KJCG

Diversity training is so 20^th century. We hear that from organizations on a regular basis. They have conducted the training; they have held “diversity and inclusion” programs. And although they understand that diverse perspectives are critical for business success, they often have no idea how to create the interactions that will enable people to bring their differences—differences of perspective, background, and experience—to solve problems more rapidly, create innovation, and achieve higher performance.

The problem is that diversity training can only get you so far.

The diversity training of the 1990s was an essential first step for most organizations. It opened individuals’ eyes to the ever-growing diversity of the world around them—and the need to embrace and leverage that diversity if they were to thrive in the next century. It sparked many efforts to develop workforces that spanned differences of gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, background, nationality, age, and experience.

As a result, many of today’s organizations have a more diverse workforce, but no effective way to leverage it. The key to that leverage is to shift our mindset about diversity and inclusion to the how—the how of unleashing the creativity of the whole workforce.

This is where Inclusion as the HOW^SM comes in.

As a mindset for addressing today’s marketplace, Inclusion as the HOW^SM considers how people connect and interact with one another. By utilizing inclusive behaviors—forming new partnerships of people who hold a range of perspectives, urging them to speak up and be bold, honoring each person’s background as a contributor to organizational capability—Inclusion as the HOW^SM fosters a safe environment in which to fully leverage the ideas and experiences of all people in the organization. This, in turn, creates a wide bandwidth for problem solving and innovation. For any given issue, it brings together the greatest number of the “right” people (i.e., the people affected by the issue) doing the right work at the right time, to solve problems more rapidly and accelerate results.

Inclusion as the HOW^SM builds trust, and that trust is essential to speed. All too often, co-workers do not share information at all, or share only bits and pieces, due to mistrust. As people come together through Inclusion as the HOW^SM, they discover how knowledge from one unit might help other units achieve their objectives. They see the potential that collaboration has for the whole organization. Motivated by such benefits, they begin to align with the new way of interacting. Cohesion grows across the organization, and that enables the flow of information and knowledge transfer that empowers the who1le organization to move more nimbly.

Diversity and inclusion has come a long way from the 1990s, when it was seen as a program peripheral to core business objectives. Now it ranks among the most important drivers of organizational performance. Inclusion as the HOW^SM is the bridge from the old mindset to the new way of doing things, and one of the new means that organizations must adopt in order to succeed today.

We talk a lot about interaction at KJCG. I have my own spin on the idea. When I say interaction, I do not mean email, I do not mean texting, I do not mean Facebook. I mean the “old-fashioned” kind of interaction: face to face, complete with eye contact, listening, and a healthy amount of give and take. So when human interaction kept coming up at the recent 99% Conference, I perked up and paid attention.

The conference gets its name from Thomas Edison’s quote that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Everything in this conference focuses on the 99%: executing plans, making ideas happen, turning visions into reality. This year the speaker lineup included people like the director of Google Ideas, GE’s chief marketing officer, authors, trendsetters, even filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman.

Through it all, I kept hearing about our common humanity, and how it can move us forward. Here’s what I heard and what I thought:

Simon Sinek, the author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, talked about developing trust and creating a spirit of generosity within people, so they see that their work is about everyone moving forward, not just themselves. Our very survival requires this trust, he said—and face-to-face interaction is very important to building it.

Developing generosity is a radical idea…and a challenge. It’s not easy to do good for people without expecting anything in return. Sometimes I catch myself thinking, “I helped you out last week, so can you help me now?” So the challenge of generosity is my challenge too.

Scott Belsky, the founder and CEO of Behance (which sponsors the conference), mentioned a similar line of thought during his three-hour master class on “Making Ideas Happen.” Great ideas, he said, have a way of plateauing somewhere in the middle of implementation. Energy sags; the task begins to look intimidating. How do you move off that plateau to bring the idea to fruition? It came back to the face to face, to being intentional in one’s communication.

I know this one firsthand. Because of today’s time pressures, I am always tempted to sacrifice clarity for speed. So I throw a few words into an email, send it off, and find later that I didn’t communicate my point at all. The email may have seemed faster, but it ended up adding waste to the process—and not moving anything forward.

Then there was Jared Cohen, the director of Google Ideas, who is taking face-to-face interaction to a level I never imagined. Jared was curious about why young people in the Middle East joined al-Qaeda—so he traveled there and spent time talking with them. At the end of June, he is convening a meeting of former terrorists and gang leaders to learn how we can discourage people from becoming future terrorists and gang leaders. Talk about face to face.

I want to follow the lead of these speakers. More than that, I’ve already started: developing new ideas and ways to execute them, rekindling my long-cherished desire to travel, fostering my ability to give without thought of return. While inspiring me to do all this, the conference has also reminded me of the single best way to make good things happen: face to face.

The world after the 2008 financial meltdown has presented a conundrum for leaders.  How do you invest energy in people, or include them in organizational decisions, when they might not be there tomorrow?  Is that a waste of time? How do you ask them to invest in moving the organization forward when they know they might never be part of that growth?

We can start by using the very principles of Inclusion as the HOW^SM that we leverage for organizational performance—particularly the 12 Inclusive Behaviors—to face the uncertainties and, together, move forward into them. Leaders can start this effort by leaning into their own discomfort. They can neither predict the future nor guarantee people that they will have jobs for life; that naturally produces anxiety. So leaders can lead more effectively by being transparent around this reality: dealing with it, facing it, owning it, and discussing it, among themselves and with the people of the organization—especially the people who may feel the greatest impact of whatever looms on the horizon.

Leaders must also create a safe space for two-way conversations with people about the volatility of the situation. This allows all people to see that they are not alone in their fears, that others throughout the organization share the same concerns, that the leaders care about them and what happens to them. (When that caring is truly present, it makes a big difference, but it must be authentic. If there is little or no caring, it should not be forced or stated.) At the same time, these conversations make it clear that everyone needs to continue doing their best work. This is not easy, but people need to avoid letting fear block them from taking risks, speaking up, and helping the organization reach higher levels of performance even in the face of this change.

Used in these ways, the 12 Inclusive Behaviors can foster the kinds of interaction that allow information to flow and trust to remain—even possibly to blossom. That trust is absolutely essential, not only for the general well-being of people in the organization, but also for their continued performance and contributions at a high level.

Can you see the cycle here? Inclusive behaviors help leaders build trust and cohesion in transitional times. That, in turn, creates a “safe enough” environment in which people can continue to leverage Inclusion as the HOW^SM as an accelerator of organizational performance, whatever the uncertainties of their personal situation.

You cannot guarantee job security. You can make sure everyone is valued and heard, even in uncertain times. If you do, a painful and uncertain process can have positive, growth-oriented outcomes for all concerned.        

In a former life, as part of my writing business, I would occasionally submit work to a client and hear nothing for days, even weeks. On one occasion, I called my contact and asked about the status. “Oh, everything’s fine,” he replied. “When you don’t hear from us, assume that the project’s done.”

Once I knew that, I was comfortable with the relationship. But what if I had never asked? The silence would have left me with gnawing questions. Were they delighted with the work, or was it merely “good enough”? Could I count on them for future business? Were there flaws in my writing—flaws I would never see without their input—that prevented me from developing in my ability to deliver to their needs?

The questions would have nibbled at me, sapping my energy, until I couldn’t do my best work.

I thought of this episode while reading Judith and Fred’s Be BIG: Step Up, Step Out, Be Bold. One line in particular jumped out at me: “You don’t have to Be BIG alone.”

That comes as a welcome relief—and a challenge.

Stepping up with no input, day after day after day, is trying to Be BIG alone. And it is fraught with peril. Not only is it an emotionally vulnerable position—an unsafe place—but you never know whether your work has value, aligns with your organization’s mission, or even crosses a line that should never be crossed. Like me with my client, no one can do their best work with these questions on their mind.

For us to Be BIG, then, we must be able to trust that the input will come. If we know that people will speak up in response to what we do—alerting us when we veer off course, giving us guidance to increase the value of our work, linking our output to organizational goals—we can pursue our best work with confidence and energy. Even if the input consists of silence, as with my client, we can accept it and move forward once we understand the nature of that silence.

That’s the welcome relief. Here’s the challenge: Being BIG also calls us to express our need for input. Just as I couldn’t read the mind of my client to get his reaction to the work, he also couldn’t read my mind to know that I needed input.  To paraphrase Be BIG, “If I want to Be BIG…I will tell you what I need.” By asking my client the question, I discovered the meaning of his silence and therefore could move forward free of concern for the future of the relationship.

Part of a strong working partnership is the ability to ask for and receive input. The more we can ask—the more we can trust that the input will be there when we need it, in whatever form—the more we can shake off the limits to showing up fully and doing our best work.

I was recently at the 99% Conference in New York City, held by Behance, a company that grows creative people. (I almost expect to walk into their office and see little plants or incubators with people planted in them, getting watered and lit by the sun, stretching out and walking out into the conference room.)  When I went to Behance’s home office more than a year ago, I was, for the first time, aware that there are other people in the world like me.  People who work differently, who think in odd—often wildly chaotic—patterns, people who have a difficult time assimilating to regular work environments. 

I had often felt that as a creative—a writer and an artist—I would never really succeed in the real work world.  Sitting at a desk from 9 to 5, quietly working away, attending meetings, making appointments, taking calls, etc.: it was (and still can be sometimes) like having my right hand tied behind my back and being expected to not only perform, but perform at a high level. 

There isn’t a school that teaches creatives how to seek out opportunities that promote growth and development in their specific skill sets. There isn’t a guide to organizations that give members the latitude to ground themselves for doing their best work in the way they can.  I am fortunate to already be in an organization that leads with possibility—and opportunity. In fact, that organization is the reason I landed at the 99% Conference. 

One of the many challenges facing creatives in work environments is how to use their skills in a way that is successful for both themselves and the organization.  It is one thing to be a creative and another to be a successful creative member of a team.  The obstacle I have faced (and was happy to hear at this conference that others have faced as well) is hitting a brick wall while trying to meet the needs of my teammates and function at my highest level.  It’s difficult to do both—an enormous amount of energy is expended trying to assimilate, complete tasks, and problem-solve in a shared accountability environment where you need to work with other members and their style of working.  More often than not, the expenditure of that energy is depleting your creative center—not allowing your best work to come forward.  Having the space to find and foster ways of successfully doing both requires a commitment from both you and your team. 

Honoring your end of the commitment will mean compromise, which can be equally difficult.  You can be a great artist, a great writer, a phenomenal idea person, but just “being” those things isn’t enough.  We are living in a time of enormous change—technology is coming and changing by the second—”creatives” are taking over! And the competition for the “next greatest thing” is coming from a creative near you. 

In order to make an impact, to be the change you want to see, you need to get organized. Organized in whatever way you can—and if you can’t by yourself, find someone who can organize you.  Creativity alone can leave you as the tortured artist. Creativity + organization will yield impact and success.

When the business environment becomes uncertain, many organizations tend to pull in, focusing only on the “essentials.” Today’s environment redefines uncertainty. Can change leaders still make a case for Inclusion as the HOW^SM as a business essential in these times of dramatic uncertainty and change?

The answer is emphatically yes—and the reason lies, ironically, in the uncertainty itself.

As recently as 30 years ago, the marketplace changed little from year to year, and organizations could get by on the knowledge of a few senior leaders or subject matter experts. Today, with the advent of the Internet, the breathtaking pace of technological breakthroughs, the speed and complexity of the global marketplace, and other seismic changes, market realities can change significantly from month to month. That leaves organizations with a myriad of unknowns and unknowables.

However, unknowns are not always unknown to everyone. Sales professionals or call center members, for instance, might have critical market knowledge that senior leaders do not have. Input from front line team members, people in the research and development function, or others might help the organization resolve otherwise unresolvable challenges.

The knowledge to face the uncertainty is often already in the organization and/or with customers. The challenge is to access it.

That is where Inclusion as the HOW^SM comes in. Including the right people, with the right information, at the right time can help a create 360-degree vision of a situation in key discussions on each issue. By ensuring that people are heard and valued for their contribution, Inclusion as the HOW^SM dramatically enhances trust and collaboration across the organization. Trust and collaboration increase speed of knowledge transfer and application. The contribution of more perspectives provides that 360-degree view on the issue—and thus the ability to address it more effectively and more quickly. 

As people interact this way across the organization, some of the unknowns become more known. The unknowables become more knowable. Problems get raised and solved more quickly. Inclusion as the HOW^SM helps the organization and its people navigate through uncertainty by tapping into a wider range of perspectives.

Speed isn’t everything.

It seems incongruous to hear that statement in this century. It is incongruous coming from us: we work anytime, all the time, whenever we are needed, at warp speed. Conditions can change at the drop of a hat, and we have learned to change with them. An immediate need comes out of nowhere, and we have learned to respond immediately.

The problem comes when warp speed is our only speed.

That happens everywhere in the industrialized world today, largely because expectations grow as the technology grows. Being able to do things faster—via mobile wireless, social media, e-mail, and so on—requires us to do things faster. Clients, suppliers, colleagues, co-workers, all expect the speed of the latest device. It will not be long before someone asks, “What do you mean you don’t have a 4G phone? How can you not?”

Our always-on lifestyle compounds the issue. Because we can connect anytime, anywhere, we are expected to be available anytime, anywhere—in the service of moving as quickly as the marketplace.

But always-fast, always-on comes at a cost. Some things only happen at a slower pace: the reflection required for making complex decisions, the open-ended discussions from which new ideas come, the hard work of resolving conflict. Many strategic blunders from the past 10 years have come from people not taking the time to connect, exchange ideas, or think through the ramifications of their next decision. On the other hand, taking the time often empowers us to speed up again with a clearer purpose and a better goal.

Many of us here are learning to “slow down to speed up.” Whether alone, in one-on-one meetings, as a department, or as a firm, we take a deep breath and listen to what is going on around us: the accomplishments, the setbacks, and the flurry of activity that make us who we are. In other words, we sit back and “see what is there.” As part of that process, we connect more thoroughly than we can with a passing hallway conversation or quick IM.                                     

And something extraordinary happens. Solutions arise to the problems that seemed unsolvable. New ideas emerge to move our clients forward. Each of us understands what the other means. When the pace picks up again, we have more to bring to the table, more avenues for growth, stronger connections to a more cohesive team.

This “slowing down to speed up” can happen anywhere. It might take place organically, as on a long trip with the cell phone off. It might require setting aside regular office hours for meeting, connecting, and checking in. The key is not so much the format, but what it facilitates: the chance to pause and take stock.

Speed is the world’s new pace, and we do need to keep up. But as people, we work best when we change speeds. Try slowing down to speed up and see the difference.

Whenever my son’s ADD/ADHD comes up, I think of the classic hunter image: light of foot, highly alert, twitchy with energy, ready to jump at a moment’s notice.

So I can understand how Thom Hartmann, the radio commentator and lay scholar, developed his “hunters and farmers” hypothesis to explain the presence of ADD/ADHD in the human gene pool. He suggests that the genetic code for ADD/ADHD was a matter of survival in prehistoric times: our hunter ancestors absolutely required the alertness and “hyperfocus” characteristic of ADD/ADHD. People with ADD/ADHD are more like hunters. In contrast, farmers—well, the type of people they represent—are what our postmodern society often labels as “normal.” They deliberate, plan, decide, move carefully and intentionally and often linearly through life.

We need farmers. We also need hunters. Both do great work. But our society doesn’t value hunters nearly as much as it does farmers. Why not?

I see this up close in our educational system. It was built by farmers for farmers: people who learn methodically, by traditional methods. My son, on the other hand, learns best when in motion or expending physical energy to clear his mind. Yet he is required to spend all day sitting at a desk.  No wonder his teachers tell me things like “he would be a lot more productive if we could get him to stop moving all the time.”

But they’re wrong. In truth, they are most productive when my son is sitting in his seat. He is not.

In short, my son’s way of processing information has no outlet in today’s educational system. In the last few decades, his difference has been labeled a disorder, and pharmaceuticals promoted to treat it, so children can be “made normal” and “behave in school.” He is not misbehaving; he is simply learning in the way his brain learns best.

Many commentators have noticed that our school systems are failing in nearly every way. This is one more way. We need a new approach—and it has everything to do with the way we approach differences in general.

As it turns out, those of us with ADD/ADHD move through the world in a way that society would find useful. We can generate bright ideas fast and in great quantities. We can get more out of each minute than many other people. We contribute tremendous amounts of energy to every project we touch. We are often quick-witted, curious, comfortable with complexity, and ready to jump in where others may falter. The world desperately needs these traits.

This, in a nutshell, is why our organizations must actively encourage people to bring their differences to work. If all of us were hunters, we would miss out on the productivity and results that the careful planning and preparation of farmers can bring. As it is, our society, which favors farmers, often does miss out on all the ideas and the energy of us hunters. Only by leveraging both perspectives can organizations become even more than the sum of their parts.

Or, to put it more accurately, all perspectives. The distinction between hunters and farmers is not an either-or but rather a continuous spectrum, with people exhibiting many different combinations of hunter and farmer traits within themselves. This argues for bringing as many of these combinations to work as possible. So it is with any set of differences: the more of them we bring to the table, the more perspectives we have, and the better we can co-create the future that is within our reach.

Let’s learn to listen to all perspectives—whether you see them coming from a distance across the well-plowed field, or they jump out at you from behind the next tree.

Selected Traits of Hunters and Farmers

*Hunter traits are adapted from the works of Thom Hartmann, particularly Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception (Grass Valley, Calif.: Underwood Press, 1993) and The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child (Rochester, Vt.: Park Street Press, 2003).