of his book Valuing Diversity, published by McGraw Hill.