by Carmen Carter, Diversity Optimization, Corpus Optima

Out With the Old

In the recent past diversity has been targeted at increasing the representation of “different”  people in organizations.  Organizations have responded to the business case for diversity by independently modifying systems, processes, hiring practices, outreach efforts, and talent acquisition strategies. Training interventions focusing on the pervading cultural characteristics are continuously offered to help individuals work together more effectively.  Yet, many training programs have generally been met with modestly sustained results, and have derailed many well-intended workforce diversity initiatives.

The compelling case for diversity is not entirely based on “best practices” as defined by anecdotal information or statistics as the research tends to suggest; but one predicated on a value proposition which encompasses strategic business objectives, human resources infrastructure, the holistic needs of the individual, and the nature of the environment where the work is performed.

In with the New – Learning from Nature

Advances in diversity thinking and thought leadership warrant a view where the focus is on systemic wholeness and interdependence of parts, rather than independent analysis and separation of components. This is integral to inclusion, and necessary to achieve optimization and Superperformance.

In the throes of environmental turbulence, diversity allows us to change and morph into new entities, ones better suited for the new environment. This is the natural process of diversity.  Nature uses differences in a variety of ingenious ways, most obviously in producing creative responses to environmental change.  Differences, not similarities, produce resilience—both in nature and in organizations.

A broader, more robust definition of diversity is congruent with new discoveries and learning in the natural sciences.  Based on lessons from biology and new science, it suggests there are important implications and actions for individuals and organizations to take in order to appreciate and effectively use diversity as a key strength.

How does nature respond to change?  The answer is “it diversifies.”  It tries something different.  The role of evolution, the need for openness to change and the power of resilience are important dimensions.

Diversity Optimization

By understanding that an organization is also a living organism, we can see diversity as a natural strength.  In order to do this, we must understand human behavior from a natural perspective.  Our biological blind spot for working with differences necessitates methods and tools for individuals and organizations to uncover unconscious biases and challenge assumptions. This breakthrough, based on the biodiversity found in natural ecosystems, presents a new vision and hope for the optimization of all people in all organizations.  Along with a solid commitment to the traditional business fundamentals of diversity, it also includes an understanding of diversity as a natural process by which organizations thrive, drawing on the lessons of biology and complexity science.

Diversity + Unity = Optimization

Furthering the use of the Corpus Optima polar-complementarity framework as the basis for by understanding and resolving diversity issues means understanding that both diversity and unity create diversity optimization. This requires new education around a new paradigm – uncovering stereotypes, unconscious bias, increasing self-awareness, building shared values, and understanding attribution are all critical dimensions.

Philosophical Principles of Diversity Optimization

1. Servant Leadership, vision, clearly defined processes, organizational alignment, and tools for front-line management are essential to achieve diversity optimization.
2. Creating the value proposition for diversity will deliver real business results that can be measured in addition to enhancing the company employment brand.
3. Setting aspirations for the company and measuring performance against those aspirations will be essential to ensure accountability.
4. Synchronizing talent and building a diverse leadership pipeline will be the first place to focus to improve the recruitment and retention of high performing, diverse talent.
5. Phasing implementation will be more effective given the need to educate, modify HR infrastructure, and ensure the first initiatives create positive momentum.
6. Diversity & inclusion is a mainstream business plan agenda item; most companies already have some type of diversity initiatives in place.  Integrating diversity and into the daily operations of the business will be essential for performance improvement and success.
7. Diversity is not all about race and gender.  If optimized, it stimulates creativity and helps people from all backgrounds leverage talents to become better managers of process, and leaders of people.
8. Diversity increases employee comfort:  if we can share our thoughts, feelings, and rationales openly and honestly, we will foster an environment of inclusion, and value working with colleagues who are different from us.  We will also learn that most people have more in common than they realize.
9. Optimizing diversity will be a multi-year process requiring consistent focus and attention.
10. Taking diversity to the next level requires a paradigm shift in our attitudes and fundamental ways of thinking. Simply, we must engage intellectually, and replicate less from best practices, and more from biodiversity and nature!

Biodiversity is Diversity Optimization

The goal of diversity is to bridge the gap among all stakeholders and optimize the knowledge, skills, and abilities of everyone to achieve business results.  It’s clear that diversity is good for business.  Organizations cannot afford to leave anyone out—and if the ultimate goal of diversity is inclusion, why would they?   Optimization occurs in organizations that create inclusive cultures where all talent can be maximized.  Nature and the biodiversity of optimization is the diversity of Superperformance. The power of diversity is enormous! This is breakthrough thinking, and an important new lesson to learn.

Servant leadership works because it liberates intrinsic motivation. Because even though the people are the same . ..they have taken on a new state . . .before they were water, now they are ice.

Lead people, Manage process. Superperformance Proverb

The organization is an organism. Peter Senge

A Great Wind is Blowing

Knowledge and human capital are making a dramatic debut here at the onset of the new decade. Together they signal a critical shift in organizational life to something new and different, especially when it comes to dealing with people. The best of a company’s knowledge and human capital walks out the door everyday at 5:00PM. These two forms of capital are intangible; they have not been a part of the traditional balance sheet. Capturing and increasing the value of these capital assets requires a new set of skills. As many have noted, in the Internet age “knowledge workers” have the leverage. And they carry their means of production with them wherever they go.

The result is that management as a professional discipline is on the verge on a major transformation. While management’s famous guru Peter Drucker insisted that management is the organization’s single most important “organ,” he also declared it is not possible to do it to people. Rather, he stated, “the task is to lead.” Lloyd Provost and his Quality colleagues at API propose that it is only processes that can be managed, and only then through the purposeful application of continual testing and learning, aided by the use of statistical control methods. Esther Dyson drew from the new science of complexity, in particular complex adaptive systems or “CAS” to characterize this impending transformation through a different lens. From this view the new management acts in a distributed way, akin to an “immunity,” a capacity that everyone can and should participate in and practice.

Superperforming management and leadership co-joins improvement and complexity science to create a new approach that leverages both process and culture together. This incredible new “biophysics of optimization” signals a fundamental shift away from a mechanistic view and toward a view of organizations as living organisms.

Only a view of organizations as organic systems can accommodate the discovery of complementarity that is the source of Superperformance. Only a life science can explain it. Organisms and ecosystems evolve, self-organize, and emerge, machines do not. Superperforming Management and Leadership is about the productivity of knowledge, especially as it pertains to increasing customer value and driving unprecedented performance levels. Productivity of knowledge is driven by the inspiration and motivation of people. And people are inspired and motivated by the opportunity to contribute, the chance for personal growth and challenging work, relationships, real involvement in a shared vision, servant leadership, and much, much more.

Unless organizations can encourage intrinsic motivation and affirm these needs, they will not realize their full potential, and the promise of knowledge productivity will elude them. Human and knowledge capital are interdependent, they reinforce and amplify each other.

Nature shows us that as with any major evolutionary change, some learn and develop new capabilities while others resist and eventually die out. Some will achieve the high peaks of the new “fitness landscape” while others will sink into a deep valley where the old industrial age command-and-control methods simply do not work anymore.

The Revolution is here.

(From Creating and Sustaining Superperformance by Barbara Brown, Examiner.com)

The Role of the CEO

In the perfect complement to his groundbreaking first book, Superperformance, Dave Guerra examines the world’s most successful CEOs, unveiling a priceless set of 15 unconventional distinctions in an unmistakable portrait of servant leadership in action.

Release Date: Fall 2009

Find It Online At: www.amazon.com

Learn More about Servant Leadership and Superperformance at the 19th Annual International Servant Leadership