In the movie “Our souls at night”, Louis is an elderly widower. One night, his neighbor Addie, who is a widow, comes over with a question that she asks with trepidation. Her nights are long and lonely, and she asks Louis if he wants to come over to sleep with her. She makes it clear this is not about sex, she is looking for companionship. Louis thinks about it for a day, and then they get into the habit of sleeping together in Addie’s place. Louis and Addie live in a small town, and the gossip starts soon.
Louis regularly meets with a group of friends over coffee who know each other for a long time. One day as Louis joins his friends for coffee, they start making “jokes” about Louis staying over with Addie. None of them notices how their “jokes” cut through Louis’ soul. Louis does not know how to speak up, and he gets up and leaves without saying a word.
The scene is hard to watch, and the most striking aspect of it is that not one of the friends in the group speaks up to stop the joking. The men are all white and of a similar age, they revel in the same type of “jokes”, and the collective behavior of the group trumps speaking up for a friend who clearly is hurt by the group. How would the group have acted if there would be people at the table who were different, perhaps by their gender, age, or by their views of what friendship and relations could look like? The sameness of the group of friends—the old boy network—makes them lock into a stereotypic behavior that hurts somebody.
Countering a dominance of sameness is the driver for diversity and inclusion. An overview of research in the Harvard Business Review cites studies that show that diverse teams are more effective for several different reasons:
Diverse teams focus more on facts. (In the movie, the friends of Louis know nothing about his relation with Addie, and they don’t even bother to ask. As a result, they are oblivious of the loneliness of Louis and Addie.)
Diverse teams process facts more carefully. (The friends of Louis don’t really process the facts; they blindly follow the rumors that go around in town.)
Diverse teams are more innovative. (Louis’ friends respond in only one way: by make off-color “jokes”, and they continue doing this despite the pained look on the face of Louis.)
But apart from the fact that diverse teams are more productive, there is another reason for making diversity and inclusion a priority: making sure that everybody is seen and heard regardless of gender, race, ethnic background, age, religion, or sexual orientation is the right thing to do. And as diversity enriches business success, diversity is something to embrace because it enriches the human experience.
How can you embrace diversity and inclusion?
Reflect on your conscious and unconscious biases. Embracing diversity sounds great, but in practice biases can come in the way. These biases can be conscious, or they can be unconscious. Conscious bias is a problem because we are aware of our bias but are apparently not willing or able to let go of it. It may take reflection and honesty to release a conscious bias. Unconscious bias is an even thornier problem because it is a driver for behavior that we are not aware of. We may need feedback from others to become aware of unconscious bias and to release such a bias. What are you willing to do to become aware of any bias you might have, and what can you do to overcome this bias?
Make sure you see and hear others. We all want to be heard and seen, and hearing and seeing others is an essential part of inclusion. It is so easy to see and hear only at a superficial level. Doing so has the danger that we focus on our differences instead of our commonalities. What are you willing and able to do to perceive the inner person in somebody else?
Speak up for diversity and inclusion. Stereotypes that we hold tend to persist unless they are challenged. We can provide such a challenge by speaking up to include others when they are marginalized or ignored. This may involve creating space for others so that they can speak their voice and can be seen.
Our progress towards diversity and inclusion has been slow. Consider the following quote from the Nobel Lecture of Dr. Martin Luther King:
“In spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers [and sisters].”
He wrote these words 60 years ago, and we still live in an era where racism, misogyny, and xenophobia are publicly promoted.