While companies and organizations around the country are currently scrubbing their websites of the word “diversity” to stay off the federal government’s radar, I thought it would be worthwhile to explore the word, especially in the context of the workplace.
Diversity is “the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. This is about the presence of different groups and not necessarily creating an environment where everyone feels valued and respected, which is the domain of inclusion and belonging.
In the workplace, diversity is about the presence of employees with a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. It’s about ensuring different viewpoints to bring about the best solutions. When seeking new ideas or innovations, there should be nothing controversial about adding unique voices to the table. In fact, diverse perspectives can prevent groupthink, which can be detrimental to any organization.
The benefits of diversity in organizations can include enhanced creativity and innovation, improved decision-making and problem solving, stronger employee engagement and retention, and expanded market reach and brand recognition.
Enhanced Creativity and Innovation
Different perspectives bring different ideas. Pixar’s Braintrust contains a group of people who meet every few months to discuss in-process movies they’re making. According to co-founder Ed Catmull, “Our decision making is better when we draw on the collective knowledge and unvarnished opinions of the group . . . we rely on the [Braintrust] to push us toward excellence and to root out mediocrity.”
Improved decision-making and problem-solving
A wider range of possibilities leads to more potential solutions. So often it can be the person playing “devil’s advocate,” who keeps organizations from making poor decisions. And it can be an introverted person with a brilliant point to make but may shy away from this because they are in a room full of extroverts who can’t stop talking. The loudest voice isn’t the one who is necessarily making the right decision. Encouraging opinions from diverse audiences improve outcomes.
Stronger employee engagement and retention
Employees feel more engaged when their voices are being considered. When people feel heard, they know that their perspectives matter. Those offering alternative perspectives need to feel their contribution matters. And when they do, this results in greater engagement, and employees are less likely to leave the organization.
Expanded market reach and brand recognition
Amazon apparently leaves an empty chair in their internal meetings to represent the customer. This is forcing the company to consider that the people in the room may not adequately represent their customers. By providing more diversity to the decision-making process, the customer is more likely to be better represented in these meetings. Those companies who represent the diversity of their customers are more likely to raise their market share.
Diversity is not a bad word. When it is positioned as somehow equivalent to affirmative action or must include equity, inclusion and belonging, the meaning is completely distorted. These other words are also not bad in and of themselves and we need to push back on others when they distort their meaning.