It is mesmerizing that natures secret of abundance is diversity. For a healthy ecosystem to exist, fauna, flora and habitat all contribute towards the creation of both beauty and nourishment.
As true as this is in nature, it is present in the multiplicity of cultures, languages, principles, and philosophy that exist. If the world is not made up of one way of life, why should the teams or spaces that we work in be?
At every unconscious bias training I’ve hosted, there is always one attendee that pulls me aside and asks why Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is on the agenda or relevant. Why would it not be? When it is easy to recognize modern day injustice present in group clicks, profiling or in the small microaggressions that many people experience but cannot fully comprehend or express. It boldly exists in the stories shared in daily news stories. Poorer, less privileged communities still lack basic sanitation, water, electricity, and access or the most obvious imbalance of Africa vs the ‘western world’.
We witness it often in spaces where favoritism, group think, and nepotism exists. But the silent forms of discrimination and unfairness, appear more subtly in the toxic work cultures that is so prevalent in the 21st Century. More so – in the ignoring, invalidating, inability to try to understand another or find commonality with those we are engaging. Representation matters. We are after all human and irrespective of our color or creed, we all instinctively crave connection and relationship.
There are many studies and articles online about the secret ingredient of high-performance teams. One is D&I. Making up a team of professionals from different countries, backgrounds, disciplines, languages, cultures and tasking them to work together to achieve an end goal, unsurprisingly innovation and creativity occur because there is inherent power in the variety of ideas, thought, expertise and the sharing of different experiences that enhance a concept or is an advantage when working through a challenge.
If this sounds like something you would like to explore with your team, personally or in your company I advise and offer D&I training and teambuilding exercises that enables a high performing team or individuals.
