Diversity – in all its forms
Diversity – what’s in it for me ?
- Successful teams and company boards get more diverse locally and internationally. If you don’t personally have the intercultural skills to communicate with your colleagues, then you might find yourself replaced with someone who does.
- There is a lot of legislation regarding diversity and equality, different in every country, which all companies must adhere to. You need to know how to behave in order not to fall foul of the law.
- Diversity for increased profit . McKinsey says “Diversity wins is the third report in a McKinsey series investigating the business case for diversity, following Why diversity matters (2015) and Delivering through diversity (2018). Our latest report shows not only that the business case remains robust but also that the relationship between diversity on executive teams and the likelihood of financial outperformance has strengthened over time. These findings emerge from our largest data set so far, encompassing 15 countries and more than 1,000 large companies.”
- If you want to attract the right talent and more customers then you need to be diverse. The right talent wants to join the companies that can demonstrate they adhere to diversity under its many categories. The most successful companies use diversity to see things from different perspectives such as race, gender, thinking and get over their blind spots thinking that customers think the way the employees do.
- If you are well, both mentally and physically you will achieve more. Being in the right job in the right place will increase satisfaction. We run coaching, individual on-line training and group workshops in Wellness, to help you gain better understanding of the problem areas you may have in your life and begin to alleviate stress, tension and anxiety so you can live life happier, with more freedom and peace of mind, and achieve your career goals.
note – this page is in draft form after major revision
Dr D’Wayne Edwards, sports footwear designer and founder of Pensole Lewis College, shares insider stories of being one of just two black footwear designers when he started in 1989, and how he’s bringing a more diverse cohort into the industry today. ” we take students based upon the diversity of applicants and their stories: diversity of thought is true innovation “
More than 50 types of Diversity
There are over 50 types of Diverisity. Typically most organisation specialise in one or two – Gender, Sexuality and Race It is recognised that a diverse Team or Board will get better results. Whats the best kind of diverse? By understanding the issues of diversity and the pitfalls and benefits of inclusion you can learn to maximise the benefits of developing key relationships with others. See our pages on the key aspects and more information below
Diversity, Equity/Equality, Inclusion, Belonging,
These terms get used indiscriminately and with many variations on the words, and what they mean . Click here for more information ..
Cognitive Diversity
You can tick all the boxes on Diversity and still recruit a team of people who are exactly like you. The most significantly Diverse team is one where each the members thinks, behaves and communicates differently. All the others pale into insignificance. Click here for more information
Interculturality
Interculturality is about developing skills and behaviours enable you to integrate with any nationality to achieve success ,wherever you are and with whomever you are with, by learning the skills to integrate while still being yourself. It draws on different disciplines to review mindset and behaviours and create new ways of being effective, managing challenge and opportunity and creating outcomes and plans for a fulfilled and rewarding personal and professional life. Click here for more information
Other significant types of Diversity
Of the 50 or more types of diversity we have selected some which are the most utilised . Click on the titles for more information
https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/diversity-intersectionalityIntersectionality is where a person belongs to one or more minorities. Click here for more information.
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We offer
- a team of associates in four continents speaking 12 languages (see People)
- four day training course on Diversity already delivered in several countries (see Train )
- talks on Diversity delivered in several countries (see Speak)
- Diversity workshops tailored for specific countries to deal with others (see Train)
- Cognitive Diversity – how to build a properly diverse team using Profiling (see Profile
- Coaching on Interculturality and on how to become Diverse (see Coach)
- Call us on +447788425688 for more details or send us an enquiry
Dealing with other races, ethnicities, ages, sexes and sexualities can be a minefield if you haven’t thought about. Hofstede studied 165 counties for several criteria. Diversity can be an opportunity or a threat, it makes for better results but can take longer to achieve them. Managing teams without face to face contact, whether virtual or global requires extra attention. In this course you will discover techniques to improve your awareness and overcome challenges in dealing with other cultures and groups.
Contracts are lost by failure to understand culture and inappropriate behaviour in other countries. With the increase in mindfulness, people are much more observant, so knowing about etiquette in host countries and the general international British style is essential.
With increasing globalisation, many organisations face tougher competition; at the same time they are working in a more complex environment, needing to co-ordinate geographically dispersed operations and a cross-cultural workforce.
This leads to diverse teams becoming more common at all levels of the organisation. Diversity can be based on various characteristics such as gender, age, nationality, ethnic and/ or cultural group, or on indicators of cognitive diversity such as international experience, education, industry and work experience that can all lead to different perspectives.
Research shows that diversity results in better performance on complex decisions and problems, just the type of challenges that face global firms. Also, diversity has a bigger impact on organisations with greater managerial discretion such as the high-tech sector, or when undertaking new initiatives.
Diverse teams can also experience their differences as barriers to communication, so that reaching a common understanding or outcome takes more time and effort, and raises the transaction costs of teamwork.
Whatever your organisational, individual, leadership or team needs are, have Smart Coaching & Training be your first call. Starting with a free strategy session we will discuss your needs and create a proposal to suit you.
Other related topics
Unconscious Bias
The human race is programmed to feel safer with people who are like them and be more wary of people who are or look like they may be different.
To achieve the benefits of diversity, individuals and organisation need to recognise they have unconscious bias in order to overcome this.
People like Us; U and non-U
In the 1950a Nancy Mitford and Lady Astor capitalised on early writings to promote the concept of ‘People Like Us’ . And how, through the British class system you could tell whether people belonged to the upper classes not only by the accent they had but also by the words they used. for example they used Lavatory, Looking Glass, Napkin, Drawing Room instead of Toilet, Mirror, Serviette, Lounge/Sitting Room. of course this is conscious bias particularly used by mothers to check out their children’s potential spouses
Other types of Diversity
As stated, there are over 50 types of diversity of which very few are actively promoted. Still, you may get on better with people of the same class, culture, education, but these similarities are another set of reasons why you wont get a diverse team.
Other types of diversity
Class: The UK is famous for its Class systems propagated by the public school system (which is private). It is much more difficult for people educated in state schools to get into the top universities, where those in the state system are probably more intelligent. But it’s not just the intelligence its the social behaviours and accent you need to have to get on with the glitterati.
The upper classes in particular are taught about networking (same school) and nepotism and use it well. The working classes are taught never to rely on networks
Education: As above , in the UK the private schools teach you how to rule , the state schools teach you to do what you are told.
Life Skills: Those who have travelled and know lots of other cultures are likely to get on with those who are the same . If you have only lived in one village and a trip to the nearest town is a big adventure you are less likely to relate to those with more experiences and also are less likely to have the confidence to try, Exemplified by food , the “I know what I like and like what I know ” people are most likely to stick to Starbucks and McDonalds for fear of the unknown. Equally those with no money cannot afford to purchase things they may not like. Open and closed mindsets have significant impact here
Family: Family units are different throughout the word. See the section on ‘Worldview’. Those with large families may never get the skills to take the meet strangers as there are so many siblings and cousins to know other culture
Professional Skills . Those whose work is manual many never learn the skills to get on in the manual world. Equally Professionals may never get the manual skills – but they usually can afford to pay for them
Political Convictions: hose with strong political convictions ma never be able to see things from a different view point and instead see them as a threat or something not to be discussed
Three Colours Worldview
✅It’s estimated that autism affects 168 million people worldwide
Three Colours Worldview
The Three Colours of Worldview can be visualized as three coloured lenses – formed of the basic beliefs and assumptions underlying behaviour and culture. People take in the world and make decisions on how to act through the filter of these lenses. For example, is being seen as honourable more important than being seen as right? Or is maintaining positional power more important than being shamed? To communicate effectively in a cross-cultural situation, you need to know what mix of lenses you have on in the way you see the world, and how to evaluate the lenses of the people with whom you are communicating. When we understand our own self-culture, we can begin to understand what drives others. These are what we look at first when we encounter a new situation, as they influence so many other cultural factors.
1. Innocence/Guilt
In an Innocence/Guilt focused culture, schools focus on deductive reasoning, cause and effect, good questions, and process. Issues are often seen as black and white. Written contracts are paramount. Communication is direct, and can be blunt.
2. Honour/Shame
Societies with a predominantly Honour/Shame worldview teach children to make honourable choices according to the situations they find themselves in. Communication, interpersonal interaction, and business dealings are very relationship-driven, with every interaction having an effect on the honour/shame status of the participants.
3. Power/Fear
Societies with a predominantly Power/Fear worldview raise children to assess where they fit into the pecking order of every situation they are in and behave accordingly. As they grow up, they learn how to align themselves with the right people to gain more power.
ason If you are well, both mentally and physically you will achieve more. Being in the right job in the right place will increase satisfaction. We run coaching, individual on-line training and group workshops in Wellness, to help you gain better understanding of the problem areas you may have in your life and begin to alleviate stress, tension and anxiety so you can live life happier, with more freedom and peace of mind, and achieve your career goals.