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By Dr. Pete Hammett
Over the past several years I’ve been on a journey. It began with a relatively straightforward goal— to implement a diversity training program in our organization. My initial thought was, “This should be easy.” There are countless diversity programs on the market. So it shouldn’t be that difficult to get an off-the-shelf program, right? And so my journey began.
My journey was a series of discoveries. The first discovery occurred when an executive asked me to explain the business case for diversity. Frankly, I didn’t understand the question. Why did we need a business case to rationalize our focus on diversity? Doesn’t everyone know why diversity is important? It soon became apparent that while most people agree on the merits of having a diversity focus, there is less agreement about the desired outcomes of doing so.
For some, diversity centers on ensuring that specific demographic groupings of people are reflected in a community, be it an organization, a learning institution, or a geographic region. For others, diversity goes beyond aggregate representation within a community to representation at the various levels within the community. And for others still, diversity is less about visible demographics and more about the “diversity within” each person.
This discovery helped me ask the better question: When we talk about diversity, exactly what problem are we trying to solve (or what opportunity are we seeking to capture)? Gaining alignment on this one question is perhaps the most important and most challenging aspect of a diversity initiative. Here is a simple framework that helped me greatly: Alignment does not mean agreement. Various people will hold various positions regarding the desired outcome of a diversity initiative. And that’s okay. People can hold to their unique position and still align on a common outcome.
At this moment in my journey, I believe our initial focus should be building the desired culture. Then we can focus on individual awareness. Prioritizing culture over individual awareness will create no small debate. So, let’s go there. What is culture? Culture is the beliefs a group of people hold and the manner in which those beliefs influence how the people behave. Simply put, culture is what we belief and how we behave. Why is culture more important than individual behavior? Consider this: What influences behavior more, organizational culture or individual character?” (Hint: Look up the Milgram Experiment or the Stanford Prison Experiment.)
Another discovery on my journey resulted from an opportunity to hear a talk by Leymah Gbowee, who in 2011 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in bringing an end to Liberia’s civil war. Leymah observed that the United States is one of a few countries in which “race” is used to segregate people. This is because in many places in the world, people are of the same race. For example, in Liberia there is only one race, African. But rather than race, Liberians focused on tribes (or ethnicity) to separate people. To emphasize this point Leymah pointed out that we often use the phrase ethnic cleansing. Seldom do we refer to racial cleansing.
Leymah helped me see how culture influences our behavior and especially our behavior toward people who are different from us. Sometime after Leymah had received her Nobel Prize, a close friend was visiting her home in Liberia. While Leymah was out of the room, her friend began a conversation with Leymah’s adolescent daughter. At one point the young girl innocently asked, “Aren’t you from the tribe that’s been killing our people?” Shocked by the frankness of the question, Leymah’s friend replied as calmly as she was able. “I am indeed from this tribe. But I assure you I am not here to kill you or anyone else. I consider you my friend and my family.” When Leymah reentered the room, the daughter politely excused herself and Leymah’s friend recounted the conversation she just had with her daughter. Leymah was embarrassed, but she noted how her daughter and her friends had developed a misguided view toward certain Liberian tribes—and that it was creating very troubling behaviors.
My most recent discovery was realizing the distinction between developmental programs and individual experiences. In the context of a diversity initiative, developmental programs are helpful to the extent that they establish a shared understanding of key concepts, such as what we mean when we say “diversity,” the role of “inclusion” in organizational culture, and the connection between diversity and engagement. However, beyond building a shared understanding, little to no sustainable individual behavioral change will occur as a result of developmental programs. To achieve sustained behavioral change, we must begin with culture, and the foundational part of culture is “beliefs.”
If we desire a culture wherein people of different backgrounds and experiences are valued and appreciated, then we must start by defining the belief needed to influence these behaviors. At times, when I see how Americans treat one another, how our rhetoric inflames and dismisses our fellow beings, I wonder if we have forgotten a central belief that binds us…
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
If we want to impact our culture, if we desire to solidify what we belief and thus influence how we behave, we need to understand that this can only be accomplished by creating experiences grounded in the self-awareness that I am the answer to building a more inclusive and diverse culture.
