Four simple chemical bases; that’s all it takes to make the blueprint of life. It’s so simple and yet so complex, paring in a multitude of ways to write the code which determines everything not only about people but about all living things. The more we investigate the greater the potential to create or correct, for good or bad.
At a base level we all share the same building blocks and yet minute differences make us all unique. And it is that very diversity which has helped the rise of the human race, bringing individual strengths to bear in order to overcome developmental and environmental challenges. At heart the human race is a diverse collection of unique individuals, so why do we look to discriminate or to exclude anyone who could help us on our quest.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some people who may not be beneficial for your organisation, people whose outlook or experience may be so variance with the culture of the business that, albeit unintentionally, they will destroy rather than build success. But there are also people out there who can bring something special to the organisation, adding their thoughts or experiences or outlook to the challenge of delivering innovative solutions and great customer service. So when we talk about discrimination, about a lack of diversity, we shouldn’t just see it in terms of age or sex or ethnicity but also in terms of personality and life experience.
Moulding diversity
Now comes the hard question. As an organisation you may pride yourself on your diversity, you may actively look to bring in as varied a range of people as possible but what you do once they join the organisation? In far too many cases your lay down rules, seeking to mould their outlook and their actions to the company norm, making sure they fit in.
Why? Those people had something special, something which you identified could add to the richness of the organisation and its culture. And now you’re going to corral them, to re-sequence their actions and their outlook, to kill that very quality which you first saw in them. You may have hired for diversity but by the time you have laid down the law on process and procedure, on behaviour and outlook, you might as well have hired a clone in the first place.
How do you stop this happening? Start by looking very carefully at the interplay between your culture and your on-boarding process. Okay, if your culture promotes mini me’s then realistically speaking for you diversity is only ever going to be a tick box exercise.
But if your culture is one of engagement and innovation, one which actively looks for diversity as a means to deliver game changing solutions or customer excellence then make sure it is reflected in your hiring and induction processes. Promote dialogue and listening and open exchanges alongside self managed engagement plans. In other words, do everything you can to help people to be themselves and to bring themselves to bear on delivering great outcomes. Don’t kill the diversity gene in your organisation; your customers, your investors and your people deserve better.