Comments on: Diversity? Or Inclusion? http://www.secretan.com/blog/index.php/diversity-or-inclusion/ by Lance Secretan Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:33:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David Zweig http://www.secretan.com/blog/index.php/diversity-or-inclusion/comment-page-1/#comment-13232 David Zweig Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:01:47 +0000 http://www.secretan.com/blog/index.php/diversity-or-inclusion/#comment-13232 In my work studying corporate boards, I am struck by the absence of a different kind of diversity. That women, for example, comprise only about 15% of directors is not news. People of color are even fewer. In the 21st century, however, I would argue that the larger diversity obstacle has not to do with factors we can observe from the outside (race, gender, age, etc.) but instead centers on how people see and think. Most people naturally feel safer in the company of people who are superficially similar to themselves. Today, however, younger people are more comfortable with "others." This generational shift is evident in the U.S. electoral polling: basically, older people have trouble getting past Barak Obama's race, even before they consider his policies. That issue does not affect nearly as many young people according to the surveys. If that hurdle is crossed, now the issue becomes one of accepting people who think differently, or whose values that may be internally consistent and well-meant, but nonetheless differ from our own. Overcoming that obstacle, I believe, is a tougher challenge, and will be a principle social task of the 21st century. In my work studying corporate boards, I am struck by the absence of a different kind of diversity. That women, for example, comprise only about 15% of directors is not news. People of color are even fewer. In the 21st century, however, I would argue that the larger diversity obstacle has not to do with factors we can observe from the outside (race, gender, age, etc.) but instead centers on how people see and think.

Most people naturally feel safer in the company of people who are superficially similar to themselves. Today, however, younger people are more comfortable with “others.” This generational shift is evident in the U.S. electoral polling: basically, older people have trouble getting past Barak Obama’s race, even before they consider his policies. That issue does not affect nearly as many young people according to the surveys.

If that hurdle is crossed, now the issue becomes one of accepting people who think differently, or whose values that may be internally consistent and well-meant, but nonetheless differ from our own.

Overcoming that obstacle, I believe, is a tougher challenge, and will be a principle social task of the 21st century.

]]>