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

Introduction

My corporate career has spanned more than 20 years, and in that time I have seen firsthand how valiantly companies have tried to establish greater diversity and equality among their employees. The trend and recognition of the importance of diversity has grown, particularly as the world becomes more closely linked and we work more often with people who are not like us.

Unfortunately, many of the diversity initiatives have been successful on paper, but not in practice. They often ascribe to what I call the Noah’s ark theory of diversity. If you bring two of every kind aboard an organization then you’ve solved the problem—except you really haven’t. After all, we are all products of our life experiences and upbringings, and we all bring our whole selves into the workplace. Too often, the mere mention of diversity results in collective eye rolling. It is seen as an annoyance, a lowering of standards, a thorn in a company’s side, a necessary obligatory part of the mission statement. Diversity has earned itself a bad name since many people think it gives advantage to particular groups. Diversity isn’t the problem. The problem is that we all bring our unconscious beliefs about ourselves and who others are into the workplace. The more diverse the workplace, the more likely it is we won’t have a fair and level playing field, not because of the diversity, but because of how we treat those who are different from ourselves.

If you want to create more diversity, you can’t just ...