Business by Design

"Do not believe them when they say, ‘your strength lies in diversity' this is a liberal lie. The truth is that your strength lies in unity." This is a quote by Mike Fry, my physics teacher, speaking at my high school graduation. He also happens to be the smartest person I have ever met. The man does physics problems in his head faster than his students can punch the problem into a calculator. I have often remembered this quote when people are talking about making the school, workplace, etc, "more diverse." I have found in my personal real world experience that a diversity of opinions and thoughts just slows things down, and so I held my position with that of Mike Fry, that strength lies in unity. It was not until our study of Covey and the maturity continuum that I discovered the reality, that diversity is in fact a help to productivity, provided that the individuals involved are sufficiently mature. What I have seen happen is that one person will present a plan for getting something done, someone else will say "that a dumb way to do that, you should do it like this..." and a third person will insult the first two, present his method and so on until someone in charge says "this is how it is, don't argue, just do it." While studying Covey I relished that the people who have these troubles are people who are not mature enough to have their ideas criticized without getting defensive. When you have people who do not feel threatened when someone presents an idea different from their own, and know how to work together to a common goal, that is when diversity becomes an asset. That being the case I think it is important to first cultivate maturity in an organization then you can move on to making a diverse workforce to help generate fresh new ideas. I am glad to have learned this, now when I hear someone say "our strength lies in diversity" I will add to myself "as long as they have maturity" instead of hearing the echo in my mind saying "that is a liberal lie." I believe my live will be better for it. And that is my post for today.

Bryan