In the post-COVID world, and with AI an unstoppable juggernaut, we need to innovate, sooner rather than later. How do we do that? How do stop the, “This is the way we’ve always done it” attitude so pervasive in our organizations? Diversify. Diversify our internal brain trust of potential innovative ideas. Getting new ideas from the same people is impractical if not possible. As a senior leader, what do you think of when you hear the word diversity? You may not have the reaction that you would otherwise want. Why?
Diversity had a tough start. The early days of diversity, corporate diversity, was a concept that, while good in intent, had the opposite effect of tearing people apart instead of bringing them together. In the mid 1990s, we were required to go through diversity training. We were provided lodging, mileage and three days of finger-pointing and blaming. Not only did it not work, it cost the company a fortune and drove further wedges between good people, some of whom left angry and others disillusioned. Why, if the intention was good, was the outcome terrible? Those who drove diversity started with faulty premises. First, we cannot force people to embrace diversity. Dale Carnegie said that people support a world they help create. Shoving concepts at people is doomed to failure. We want to come to our own conclusions, not be told what to believe. Second, diversity and inclusion is a misnomer. Let’s change our assumptions and start with diversity through inclusion. The difference is subtle yet profound. Diversity is the goal. Inclusion is action.
In 1936, Dale Carnegie published the first edition of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and created the foundation for diversity. His human relations principle 17, “Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view,” is the building block of diversity through inclusion. And the beginning of inclusion starts with understanding. How can you include me in the work group and ask for my innovative ideas if you don’t know where I am coming from? Diversify and diversity have an etymology in different. Yes, we are different. That doesn’t mean we cannot or should not understand.
We were working with a group of IT R&D leaders and one particular leader had a team member who would not engage at all. He was different. He did not dress the same as the group. He did not use the same phraseology as the rest of the group and was generally ignored was disparaged behind his back.
Maybe you have some groups with different generations, different education levels, different cultures and backgrounds, different colors, different hobbies. Maybe they have trouble relating to each other and that causes work stresses and is a productivity killer. What to do? In the case of the R&D manager, we coached him to use principle 17 and employ a tactic known as “the innerview,” where we get to know someone and try honestly to see things from their point of view.
It took a couple of weeks, as there is no magic business wand. But persistence paid off, and eventually the employee engaged and had a paradigm shift of an idea.
We can achieve diversity through inclusion to help us thrive, not just survive, the coming changes.
John Glaneman is president of Dale Carnegie Training of Northeast Ohio and Western PA
