Use Flash text? Yes | No

July/August 2010

Strategies

Curing Diversity Ills

R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., 05-09-2010

In early 2010, I found myself using the services of a major health care system. I am pleased to report that the institution provided excellent services and that, as of this writing, my recovery is progressing well.

As I moved through this system, I came face to face with diversity in swift, critical action, where poor performance would mean a decline in patient well-being. I left the experience with some thoughts about diversity affirmed and also with pride in how diversity management has contributed to the success of this organization.

I believe all diversity activities can be viewed through four core diversity strategies, and this was clearly true in the system in question.

Manage demographic representation. Throughout the organization, efforts to foster balanced career opportunities along the traditional demographic lines of race, gender and ethnicity were evident, as were efforts to recruit, hire and retain different individuals.
Manage demographic relationships. From the moment a receptionist warmly greeted my wife and me and testified voluntarily about how the institution had served her family well to subtle but real indications of a desire to treat and see all patients and associates equally, the aspirations for quality relationships were apparent.
Manage diverse talent. Although I did not see overt evidence of diversity efforts to enhance the engagement of professionals across all lines of diversity, I was impressed by how diverse — in many ways — teams of professionals engaged themselves in the well-being of patients. It is possible the hospital was working on this behind the scenes, but I doubt it. The hospital’s relatively embryonic program focused on representation and relationships within the context of race, gender and ethnicity. For example, my eavesdropping on one hospital associate’s ranting about respect did not reveal any hints of awareness about diversity or organizational differences and similarities. His focus highlighted challenging individual issues.
Manage all strategic diversity mixtures. Without a doubt, I saw opportunities to apply this core strategy among professionals; organizational units; acquisitions, mergers and strategic partnerships; and most importantly from my perspective, with respect to decision making.

As I listened from behind the scenes to dialogues about my personal treatments and experienced an unsettling delay in decision making, I said to my wife, “They’re struggling with the thought diversity associated with their training and perspectives.” I saw similar instances of failure to manage thought diversity as I remained in the medical center. Indeed, although I continued to look for evidence revealing a focus on managing thought diversity, I found none.

Indeed, the system’s exclusive focuses on race, gender representation and relationships ignored the potential for improved effectiveness and efficiency that an expanded focus would offer.

My observations about diversity in this particular system lead to three recommendations to implement change.

First, seek clarity about the four diversity core strategies and their definitions and requirements for success before initiating the change process. Without this lucidness and specificity, it is easy to ignore significant goals and objectives or to remain fuzzy about exactly what is desired.

Second, work diligently to change your culture as needed. As impressed as I was with the diversity efforts of the associates in this health care system, I sensed that many were straining against the culture and that the enterprise’s culture had not been changed to support diversity work.

Third, develop measurements for each of the four core diversity strategies you pursue. This will assist in aligning your diversity work with your desired end state and will foster accurate assessments of the progress you are making. In the absence of specific feedback measurements, large systems can lack clarity not only about how much progress they are making, but also about what they are seeking to achieve.

These three recommendations should promote clarity about what is being pursued, where you hope to end up and how much progress is being realized. While all of this is basic, I frequently find that practical, results-driven CDOs lack these directional fundamentals. «

Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. is CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training, founder of the American Institute for Managing Diversity and author of six books, including Redefining Diversity. He can be reached at editor@diversity-executive.com.