166 50 TOPEXECUTIVECOACHES
and similarities can be with respect to race, educational background, work
experience, age, tenure with organization, gender, sexual orientation, and /or
geographic origin—just to name a few possibilities. Diversity, in other
words, can occur along an infinite number of dimensions along which people
can be different or similar.
There also can be differences and similarities among other workplace mix-
tures; such as, acquisitions/mergers/joint ventures, customers, brands, lines of
business, functions, suppliers, headquarters/field, and strategic alternatives.
Strategic Diversity Management™, then, becomes the process of making
quality decisions about any collective mixtures with strategic implications for
the organization. Stated differently, Strategic Diversity Management™ is the
process of making quality decisions in the midst of differences, similarities,
and tensions. I am convinced that if you have diversity of any kind, you will
have related diversity tension. The objective of Diversity Management is not
to reduce or eliminate the tension, but rather to develop a capability for mak-
ing quality decisions in spite of tension. In the context of how I define diver-
sity, the acquisition of a Strategic Diversity Management™ capability usually
requires a mind-set shift.
Typically, when I am brought into an organization, I initially meet with a
group of senior executives, frequently the CEO and his or her direct reports,
who are grappling with the organizational implications of what they consider
to be a diversity issue. After I clarify my views on diversity in an executive
briefing, I lead the senior team through an exploration of the Strategic Di-
versity Management Process™ and its key concepts and how this framework
can benefit their organization. Typically, this exercise takes place in what I
refer to as a Strategic Thinking Session. Once an executive team gets the
mind-set shift, this new perspective allows those leaders to view the concept
of diversity in terms of their overall mission, vision, and strategy.
If organizational leaders have been thinking of diversity in the context of
race or gender, the mind-set shift empowers them to broaden their contem-
plation of diversity management to other mixtures that may also have strate-
gic significance. An organization may, for example, have a diversity issue
with two functions that are strategically critical. It may need better integra-
tion between two divisions. It may have a problem between corporate and
field, with each segment focusing on its parochial agendas, despite continual
alignment efforts. Or a corporation’s growth-through-acquisitions strategy
may suffer because of an inability to cope with cultural diversity. Failure to
excel in Strategic Diversity Management™—the making of quality decisions
in the midst of similarities, differences and tensions—can greatly hinder a
company’s effectiveness in many arenas.