DIVERSIDAD. Myrtha Casanova

Blog de Tendencias21 sobre la gestión de las diversidades en el mundo actual

Diversity is not just a concept; it is a mandatory strategy


Diversity is not just a concept;  it is a mandatory strategy
The evidence of global diversity as the fundamental characteristic of this era is unquestionable.   But it has not spurred the corporate or political governance communities to understand that the mega-differences of peoples from the different cultures, demographic profiles and areas of the world -  is the cause of the major conflicts that endangers humanity. It is also the generator of innovation in companies such as Google, Facebook and Henkel in which D&I management is a corporate policy.
Because managing diversity is generating the inclusion of peoples of different profiles to align behind common objectives;  whether social, entrepreneurial, scientific, or of governance. 
  • On April 25th 2015, 1.000M persons interacted in FACEBOOK – 1 out of every 7 persons that live in this world today
  • 500M persons communicate every day in TWITTER- 1 our of every 14 persons in the world
  • GOOGLE receives 38.576 requests for search every second: 3.333M a day, 100.000M consultations a year today.
  • LINKEDIN has 433M professional profiles in its network from 200 countries who Exchange and help each other globally every day.
  • The MOBILE is no longer a pone – is an intelligent devise that fits in the palm of a hand which holds all the information a person may need today, as applications are available as new needs are sensed to emerge, or as innovative talents introduce a product/service/game which will feel a unnoticed gap that immediately becomes a preferred tool for users of all or different profiles.
The issue is not that 1 out of 7 persons in the world meet in Facebook every day, for example,, and the company has to be prepared for this demand – the issue is that the diverse workforce of Facebook creates constantly the systems that propitiate that 1 of every 7 persons in the world coincide in Facebook every day
 
11 years ago these tools did not exist ( except Linkedin launched in 2003).  What was the range  of communication of persons  from all over the world? How vast was the knowledge of the cultures and needs and ways of life and work of people at local and global levels? To what extend are people aware of the transcendental impact that the diverse behaviors of peoples from all over the world have on everyday life back home, wherever home may be. Diversity is the nature of humanity.  The importance does not lay on whether persons are yellow or white; or whether they are young or old; or on their religious believes and languages.   
 
The real impact of diversity comes from the capacity of peoples to interact in a creative, respectful and positive way.  On mutually  accepting the behaviors of the different profiles of peoples, on the way they build their cities, set up social and economic institutions, develop certain styles of governance.  The impact of what peoples from all over the world generate, affects all the rest of the global population today….evidently, as peoples interact globally every day. Information technology has shrieked the world in 11 years as never before in the history of humankind. 
 
Managing diversity is not a women´s issue, or an ethnicity issue, or an age issue, or the issue of any specific trait which is different from the dominant profile of a group, organization of country. Managing diversity addresses all the profiles giving them the same value.  What is more, addresses the multi-profiles of persons when addressing the cause of a discrimination process, which generally responds to more than one trait of the person´s profile.
 
Managing diversity is mandatory to prevent conflicts, to create sustainable growth through innovation and efficiency in all areas of human activities.  It is not just a mater of not discriminating persons with different profiles.  It is a matter of developing corporate and governance system to leverage those differences and turn them into value. Inclusion deals with empowerment, active listening, constant diversity awareness schemes to include all internal and external players related to the company, accepting challenging ideas, renounce to repeating old models and opening mindset to multiple alternative in all areas of activities. Measuring and evaluating results in order to allocate resources to projects that make the highest tangible and intangible contributions to corporate results. For example;  a drone was developed maybe from watching a toy helicopter fly.  It now serves as premium spy, safeguards woodlands from fires, helps disabled and elderly persons at home, help in stands in fairs,  is a premium delivery system. So it would be on the capacity of persons who can develop new application, create new characteristics to the product that the company will allocate resources.  Organization must capitalize diversity to hold sustainable competitive positions in the markets in the future.  Otherwise they fall in obsolescence in short periods of time. 
 
The world today- started yesterday of course
 
The scientific community in the 1970s (  Abernathy and Utterback   )   identified diversity a the most singular characteristic of the XXIst century
 
In the 1980s (Johnston & Packard ) established that diversity generates conflicts.  Which must be managed.
 
In the 1990s  (Cox and Blake ) concluded that well included human groups generate innovation and therefore human development
 
In the 2000s Adler, Richard & Shelor   among others, shyly introduced diversity as part of academic curricula
 
In 2003 Richard Garner founder of Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Service (CSES)
clearly establishing  the business case of diversity
 
In 2005 scientists like Nigel Bassett-Jones , Richard & Shelor  and  Gonzalo Sanchez Gardey proposed models for corporate diversity management
 
Diversity issues which had been under the  Director General of Labor and Social Affairs
were passed on to DG Justice in 2011.  Inclusion is a social, economic and legal mandate
  
In 2003 the EIMD carried out a research worldwide  to analyze the inclusion of diversity subject in academic institutions.  The result was that only 3% of universities had introduced at the time diversity as a subject in their institutions.  When repeated in 2008  in a research project carried out for the EU, the figure had raised to 9.7%.  Still short of what it should be. As only when diversity management is part of the academic curricula, the  students, as they enter companies or occupy administration posts,  implement the strategy as part of their professional lives.
  
The world tomorrow- started today
 
If 15 years ago it was a challenge to describe a vision of what the scenario today  would be like regarding  diversity and inclusion;  forecasting the diverse dimension of the world tomorrow, is pure science fiction. Nevertheless,  there are actions that must be addressed in order to safeguard equal treatment, control of conflicts, create innovation and foster corporate and governance results
 
Educate- to combat stereotypes acquired in early age cultural environment, (unconscious bias) in order to eliminate discriminations and foster inclusion
  1. Academic curricula - active in research and transition of expert knowledge in diversity management as a business case for the corporate community and as professional of cities and nations for governance
  2. Start-ups- must be created on the philosophy that it will gown based on a diverse workforce , a policy which ill guarantee a sustainable business that will always have the capability of anticipating and optimizing changes in the highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) present and future scenarios. Because it is very difficult to establish corporate behavioral transformation in companies that have been working for years with outdated  cultures which do not match changing scenarios
  3. The workforce must always reflect the diversity profiles of the changing external agents in a continuous system of contextual  transformation due to the cause and effect of the impact of diversity in all fields of activity
  4. Blind selection – to ascertain  that recruiting and promoting is done to the persons who have the talent and qualification for the responsibility, regardless their diverse profile
  5. Value talent - efficiency and contribution to bottom corporate sustainability rather than time spent in work place
  6. Create diverse teams- in private and public organizations to combat conflicts and sponsor innovation and advance towards sustainable growth.
  7. Quotas – figures should never set strategies.  Figures measure whether strategies are met. Recruit 20% more women is not an efficient objective.  The fact of being feminine does not guarantee the specific talent required for a job, and therefore an efficient contribution to corporate results.  The objective is to improve corporate results, therefore the company has to recruit and select the most efficient talents.  And if in the process there is a 30% increase is recruiting women, this evidences the richness of diversity. This is equally valid when addressing diverse profiles of age, ethnicities, disability, cultures, religions/believes, languages, sexual orientation.  Or multiple diversity traits.  Diversity is not a women issue or at ethnicity issue, of a language or religion issue.  It addresses the differences  in profiles of a multicultural and highly diverse global and local population.
  8. Visibility- project the strategies and results of organizations excellent in diversity and inclusion management to spur a sense of emulating successful companies in highly diverse and transformational scenarios.
  9. Scenario building- companies must exercise forecasting as a constant corporate activity in order to know how to select and prepare the peoples that can take the company into a sustainable future of exponential diverse growth.  The same applies to global governance.  Leaders must master the art of diversity management to prevent the elusion of conflicts between nations which has been  a constant factor  of the history of humanity
                                                                                                                       Myrtha B. Casanova
                                                                                                  European Institute for Managing Diversity

Myrtha Casanova

Lunes, 23 de Octubre 2017


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Editado por
Myrtha Casanova
Ardiel Martinez
Fundadora y presidenta del Instituto Europeo para la Gestión de la Diversidad, presente en 21 países de la Unión Europea que da apoyo en la implantación de política estratégica de Gestión de la Diversidad a Regiones y ciudades; así como a empresas e instituciones, Myrtha Casanova es también fundadora y presidenta de la Fundación para la Diversidad, fundación creada para fomentar las políticas de igualdad, anti-discriminación y gestión de la Diversidad en España. Su objetivo es la difusión e implementación, en las empresas e instituciones del Charter de la Diversidad en España. Myrtha Casanova también es Fundadora de la plataforma Artistas Diversos que impulsa y da visibilidad al talento de artistas con discapacidad fomentando su inclusión.





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