A while ago, I was asked to facilitate a workshop for upper-level leaders of a fairly large, local government agency. Many of the leaders of this agency, whose hiring and promotion of minorities was being investigated by the Department of Justice, felt like they were operating under a spotlight generated by politics and the media. For the most part, I was impressed by their understanding of diversity and their commitment to improving their track record.
I facilitated two sessions. While the CEO, who happened to be a white male, was not there for the first session, he did make it to the second. Before things got started, I walked over to introduce myself to him, and welcome him. The first words out of his mouth were, “We don’t have a diversity problem here.” With those words, he caught me a little off-guard. I collected my thoughts and responded, “With all due respect, sir, it might make more sense to view diversity as a benefit to be leveraged rather than a problem to be ignored.”
In essence, while we continued to talk, the CEO’s comments stayed with me. The training went well I think, and the feedback was positive.. However, the CEO was quiet throughout the session, and left early.
I share this because I think the CEO’s response, or at least his thinking, is not all that rare. When CEO’s are criticized for the underrepresentation of minorities in their organization, there is a tendency to be defensive and disavow any “problem” so-to-speak.” Also, the tendency to frame diversity as a problem rather than an asset is all too common. When something is viewed as a problem, it is often avoided, downplayed, not assessed regularly and systemically, and kept out of the media at all costs. When something is an asset, it is “front and center” for all to see and celebrate and learn from. Assets are developed, shared, and repeatedly measured.
How many of us work somewhere where our CEO sees diversity as a problem; and therefore, it is kept “under wraps?” If so, what does this say about our CEO and the leadership of our organization? And how does this impact on us and our bottom line? Something to think about.
When the CEO said, “We don’t have a diversity problem here.” It would have been quite interesting to hear what his response would have been if he were asked to explain what he meant by this terse statement. Diversity is situational. Did the agency have a mix of men and women? How about the range in ages? Was is heterogenous or homogenous in racial composition? What about the upper portion of the hierarchical structure, did it resemble the lowdr portion? Finally, was the statement parsed with the autocratic “we”, meaning he? A little explanation could have revealed a lot.