Institutionalizing diversity and inclusion is an elusive goal for many organizations. When something is institutionalized, it is built into the heart and soul of an organization. For example, diversity is built into an organization’s mission, assessment, strategic plan, core values, policies and procedures, and very simply, the way it conducts business on a daily basis. It is not ghettoized in the human relations department or relegated to a few “diversity champions;” rather, it permeates the entire institution.
It has been my experience, at least in higher education, that many leaders are personally committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, but they often fall short when it comes to institutionalizing that commitment. Therefore, when they leave an organization, a good chunk of the CEO’s work in the area of diversity goes out the door or goes with them.
Recently, I came across a quote from a Baptist preacher who was active in the Civil Rights Movement. He said, “Dialogin’ with an institution is like pissin’ on a turtle. It pulls in its head n’ feet, when you’re dun’ just goes on in the same ol’ direction it was goin’ in the firs’ place.”
For those of us who have spent our lives and given our hearts to the promotion of diversity, it is easy to tire of “pissin.'” And yet, in the words of Curtis Mayfield, we need to “keep on pushin’…some way, somehow,” and take heart in a process that is anything but linear, and often times yields small incremental gains.
I agree with you people talk about diversity and companies say they are diverse but if you look deep you see that there are still problems. We need to get down deep and hold others accountable or bthing will continue to be masked.
Dr. Bucher, I strongly agree with you about the lack of welcoming diversity into our workplaces. However, with that being said it is hard to get everyone aboard and to work hard at accepting diversity. We need and have some very strong leaders that push for the acceptance of diversity and that is fantastic, but until everyone is on board we will not be as successful as we need to be. With the differences in generations that are still living today, I believe it will be tough to get everyone to support diversity, but in the up-coming generations, the more things change I feel things will slowly get better.
I do believe that we should keep on pushing. If only a few people ban together that in itself makes a differences. Soon a few more will join and then a few more. These efforts cannot be up held by only one person. If it is diversity we seek then we must have diversity in our movement before anyone may understand what we want to achieve. People must be willing to get to know one another rather than just being acquainted. I believe that in generations to come and even in this one, we have and will go a long way.