Fast Company: Without diversity, you’re playing checkers when everyone else is playing chess.
SUPER ARTICLE WRITTEN BY ANGELA HOOD HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED BY FAST COMPANY.
“Slow to embrace diversity in the workplace? It’s probably affecting business. If you’re unwilling to embrace diversity for diversity’s sake, do it because it’s better business.”
Angela makes important points about diversity and inclusion.
Today’s global market is more dynamic than ever before. The digital revolution has made it possible for businesses of all sizes to expand their reach beyond the domestic market and tap into an international audience.
That means no matter what your company, you can now have a global customer base.
And your workforce is the greatest asset to have in carving out a competitive edge. A diverse employee base brings more knowledge, perspectives, and experience to the company, which makes it appealing to a wider global audience. To me, diversity is about asking questions, not making assumptions. It’s also about being open to learning what a person is about, rather than judging them based on their ability to put together a résumé (unless their job is to write résumés, of course). I have met “old” millennials and “young souls” inside people who are in their 80s.
In other words, what you see isn’t always what you get. I have benefitted in extraordinary ways by dropping preconceived notions and becoming true friends, and in some cases business partners, with people that may have polar opposite views from my own.
If your company doesn’t understand your diverse customer base, it won’t be able to serve their needs and make the sales needed to thrive.
… companies and organizations with best-in-class diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs deliver a better ROI and outperform in the stock market than those without them. There is also evidence to show a strong D&I program helps to de-risk the organization.
SunShower’s commitment to INCLUSION shows up on every slide of our elearning courses, every scene of our videos and every page of our comprehensive workbooks.
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