Beyond Diversity: Embracing Hearts and Minds in the Workplace

The concept of "diversity" is approached many different ways in terms of workplace training.  One approach is to consider the legal aspects of discrimination in the workplace related to hiring, recruiting, promotions, etc.  Another approach could be to consider a "10,000 foot" view of the subject, by simply encouraging a company's people to be unified in the spirit of "getting along" and "teamwork".   Those approaches are both valid (and required in some situations) and of course are fully acceptable.  

As part of the VIP Way, we take a different approach.  We view teams of people as a collection of "hearts and minds", and we've experienced the extreme value in having these different hearts and minds around the "table".  

The concept of hearts and minds encompasses different "perspectives' (and not just different people).  For example, a team of all 25-year olds of the same race, gender and economic backgrounds will still have very different thoughts on how to solve people issues, process issues, as well as a variety of different technical and emotional skills.   This breaks the stereotypical thinking that groups of people of the same "demographic" (e.g race, age, income, political beliefs, religion, etc.) must all think the same way.  In our sessions, we also take a deep dive into both personality differences and generational differences in the workplace.  This isn't because we believe these are the most important differences in people, but because we hear so often of the difficulties in the workplace as it relates to these areas.  In fact, we believe the generational labels ("Millennials", "Baby Boomers" "Gen Z", etc.) are unfortunately accompanied by unhelpful stereotypes that can sabotage teamwork and even seriously impact recruiting and retention of star employees.  

For example, if the twenty-somethings in your workplace are often referred to collectively as "lazy", "entitled", "soft", etc. imagine what happens when those employees discuss their jobs/organizations with their friends and family.  It's not likely than any high-behavior, high performing people hearing this will want to join that type of organization.  Of course, the same thing can happen if the organization views the fifty and sixty-somethings as "dinosaurs", "past their prime", "technology challenged" and "closed-minded".  Personality differences and related stereotypes also exist, of course, and can be the root of miscommunication, frustrations and other dysfunction in the workplace.  However, when well-understood and managed correctly, these "hearts and minds" comprised of different personalities can achieve great success!

A true VIP Way organization encourages and leverages different perspectives, but also understands that those perspectives are formed not only from cultural background, age, gender, and socio-economics but also from peoples upbringing, life experiences, societal impacts, academic backgrounds, previous work experience, personalities and more.  We have been blessed by the feedback we've received from people who've attended our sessions in terms of how we handle this discussion (as a part of our overall training curriculum).  We are told that people leave thinking much more deeply about the "hearts and minds" concept, but also are encouraged and hopeful (vs. feeling confused, helpless or disillusioned which can sometimes accompany discussions like these).

Every organization needs star employees.

Period.  

A work environment that values diverse people and perspectives will attract and retain more stars. 

Period.