What if we started looking at diversity as difference? Would that change things?
I think it would.
Diversity is something you promote. It closes down the ability to do something different outside of its ethnicity, ideas are shut down to keep an identity and it shuts down open communication, which limits the ability for people to be heard.
Diversity is about us, who we are and who we are not.
Diversity has never changed anything….
…its often the thing that needs to be changed.
Difference on the other hand is another animal all together. When we embrace difference we make a difference.
Difference is something that requires leadership… you wrestle with it.
Diversity on the other hand is managed.
Difference hears every idea and doesn’t leave any concept/idea unturned. It considers options and makes decisions based on what is best for the direction the organization is headed in.
Difference unifies us in ways diversity can’t.
When we lead difference it takes us to something new. A new direction. A new focus. A new day. A new place.
Difference causes people to listen to each other, producing a different way of thinking and doing.
It focuses on what we can become not what we already are. It is open to change… the right kind of change.
Leaders understand that difference equals life.
Great leaders understand that to accomplish something bigger than ourselves, collaboration must occur. Collaboration embraces difference. Collaboration is what happens when difference is lead
So maybe the question should be…
Are you managing diversity in your origination or are you stepping out and putting forth the effort it takes to embrace and lead difference?
Travis Masson said it best. “Diversity brings people to the table, difference allows them to have a voice. We need to be leaders of difference…” that is the only way things change.
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