“Belonging
can also be thought of as a longing to be” - Peter Block
“The biggest disease today is not
leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of not belonging” - Mother Teresa
Diversity Developments. What’s the
Buzz?
Why,
in this data-overloaded world full of new technologies and techniques, does
knowledge take so long to spread? Literally since the last century (!) I have
been exhorting leaders to harness the richness of diversity and benefit from a
massive impact on organisational performance. Diversity unleashes creativity, increases engagement,
leads to better sense-making, problem solving and decisions.
Emeritus Professor of Organizational
Behavior at INSEAD André Laurent
discovered a fascinating phenomenon. In brief, “the best teams rely on the
difference and uniqueness of their members to create something better than can
be produced by a mono-cultural team”. He was one of the first to show how “differences
can become a source of synergy and competitive advantage when they are
recognised, understood and appreciated”. (Laurent, A. 2019)
Subsequent research has verified his discovery. And we now
see that:
·
workplaces around
the world are becoming more diverse
·
societal tensions
around matters of difference put pressure on organisations to act deftly and
with urgency
·
the jury is in: diversity
holds the potential to impact positively on organisational performance. It should
be seen as an opportunity to be grasped and not as an issue to be ‘managed’
·
many commentators
now speak of developing workplace diversity beyond inclusion, to belonging
·
a large number of
approaches and methods are being advocated (Bookstore shelves creak under the
weight of diversity and inclusion books - many about ‘what’ to do, and far
fewer on ‘how’ to do it)
Leaders
are faced with a decision on the extent to which they wish to “push” internal
diversity, and to what end:
Their choice will determine the ‘intervention’ programme that they opt for. In
considering their options, organisational leaders need to fully understand:
·
what is meant by
the notions of diversity and belonging
·
how they may go
about putting their decided, desired position in place
After
you have considered the following notes on diversity and belonging and thought
about the position you feel is right for your own situation; we offer a menu of
approaches and activities that will help you engage with the thinking, feeling
and doing that may hold merit for your organisation.
Diversity
Diversity
of viewpoints and approaches strengthens decision-making, sustainability and performance.
It is essential to the well-being of our communities, including workplace
communities. “Observing nature, we see that
diversity is essential to balance, wholeness, and resilience. Ecosystems thrive
when a variety of species of plants and animals nourish each other. Diverse
environments are much stronger and less susceptible to pests and disease than
mono-crop fields. The world is a relational system full of complex
inter-dependence among very different creatures. If we want
sustainable
communities, we must always welcome the “other” and learn to see our neighbor
as ourselves. Without it, we do not have community at all, but just egoic enclaves”. (Rohr, R. 2016)
Diversity
comes in many guises. It is not confined to the usual categories that we focus on
the most: ethnicity, religion, age, gender.
The types of diversity are legion. As an example, take one of the lesser
known experiential and behavioural differences between people, captured by
construal level theory. (Hamilton, R.
2015)
In essence, the theory holds
that psychological-distance gaps between people arise from dimensions of the:
·
temporal
distance (past present or future focus)
·
social
distance (connection push or pull)
·
spatial
distance (physical location from face to face, next door, faraway places,
‘boardroom and garden’ situations)
·
experiential
distance (reality, perception, sensation,
imagination, dreams, reverie)
How
people perceive, behave, decide, connect – are functions of these dimensions,
and clashes occur when there is ‘distance’ or difference between them. (Williams,
G with Rosenstein, D. 2016)
Overcoming
these gaps and enabling belonging requires us to become what evolutionary
psychologist Peter Gilbert terms being “prosocial”.
Belonging
People don’t always see eye to eye. Each person’s experiences, exposure to various
influencers, and their conditioning, lead them to their own protective filters,
stereotyping, perceptions, cognitive understanding, prejudices and biases
(conscious and unconscious) and determine how they relate to others –
especially those from different cultures, ethnicities, religions, belief
systems, social classes, genders, sexual preferences, ages, personalities,
education levels, language, lifestyles, thinking styles, physical and mental
abilities, areas of special giftedness, roles... and so on.
“…we every one of us have our peculiar
den, which refracts and corrupts the light of nature, because of the
differences of impressions as they happen in a mind prejudiced or prepossessed”. (Francis
Bacon)
More than we are consciously aware, this
conditioning, socialisation and acculturation steers how we make selections for
jobs and teams, rate performance, make promotion decisions, who we choose to
befriend, how we live our lives. And yet
we can bridge differences for our
greater and mutual benefit. To paraphrase Rumi: Out beyond ideas of religious and other codes,
rules, ideas and belief or disbelief in these practices, there is a field of
unconditional and transcendent compassion and love, where we are fully
connected, are as one. I'll meet you there.
There is no denying the strong basic
human yearning to belong, to find our ‘home’.
On Abraham Maslow’s famous needs hierarchy, being loved and belonging is
followed by finding our self-esteem on the path to self-actualisation.
Belonging is a primary intrinsic motivation. Published in 1845, Hans Christian Andersen’s Ugly Duckling is
referred to by Clarissa Pinkola Estés as “a psychological and spiritual root story ... one that contains a
truth so fundamental to human development that without integration of this
fact, further progression is shaky ...” She
illuminates, “…
when an individual’s particular kind of soulfulness, which is both instinctual
and a spiritual identity, is surrounded by psychic acknowledgement and
acceptance, that person feels life and power as never before. Ascertaining
one’s own psychic family brings a person vitality and belongingness”. (Estés, C. P. 2008)
So
we search in our homes, relationships, churches, synagogues, mosques, sanghas, sorbets,
clubs, schools, communities and institutions, workplaces, even gangs - for safe
places where we feel that we belong, are loved, can live meaningful lives,
experience well-being, find our identity. (Wilson, R.E. Jr. 2018)
At work, we look for:
- the spirit of this workplace
- a sense that people love their work
- recognition, acceptance and being treated as a real, unique
person
- genuine, authentic community
- knowledge that what we do is worthy of the long hours spent
and the commitment made
·
a place where we
can exercise our special areas of giftedness
Some
will use the example of a machine gunner and ammunition-belt-feeder together in
a foxhole, facing a common enemy. They don’t have to be friends to get the job
done. They need to be competent, and appreciate and respect the other’s
competence.
However, wherever
possible, most opt for friendship, the discovery of kindred souls, a space
where members ‘have each other’s backs’, and see each other through - rather
than see through each other. A place where they feel at home. So I prefer Piero
Ferrucci’s story of a man allowed to visit heaven and hell while alive. In hell
people sat at tables where the most marvellous feast was laid out. But they
were miserable, emaciated. Their eating utensils were too long, so they
couldn’t feed themselves. In heaven he found exactly the same situation except
here people were happy and healthy. They fed each other. (Ferrucci, P.2004)
Like
wild geese or carrier pigeons we have a homing instinct. But, a cautionary word: this ‘homing instinct’ can sometimes
lead to a fitting-in bias, which results in a few to behaving in safe,
politically correct and conforming ways – even at the expense of honest
self-expression, suppressing the creative tension of difference, and transparency.
A ‘muzzling’ of their true feelings and opinions (and ability to ‘shine’)
occurs. This causes them and the team to operate well below full potential. (Gino,
F. & Staats, B. 2015). However much desired by organisations, belonging
cannot be forced, and must be authentic. It requires a psychologically safe
environment where people are free to take off their masks, be real and
vulnerable, reach out to and support each other, grow together.
What to implement and How to go about
it?
At the end of
this article is a menu of implementation options covering doing, thinking and
feeling actions a leader can instigate. Hands, head and heart.
This
menu is offered as a basis for your organisation (whatever its size, nature and
maturity level) to embark on some serious conversations, to form views and
ideas away from expert - vendor pressure, to avoid ‘me too-ism’ (as we’ve seen
happen in so many cases of competitive positioning and strategy formation, the
rush to learning organisations, undertaking vision, values, culture, higher
purpose exercises), and to allow the people who do the work and populate the
organisation to authentically craft a place where diversity-inclusion-belonging
is not cynically hijacked for ulterior corporate motive. Rather, basic
yearnings are genuinely catered for. A diverse place characterised by trust,
friendship, fellowship, belonging and love. And members are able to share what has formed
them, troubles them, inspires them.
A primary principle here
is that “a lack of team
psychological safety may inhibit experimenting, admitting mistakes, or
questioning current practices in teams.” (Tofte,
G. 2016, citing Edmondson, A.C. 1999)
The menu is designed to help you implement
your decision on where you wish to be in the diversity stakes, and to inform your people development and supporting
programmes, policies, processes, practices.
In deciding what
actions to trigger, don’t underestimate the power on our lives of what we are
so often unaware of: those unconscious forces pushing, pulling or constraining
us; our built in, hidden impulses and drivers, often undetected. An
illustration:
Dr Gabor Maté, interviewed by Tami Simon of
Sounds True on Tues Mar 21, 2017, told of being in Budapest a day after the
WWII German occupation, when he was 2 months old. His mother called their
paediatrician: "Would you please come see my son? Because he's crying all the time". And
the paediatrician says, "Of course I will come, but I should tell you
(this) all my Jewish babies are crying". And so that anecdote told by my
mother speaks to the very essence of childhood experience, which is to say that
what happens to the parents happens to the child.
Unconscious bias
may stay dormant for a long time. Years ago I was posted to London by my then
employer, having spent my prior career in South Africa. I prided myself on
being liberal, actively anti-apartheid and pretty much ‘together’ as a person.
I felt very much at home in England. Not long after arriving I felt deep
compassion at the plight of homeless people living under bridges, sleeping on
cardboard, begging, angry, resentful, apathetic, cowed by life. I had never felt
such intense compassion before.
After a while I
was able to work out that, back home, all the homeless people I came across there
were black. It took ages to face this unconscious conditioning and bias of mine,
to come to terms with the shame that surfaced, and move forward with a changed
perspective.
End Thoughts about Diversity at its best
When it comes
to demonstrating the power of diversity, South Africa is no shining light. Why
should I have the audacity to write for readers beyond our shores?! Surely there is more to be learned at a place
like Auroville in Southern India. (“Auroville wants to be a universal town where
men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive
harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of
Auroville is to realize human unity” - founder Mirra Alfassa.
https://www.auroville.org/)
Nelson Mandela’s
vision and ideals held much promise for a diverse, non-racial, ‘rainbow nation’
of equals. But 25 years later we are crippled by government corruption,
incompetence, divisiveness, state creep and state capture.
Yet we still have
something we can turn to, the social value of Ubuntu, which if taken up and
applied, has much healing potential.
The Ubuntu concept, experience and
practice of (expressed in Xhosa) umntu ngumntu
ngabanye abantu, recognises that
people are people through other people (deeply interconnected), where the
community-good holds sway, and where personal transformation takes place in a
caring, compassionate, respectful, participative space. All belong.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is on record
as saying, “You might have much of the world’s riches, and you might hold a
portion of authority, but if you have no Ubuntu, you do not amount to much”. Applying
Ubuntu allows people to move beyond their conditioned beliefs and values,
stereotyping and prejudices - to find common ground and their shared humanity.
We can also offer the idea of isivivane.
Isivivane is a Zulu / Nguni word, although the concept
is also found in other African cultures including the Khoikhoi. It is a ‘collective’ sharing of a powerful
higher purpose, the belief that all things and people are interconnected and
bound together. In this ‘collective’
everyone’s role and effort is equally important, equally appreciated. The Zulu
proverb Ukuphosa itshe esivivaneni
means to make a personal contribution to a great and worthy task. Everyone who
walks past an isivivane (pile of
stones, place of importance) puts their stone on the pile that is a collective,
co-operative, and growing monument. (Kokopelli
Partners Limited. 2016). ‘In doing this, every traveler
becomes part of the common purpose and identifies with a certain good cause”. (Lessem, R. & Nussbaum, B. 1996)
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging are three distinctly
different concepts that deserve to come together. In a diverse workplace (where
there are lots of differences), employees who feel included (recognised for
their unique (sometimes potential) contribution and thus appreciated) get
engaged and help boost performance, and if this can lead to a culture of real
belonging (where people feel at home, see each other through) then something
magical happens. To sum up, a lovely Shona proverb recounted by Lovemore
Mbigi and Jenny Maree: chra chimive hachitswane inda : A thumb working on its own is
worthless. It has to work collectively with the other fingers to get strength
and be able to achieve. (Mbigi, L. & Maree, J. 1995)
The menu we
have presented here is intended to be indicative and illustrative rather than
comprehensive.
The boundaries between the hands, head and
heart activities listed above are blurred and should not be seen to be fixed.
On the other hand, it is possible to be trapped into one particular category –
for example a tendency to place emphasis on ‘head’ activities (people
analytics, neuroscience and behavioural economics) to the exclusion of hands
and heart needs.
*In the Jewish tradition, there is the idea of
Midrash. Midrash involves fleshing out a story we only have the barest details
for – the bones of the story. Re-telling a story, filling in the gaps in order
to expand, putting oneself into another character and supplying details that
are not recorded. This allows for different interpretations of meaning and personal
revelations and insights. Often a different picture brings deeper understanding
*** Blend bees and butterflies. To imbed
and connect projects to the rest of the organisation, ensure that projects are
not ‘secret’ and hidden, are widely owned. Project team members are bees -
devoted to the hive of activity happening within the project. Wherever
possible, they actively encourage visits by, progress sharing with and process
inputs from affected internal departments, external stakeholders and HR and IT
(to the extent that these functions are not sufficiently embodied in the
project membership) - butterflies. This is an open, accepting, inclusive
technique. (Williams, G. 2019)
REFERENCES
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (2009)
The danger of a single story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
Audia, Pino (2012) G. Train Your People to Take Others’
Perspectives. http://hbr.org/2012/11/train-your-people-to-take-others-perspectives/ar/1?referral=00056&cm_mmc=hbd-_-
syndication-_-HBSExecEd-_-2010&spMailingID=4481538&spUserID=MjQxOTA0NzY
3OTMS1&spJobID=132714011&spReportId=MTMyNzE0MDExS0
Block, Peter (2018) Community: the structure of belonging Abundant Community, July 16, 2018
Edmondson,
A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. Retrieved from https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/53613/Team-psychological-safety-as-a-moderator-in-the-relationship-between-team-leadership-and-team-learning-in-management-teams.pdf
Estés, Clarissa Pinkola
(2008) Woman
Who Run with the Wolves: contacting the power of the wild woman Rider
Ferrucci,
Piero (2004) What we may be: techniques
for psychological and spiritual growth through psychosynthesis Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Penguin, New York
Gino,
Francesca Prof (Harvard Business School) and Staats, Bradley, Assoc
Prof
(Kenan-Flager Business School) (2015) Why Organisations Don’t Learn Harvard
Business Review November, 2015
Hamilton, Rebecca (2015) Bridging Psychological distance March 2015 HBR
Kethledge, Raymond M & Erwin,
Michael S. (2017) Lead Yourself First: Inspiring
Leadership Through Solitude Bloomsbury, 2017
Kokopelli
Partners Limited - Advised by Eugenie Banhegyi, Steve Banhegyi, Jim Heaney
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unturned
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R & Nussbaum, B (1996) Sawubona Africa: Embracing four worlds in South African
management Zebra Press
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Diversity in Community Centre for Action &
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relationship between team leadership and team learning in management teams.
Master Thesis: Work and Organizational Psychology Department of Psychology,
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teams)
Williams, Graham (2019) How to Use Project Teams to Foster a Benevolent Leadership Culture
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Psychology
Today Jul 16, 2018
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-main-ingredient/201807/longing-belonging
