The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity while Embracing Differences to Achieve Success at Work

Chapter 6

We Hire for Difference and Fire Because They Are Not the Same

THE DANGER OF UNCONSCIOUS THINKING, SPEAKING, AND ACTING

Speech patterns are one of the most automatic habits that we learn during our childhood. For each of us, the way we speak is the right way, because it is the only way we know. Our language is natural—at least to ourselves. Yet others learn their own ways that may be quite different from our own. In a diverse organization, we often ignore all of these different speech patterns and language habits at our own peril. It reminds me of the song lyric, “You say tomato, I say tomahto; let’s call the whole thing off.” I saw the title of this chapter tacked to a bulletin board during a session on diversity. No author was noted, but it certainly stuck with me. That said, we shouldn’t feel compelled to call it off just because we may be forced to grapple with difference in Noah’s ark.

I learned the danger of transferring the unconscious habits of operating in a workplace quite different from my familiar corporate one (where I’ve worked for 25 years) when I took on a new role several years ago. As I mentioned in the introduction, after the attacks of September 11, I decided that I wanted to become a first responder. I was in New York City on that terrible morning, and my feelings of helplessness were overwhelming. I had previously worked in the airline industry and was trained in disaster recovery in case of an airplane crash—this was far beyond anything I had ...