Two Concepts of Diversity

The election of Kamala Harris to the executive branch of government was a great win for women in the workplace and for everyone who values diversity, engagement, and inclusion. I wish her the absolute most amazing experience in this historic role and courage to represent what it means about shattering glass ceilings.

In my career I've been hired specifically for diversity sourcing at some of the largest Fortune 500 companies including CELA, the president's very own team at Microsoft. Companies all have different views regarding how to achieve diversity in leadership roles. Many want the demographic makeup of their workforce to mirror the population of our country, or even the globe. There are different ways to achieve this which we will discuss in upcoming articles, but hear me on this:

We might be struggling to achieve the wrong kind of diversity.

Demographic Diversity is important, and it is important that all people have equality of opportunity in the workforce. However, oftentimes, in pursuing the type of diversity that one can see with the eye in, say, the photo at a company picnic, we are missing another type of diversity all together.

I want to pause here and begin a rhetorical exercise we philosophers call a "thought experiment." You with me? Here goes.

Imagine you are attending a party, and at this party there are two trays of cupcakes. On the first tray, every single cupcake is a different color. Green cake with red icing. Blue cake with pink icing. Pink cake with Green icing. You get the idea. This tray of cupcakes is an absolute feast for the eyes of colors, sprinkles, even those little M&Ms that they make just to decorate cakes with. The works. But, when you bite into each and every cupcake, they are made the same. Lemon Cake with Vanilla Frosting. No surprises. Every bite is the same. On the second tray, there are a dozen monochrome cupcakes. Blue Cake and Blue Icing. But, in this batch, the baker added one drop of a different extract or essential oil to each little bit of batter and icing. There is a cardamom flavored cake with a hazelnut icing. Peppermint icing tops a strawberry flavored cake. Lemon and Dark Chocolate. Summer fig and the hintest flavor of mascarpone. And because all of these cupcake look the same, you absolutely have a sweet surprise when you bite in and discover the diversity of flavors you encounter.

Ok, so, which plate of cupcakes is better?

Right.

Neither.

But this leads me to my discussion of the type of diversity that one cannot see with the eye. Diversity of Ideas.

One time, when interviewing with a CEO about a diversity sourcing contract, he mentioned that he wanted all candidates to fit the "company culture". Bells and whistles went off inside my brain. "Whoa whoa whoa," I said, "I don't believe in finding a bunch of people that look differently, but think the same. That's not diversity, and it certainly isn't the way to build a culture." A culture builds itself when you hire people based upon their skill, their ability to present their points of view, and their ability to compromise with different points of view, and then put all of those people in the same room to solve interesting and relevant problems for your customers.

If there is no diversity of ideas, then the most innovative, ground breaking, and challenging new products and services will never even be invented. And if you don't encourage a diversity of ideas, then the person with the most groundbreaking new product might be afraid to bring it up. Or worse, she might leave, and bring that idea to your competitor.

Am I saying that Demographic Diversity is not important? No. We should be working hard on inclusion. But we should also be working hard on our abilities to learn from people with ideas that are different than ours, and our willingness to bring all different ways of thinking under one umbrella. We should cultivate a Diversity of Ideas.

So, which plate of cupcakes would you pick? Answer in the comments below.