Prometheus 6

Kelly G isn't a registered member, but caught my interest by pointing to this via email

In the Face of Diversity

All diversity programs are not created equal. Whether you're working to show that different is better, that even companies can be remixed, or that who you hire matters, diversity programs can fail for any number of reasons.

A recent report issued by Novations and J. Howard & Associates, a global consulting and training firm, suggest the following red flags to watch for:

• Confusion between diversity and inclusion initiatives Diversity metrics center mostly on representation, whereas inclusion metrics are more likely to reflect organizational health factors, including employee engagement. A diverse company is not necessarily inclusive, and an inclusive company may be just that, with little impact on representation.
• Isolated diversity function Time and again directors or vice presidents of diversity are siloed and disconnected from other areas of the business. Successful companies insure that diversity initiatives are owned by the business units and held accountable.
• Focusing just on compliance Metrics driven by compliance do not necessarily translate into changed behavior. Successful organizations seek to internalize the commitment to inclusion and look for evidence in decision-making, promotion criteria, strategic direction and professional development.
• Blurred vision A new diversity director may want to start fresh and blanket the organization with trainings, cultural awareness events, and activities that look like diversity work. Such a scattershot approach may miss critical targets.

What have you experienced in terms of diversity programs? What helped or hindered their success?

The comments are interesting. This guy is confused:

We sit in yet another "training" class in a Cambodian-style re-education camp surrounded by hand picked minorities, we waft the latest in hard-sell sensitivity group-speak training to us middle aged, male white folk. The message? " You old guys just don't get it. Get with it, or get out."

Truth is, as we look around offices of corporate world, it is the latter, and if you re-apply for your old job - you 'aint' qualfied. Someone 18, with wet ink from the local College, will usually be sitting in your chair at 1/5th the price they paid you.

Welcome to "diversity - USA." Meanwhile, when you pick up your grocies at the local supermarket, be sure the be generous with the bag boy. He was probably your division manager two years ago, now living on his social security.

This guy is blaming "diversity" for the whole sea change in the nature of employment. It's not unusual...much of the bad press affirmative action has received was by word of mouth, when white guys found it easier to tell another white guy "his" job "had to be given to a minority." It's easier to say than "you weren't good enough."

Anyway, layoffs, wage cuts...it's really absurd to blame that sort of thing on diversity, and that so many people do is a major reason a diversity program might fail.

The next guy started out okay, actually...

The worst diversity programs involve trainers whose minds are stuck in the late '60s and 1970s and run their training on the a priori assumption that every white male is a bigot. They spend a lot of time in the session on games and tricks meant to make the white males (and secondarily white females) say something that exposes them as raging racists, sexists, or whatever. There can be humor, though, when the trainer is unable to make someone say anything bigoted, and then has to keep coaching the person to revise his answer, hoping he'll expose himself as an anti-diversity pinhead. However, it's inherent in the nature of diversity trainers that they themselves are bigots against the majority. Otherwise they wouldn't be in that position.

...I just don't know who ran the program he went through. Or if he's even gone through one. At any rate, the belief in the last two sentences...the majority is on the defensive against bigots, is another reason diversity programs fail.

This one

I take the thing otherway around.Any company can not just grow without diversification.We find manufacturing company going for trading and getting into construction business as well.Growth is possible with diversity.It may not be necessarilly isolated diversity function.

...speaks for itself, as does this

True Diversity is about managing talent.
A room full of white men, could have as much diversity in it as a room of minorities, blacks, hispanics and everything in between.

My opinion?

Diversity programs fail because, like affirmative action, the term refers to multiple things. Corporately, it's marketing or behavior modification and people judge the behavior modification by marketing standards, or expect marketing methods to impact behavior or some other crossing of wires. The solution is supposed to deal with both understandings of what diversity is at the same time.

Folks want these programs to work, they need to be clear on what they're trying to accomplish. Of the three articles linked in the original post, two were about programs designed to improve the involved corporations' competitive positions...that's a different thing than trying to make people stop acting like assholes.

The third article is about a Black recruiter that somehow manages to find "qualified minorities" all over hell and back. Truthfully, a single "diversity" concept that groups this article with the other two is very confused.

Which means as a nation we have defined diversity as something we don't actually want...and we don't even know we're not pursuing what we claim we desire.