Diversity Part 1: Discrimination as "Company Culture"

“‘Nobody’s perfect,’ she liked to say. ‘But, man, we all fall short so beautifully.’”

- Richard Powers, Bewilderment

We are, all of us, “on” any number of spectrums. Our identities and our personalities exist on an unknown and unknowable collection of gradients, upon some of which we may stay fixed, and upon some we may constantly move and change. Unknowable partially because who your grandparent was, how much you loved avocado as a child and how much you detest tick boxes as an adult may or may not matter or be related, and trying to nail down those relationships - to say nothing of looking for causality - is about as useful as counting clouds on a windy day. We are not as fragile as snowflakes, but we are, each of us, as beautiful in our particular spectra of weirdness.?

We are also, by nature, reductionists. We want simple answers to complex questions. It possibly stems from our primitive ancestors: “Just remember: the black berries are sweet, the red berries are sour, and the pink berries might kill you.” Unfortunately, we tend to apply that same approach to people. We tend to choose people who are like us, or like someone we’ve known. Same ethnicity, same gender, same education, same age and same way of looking at the world around us - philosophically and intellectually. To expand on that takes effort - sometimes very uncomfortable effort. That, or we have to have it forced upon us.

When we talk about “Diversity” - the “D-word” that seems so polarizing - we are often talking about that force. We are talking about making people work with others they wouldn’t necessarily choose to work with, whether they’re children in school or adults in a corporation. We as a society - most societies at least - understand that failing to force diversity upon people ends in division. Be it church choirs, cheerleading squads or executive boardrooms, we can see what usually happens when we’re left to our own to decide.?

It doesn’t have to be deliberate, either. Sometimes it’s incredibly obvious to everyone but the people on the inside, making the decisions. One great example is the term “company culture” - an ambiguous term generally used to identify an “in” group and an “out” group. It is often used as an excuse to avoid diversity. Ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality, politics, relationship status, personality “type” and any number of other spectra can be judged and found lacking under the umbrella term of “company culture”, and it happens all the time.

And the worst part? The worst part is that we as individuals then try to fit in. We try to prove that we are part of those constructs. We wear suits and ties, or beanies and tattoos. We change our language, highlight parts of our personalities and heritage and downplay others. We play it cool and act like we are part of the group, while becoming embarrassed at the things which make us unique. We praise leadership and march in lockstep even when we know we don’t really belong. It’s part of what leads to “imposter syndrome” - we live a lie, and we know it’s a lie, but we don’t often realize everyone else is also lying.

The truth is there is but one race, one gender, one sexuality, one neurology, one age, one (dis)ability, one normalcy - which is human. Whatever mix of those things - whatever spectrums they represent and however we choose to identify them and apply them to ourselves - we are simply “human”. We know we are each unique, and yet we are all homo sapiens - any constructs placed between those two facts are entirely and by definition divisive, and any extrapolations are usually prejudicial. Therefore, any “company culture” should align with human culture, otherwise it is by its very nature discrimination. It’s something we need to resist at all costs. Why?

Well, beyond the morality, the crazy thing is it’s bad for business and we know it! Companies don’t choose to discriminate because it’s the best path, they do it because it’s the easy path. It’s easier to manage people who look, think and act like you do - or at least in a way you understand. Whether your leadership looks like a group of church elders or the fans at some indie concert, it’s easier to deal with people who agree with your philosophies and values. But, it’s not good for business.?

Don’t take my word for it: go ahead and search “board of directors” for the companies whose stock values look like bent and broken saw teeth, and then do the same for #bluechip companies - not “advisors” but actual “directors”. Also look which companies embrace things like #neurodivergence and #flexoffice structure, and which describe themselves as “young and fast moving” or “traditional” (both often strangely pushing for #backtotheoffice - more on that, coming soon). See any patterns??

Makes ya think, huh??

For now, I will leave you to do just that, and to also ponder this: If the more diverse we are, the more stable we are, and yet the better we are also able to adapt to change, then how does that fit with today’s business landscape? What did we learn over COVID about different types of people wanting to live and work in different ways, and why did we find so many of them thriving? How can we better push ourselves and our companies to encourage, hire and work with the broadest spectrum of people? How do we leverage and foster individuality, diversity and our personal weirdness, and profit from the beauty of that?

Stay tuned . . .

Brad Hampton is the weirdo pioneer who helped launch the internet revolution with one of the world's first digital media agencies to serve F100 clients, and who authored the (in)famously influential Creating Commercial Web Sites. He has been a leader in remote work technology since 2006, and is the founder of Coworking Technologies (cowork-tech.com), which offers planning and consulting services to help companies harness the best from their people - no matter who they are or how they like to work. Get weird here!