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The case for Diversity, what it is and why it matters!

Diversity is a term that for some, can hit like a slap in the face. Why do we need it? Why are we talking about this, again? 
               
I had a co-worker exclaim after she was voluntold she would be a part of the Diversity committee that the population we were trying to serve didn’t need this and this was a way to label them. I disagreed but she was looking through a narrow lenses. Let’s try to broaden and better define what and follow up with why.

If you ask people to define diversity, as I have, in multiple environments from the world of work to the education space it boils down to:

1.       Race
2.       Gender

This is such a small and skewed way of looking at a topic that has the capacity to transform how we interact, view others and do business. Defining diversity, said Eric Peterson of SHRM, is “any way any group of people can differ significantly from another group of people – appearance, sexual orientation, veteran status, your level in the organization.”

If you consider diversity through this lenses as defined by Mr. Peterson, you begin to see why I say diversity can affect how we do so many different things. This gets us closer to a true definition because it is true that race and gender are a part of the definition but that is an incomplete definition. That would be like saying the New England Patriots are a football team or Michael Jordan is a NBA owner. All true but not the complete picture, more of a snapshot in time. So in order to define diversity effectively, we should be looking at it as the all-encompassing manifestation that it is, that it always has been. Simply, diversity is:

1.       Race and
2.       Gender and
3.       Where you were born and
4.       Where you live and
5.       Sexual orientation and
6.       Your education and
7.       Military experience and
8.       Socioeconomic class and
9.       Political affiliations and 
10.   Your employment history/experience

All these things help to define what diversity is.
Why it matters is a different question requiring a different answer. Why does it matter? It may not but if we look at this quote from B.J. Neblett, it can provide us an idea why diversity should matter.

“We are the sum total of our experiences. Those experiences – be they positive or negative – make us the person we are, at any given point in our lives. And, like a flowing river, those same experiences, and those yet to come, continue to influence and reshape the person we are, and the person we become. None of us are the same as we were yesterday, nor will be tomorrow.”― B.J. Neblett

If we are in fact, the sum total of our experiences, should we want to experience more? From a business perspective, do we want to have a wider reach into the market? Do we want to be limiting and only view diversity as race and gender? If so, does that restrict our reasoning for being interested in diversity? If the answer to this last question is yes, you may want to read something from someone else. If the answer is no and we are willing to admit and accept that diversity is as diverse as:

·         A military veteran

·         Police officer

·         Someone from Chicago, IL

·         Someone from a town with a population of 1,000

If we accept that these folks are the same – humans, but also different due to their experiences we are accepting diversity. A simple definition of diversity is: the quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.

That in a nutshell is who we are in America. This is one of the reasons that diversity should matter.
  


Daryl M Williams, MBA, M.S., is a human with diverse interests who happens to love teaching. Luckily he indulges that passion as an adjunct professor teaching courses in Organizational Change, Change Management, HR, Career Planning and Management. He has also assisted in the creation of an adaptive learning HR course, social media and project management courses in the Higher Education space. His day job is as a Higher Education and Contact Center Manager and he has never stopped being a Career Coach. He is passionate about providing information to assist friends, family, students and alums in professional development and uses his management experience in Fortune 500, non-profit and private corporations to inform his decisions. Feel free to connect via LinkedIn.

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