The Emerging Diversity Paradigm

It is my observation that we, in corporate life, seem to be a little surprised by the outcome of chasing diversity. It seems to be an unexpected consequence that people will behave differently in a more diverse environment. We cannot expect to effectively emancipate generations and see no behaviour change in corporate life. Changes and experiences at the very heart of society are driving generations to behave differently and corporate culture is no longer able to impose its way of thinking and behaving on individuals. There is a kind of freedom of thought and expression embedded in younger generations because they are now allowed to simply be whomever they want to be. There are three areas we need to understand and work around in our thinking and behaviour.

1. Intergenerational divergence. The four generations in the workplace today are miles apart in their life experiences, expectations and the way they operate on a day to day basis. The world I went to work in as an 18 year old some 40 years ago could not be any more different than the one an 18 year old enters today. Its the pace of the changes that cause challenges as we try to assimilate huge societal change within one generation. The last time we experienced anywhere near this level of change was the Industrial Revolution which arguably took 4-6 generations to evolve and assimilate. Workplaces adjusted slowly to the radical changes.

2. Behavioural diversity. Technology has driven diverging behavioural paths for individuals particularly through social media. The way we consume and utilise information has drastically changed in a relatively short period of time. Minority causes become mainstream alarmingly quickly. The way data is used has changed. No longer is there a single trusted version of the truth but rather data is manipulated to prove and back a point or cause. Search glass of wine a day for fun and you will see that the data says it will save your life or kill you!

3. Business model divergence. No longer is profit the sole driver of value. Unicorns are built on customer numbers and distant future growth plans not on current day and next years performance. Investors back a range of business models and the playing field is no longer level. Your closest competitor may be funded to make losses to win or be subject to a short term privately backed growth plan with no view on the long term. Internal investment profiles differ massively, largely based on when your company first adopted technology, causing further bumps.

We as leaders need to understand this diversity and divergence not from any political or judgment stance but simply as a guide to our new leadership challenge. As leaders, we need to take people with very different experiences and views on life and turn them into a team to drive common, shared and beneficial corporate outcomes. Our historical leadership models have been built on the imposing of and adherence to a corporate culture to coalesce largely non-diverse populations into teams. These are simply no longer relevant, yet we have no data on which to build new models. We, therefore, must understand the diverse and diverging nature of the people we need to form into high-performing teams and bring appropriate leadership qualities to bear.

Painting the zebra crossing or crosswalk in rainbow colours is not going to achieve this. Each and every leader needs to adjust how they bring themselves to work and the habitat they create to drive value from this increasingly diverse and diverging melting pot.

For more hints and tips on how to be a better leader, more efficient and take advantage of our new paradigm - read the book - How to be the Grit in The Oyster