Friday, October 19, 2007

Finding a Cure for Diversity Fatigue

By Linda S. Wallace

One day after the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger proclaimed in his column that diversity has become “a fighting word” human resource directors and specialists gathered in Philadelphia to take the pulse of the “diversity movement.”

R. Roosevelt Thomas (http://www.rthomasconsulting.com) , a mild-mannered, suit-wearing consultant who approaches diversity with the mindset of a CEO, characterized what’s going on pretty well. People and companies get stuck, he said, and that’s when they suffer an attack of diversity fatigue.

Thomas told the story of a weary executive who had spent years building a diversity program. After making significant strides toward its goals, the corporation decided it could relax a bit. Its minorities left, and there the company was, starting all over again. Just when you think the battle has been won, you find out that this is only the first round.

That’s when fatigue sets in. Is this all there is? In a society that wants fast-food dinners, drive-through pharmacies, coffee cafes and instant winners, I can see why some people would get tired of thinking about all this.

This fatigue is threaded throughout Henninger’s article, which is titled: The Death of Diversity. His words make it clear that he is not a long-distance runner in the diversity marathon; the 60-yard dash seems better suited to him.

“Diversity was once just another word. Now it's a fighting word. One of the biggest problems with diversity is that it won't let you alone. Corporations everywhere have force-marched middle managers into training sessions led by "diversity trainers." Most people already knew that the basic idea beneath diversity emerged about 2,000 years ago under two rubrics: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself,’ and ‘Do unto others as they would do unto you.’ Then suddenly this got rewritten as "appreciating differentness."

I am not going to spend my time with you taking Henninger to task. We can not let our future be about him; it has to be about us, our economy and our community. That’s why the Society for Human Resource Management (http://www.shrm.org) held its annual Workforce Diversity Conference Oct. 17 to 20th in Philly. As corporate leaders, these professionals know it is OK to feel weary, but never OK to give up.

Thomas had some interesting thoughts as to why people and companies get stuck, and what they can do to rev up those engines. Diversity, unfortunately, has a diversity of definitions. To some it is an extension of the civil rights movement. To some, it’s an extension of affirmative action. To some, it is a marketing or branding tool. To some, it is a way to tap into the unique talents of a diverse staff.

In all, there are major areas of focus in the industry, according to Thomas, who has a consulting firm, Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training: representation (focusing on inclusion and exclusion issues); workforce pluralism (developing the capacity of diverse workforces to work together well); managing workforce diversity (developing a culture that accesses the talents of each worker); and managing the mixtures (developing the capacity to make quality decisions when diversity issues or challenges are present.)

Organizations are more likely to get stuck if they, and their HR leaders, think in only one paradigm, Thomas suggests. If a company sees diversity primarily as a numbers game (Do we have enough of each race?), weariness may set in, for they are giving the same speech, holding the same fairs, and doing the same training again and again. You have got to weave a fabric with the right blend of strategy and technique.

By expanding the view of what diversity is and what it can do, companies increase options, and create a larger number of organizational problem solvers and beneficiaries.

Executives of the future need to be mindset builders who can introduce and expand on current schools of thought, says Thomas. This core competency is required to support creation of educated workforces.

A company that embraces a civil rights orientation as its diversity model may sputter in today’s highly competitive profit-centered markets. Still, Thomas says the goal should not be to leave the civil rights legacy behind, but rather to have leaders who can extend it and introduce new schools of thought. This is what a mindset builder would do, you see.

OK, so this is not going to be easy. Wishing that diversity would go away or that people from other cultures would act more “American” won’t win us allies or customers.

The diversity movement needs to recruit mindset builders to plan the workplaces of the future. It needs advocates who can open ALL minds to new schools of thought, and see diversity from both racial and organizational angles. Diversity strategy must be multi-faceted, not one dimensional. Companies must press forward even when there is fatigue and resistance.

Successful leaders, after all, are lifelong learners who share a commitment to shake off the inevitable feelings of weariness.