Blog

If we take a macro look at the history of humans, our success as the dominant species on earth can be attributed to several evolutionary capabilities that led to revolutionary events.

In his book Sapiens, historian Yuval Noah Harari suggests : From about 2 million years ago until about 10,000 years ago, the earth has been home to several human species. All early humans shared several defining characteristics, namely large brains. Our brains, that account for 2–3 % of total body weight, consume about 25% of our body’s energy when we’re at rest. In comparison, brains of other apes consume only about 8% of rest-time energy.

Our large and very expensive brains, over time provided significant ‘horsepower’ to process large amounts of information and develop intelligence. That led to invention of tools, agriculture and various industrial revolutions over the timeline of our existence. As evident, intelligence has been a clear catalyst of our success as a species and in the last 100,000 years has helped homo sapiens climb up to the top of the food chain. In modern humans, this intelligence has been enriched over the centuries, by our geo-political origins, experiences and choices, leading to creation of unique perspectives but in most cases, with some implicit biases.

Another human trait that Harari gives immense credit to, is our ability to organise and communicate. Humans have the ability to cooperate in vast numbers, with incredible flexibility.

Now, Let’s snap all that into the context of our conversation….

In recent times, organisations are realising the importance of having diverse perspectives as a part of their talent pool. Take any industry and any function within, the potential of varied perspectives and dialogue, is immense and can be harnessed to accomplish incredible things.

Maybe, some organisations haven’t been conscious about building a diverse workforce, maybe some have but never really harnessed its full potential. Today, In alignment with the timely transformation of our society, organisations are focusing their efforts on promoting and implementing diversity as a core value. That means, bringing large numbers of diverse people together and creating a structure where they get along and work towards a common goal. Now, the process of bringing diverse people together could be tricky — Evolving hiring behaviour, attracting and retaining diverse talent, creating equity of income etc.… but….. the process of ensuring they get along, is trickier :).

Humans rely on their power of imagination to make sense of things. As evident in any large scale human cooperation, a collective belief can bring people together to agree upon a common goal. This belief or vision, in many cases is the starting point and but is extremely crucial. So… Is saying, “Come work for Company A, we value diversity,” good enough?

There has to be more….. The Vision, needs to be an egalitarian idea, grounded with a common purpose. An idea that empowers people to be authentic. An idea that builds a sense of belonging — An idea that is deeply empathetic to the human condition.

Most leaders will define the vision and the collective purpose, which then is translated into some framework, with a set of behaviours and outcomes that smaller groups/business units are accountable to drive. An important part of the framework has to be a support system that educates intermediary leaders on the importance of inclusion and empowers them to make conscious efforts to identify their own biases and practice avoiding them.

But in practice, as these directives trickle through layers of management, things get interesting. Some leaders are passionate about the cause whereas for some, it’s a metric they need to meet. Different communication styles, different priorities, different inclinations, different biases…. It starts to get fuzzy!

This is where conscious Communication becomes extremely crucial. Because, as we traverse hierarchical layers, geographical and cultural complexities, what is being communicated could begin to drift away from the vision.

Let’s take an example….. Company A wants to drive ‘Equity of income and representation’ as a part of their Diversity and Inclusion plan. Which means; hiring more diverse leaders, ensuring people from minority groups get equal representation in promotion cycles and driving equivalence in pay for women. When translated to metrics = Increase diversity in hiring pool by X% AND ensure Y% diversity representation in promotion cycles.

Seems like a valid practical approach. “Biz unit AB” and “Biz unit XY” develop programs to meet these goals, part of which is a communication plan to share progress against these goals. After the first quarter……

‘Biz Unit AB’ communicates : “A very warm welcome to our newest employees that are joining us this quarter! We recently onboarded 25 employees with 45% diversity representation. Please join us in welcoming the new members of our family”. <list of names follows>

‘Biz Unit XY’ communicates: “A very warm welcome to our newest employees that are joining us this quarter! We are proud to announce that the changes made to our hiring program this year, have ensured representation of talent from varied backgrounds. We will continue to learn and improve our processes to drive fairness of opportunity. Please join us in welcoming the new members of our family”. <list of names follows>

Both written with good intent and there doesn’t seem to be an issue with either communications. But, if you were one of the people on the list that fall into the 45% category, you might wonder if you were hired because you deserved it, or because of your background/ethnicity? Does that mean you’re being held to a different standard than the majority? …. These feelings can be deeply disempowering.

Goals and metrics are important as they help us track progress against our espoused vision but communications around the goals, need to exhibit empathy and consistently indicate a drive towards ‘equity of opportunity’, rather than ‘equity of outcome’.

Quite often, employees also experience such conversations in closed room interactions and it’s hard to prevent that from happening, because humans will be humans. Consciously building a Psychologically safe environment, will empower employees and give them tools to handle these instances better.

So…we’ve defined the vision, we built a framework that supports and educates our leaders and we have a communication plan that ensures empathy and consistency. How do we know if it’s working? A Feedback loop comes to mind, one that captures not only how employees feel about being a part of the organization but also, is the diversity vision landing?

Community groups play a big role, where not just the minorities are represented but everyone is included, where experiences are shared, where dialogue happens. Understanding the nuances of different cultures, helps people develop a world view…one that ties all the metrics back to the human reality we began with — we have it in us to cooperate in large numbers, we have to make a conscious choice to do it.

Every one of us perfect,
But we all have a flaw.
Then we look for the defects and we go off to war.

And we send all our children,
Again and again.
It’s our fear that we’re building,
But we’re really the same (Like beads on one string).

— The Who

---

Shashwat is an experienced technologist and culture engineer, with over 15 years experience with Cloud technologies and organisational transformation. He has spent over a decade specialising in Cloud collaboration technologies and has helped businesses around South-East Asia, Europe and North America transform with the power of the cloud. Currently, he lives and works in New York, specialising in Enterprise Data and AI solution sales supporting Global Financial Services clients. Enduring transformation needs to be a thoughtful combination of business and cultural evolution, Data is at the centre of it all. Part of Shashwat’s charter is to help businesses use data to make faster and better business, as well as cultural decisions.

---

Republished from https://medium.com/@shasmo/connecting-the-dots-on-organizational-diversity-f2b8a05a50ec

Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the content belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organisation, committee, or other related groups or individuals, including Marg Advisory Services.