Not in my space

When I began the two newsletters, we publish each week here on LinkedIn, we made one promise – we would not discuss politics or religion. This edition of the TLS Continuum Toolbox may seem like we are going against that rule but trust me we are not.

It has been quite a week gone by. The Governor of Florida has posted signs at the state’s borders referring to the free state of Florida (only if you agree with his philosophy) and Johnny Taylor at the Society for Human Resource Management has made the decision to put diversity last on the totem pole.

When we look at the area of continuous process improvement we need to stay with the old acronym DEI. Let me explain further/

Diversity

Peter Senge, in his book 5th discipline, advocates for world cafes where the organization openly discusses issues. The late Professor Richard Feynman tells us to be careful not to believe something just because we want it to be true. These all require one condition.

To have a successful improvement effort we need to open our minds through a sense of inquiry and open dialogue. That means we need to tap the Diversity of Ideas that is present in our marketplace both internally and externally to the organization. Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms in their 2018 book New Power advocate for a new view of the world in which we live.

Your role has changed, and you are now human capital management scientists no matter what your title says. We need to take the improvement path where it takes us and consider anything that is presented to us from our dialogue sessions. The wide diversity of ideas is what empowers our organizations.

Equity

We need to forget our ideas and responsibilities. We are all part of the same team and no one, let me repeat no one is better than another. Just because you have a fancy title, and a corner office does not make you better than the subject matter expert at the front line. We are members of the same team. The term is cross-functional team it is not John Doe’s team. We each may have a role to play but we are still part of the grander picture, and each have or should have equal status on the team.

Inclusion

As human beings we tend to have biases about other people and other groups. Get rid of them. Drop your stereotypes of what your human capital assets can do. Napoleon Hill saw that when he told us that whatever the mind can conceive and believe we will achieve. ?Take that at heart and do not underestimate the potential of your human assets at your fingertips. If we had excluded the variety of ideas many of the things we rely on everyday would not be here.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are not bad concepts. It is not some purely political gamesmanship. It is a critical part of the process of continual process improvement. You want to improve your process to meet the needs of your customer, and we can only do that if we believe in DEI, in that order. Not by playing word salad to meet your preconceived notions. Shirley McClain summed it up when she told us that we see the world as we see it not as the world sees it. ?Including DEI in our process of improving our organizations enables us to see the world as they see it.

DO IT! DO IT NOW! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHAT IS BEFORE YOU! DEI in process improvement is a resource that you must have to be successful. Do not slight it by discounting its value or its place in your deliberations. Even though we would like to think we have all the answers, we don’t. Accessing the diversity of ideas will enable a successful team. Putting every member of the team on the same level will enable a successful project. Making sure that anyone who touches the issue surrounding the system constraints is involved in its solution will advance the future of the customers and your organization.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is your friend not your enemy. Recognize it. Take concrete steps to ensure that nothing gets in the way of you implementing them in your project teams.

?Looking for the perfect model for improving your organizational processes? Order your copy of the TLS Continuum Field Guide - How the Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma will transform your operations and Program flow to be released in February of 2024

About the author:?Daniel Bloom?knows HR and Change Management. He’s a speaker on transformational HR, a strategic HR consultant and trainer. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter.

The best strategy that I ever undertook was earning my SPHR and the Six Sigma Black Belt. You can take the same path with our Road to Organizational Excellence Seminar.

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