by Trystan Forbes

Created on: April 23, 2009   Last Updated: April 25, 2009

Workforce diversity will fulfill its promise... when we fulfill our promise to change the complexion of our workforce.

In business, only one promise matters: We love every innovation that promises huge return on our investment. And, at the end of the year, when we see exactly how this season's Big Innovation contributed to our wealth, we embrace the promise, congratulate ourselves, and spread the good news among all our stakeholders.

We do not make a principled commitment to workforce diversity simply because we believe it's the right thing to do; we invest in diversity because we expect the investment will yield handsome rewards. And either we feel the promise fulfilled when we caress our bulging pocketbooks, or we begin the agonizing process of asking and answering, "Where did we go wrong with this one?"

I cannot confidently assert we have given workforce diversity a fair chance to fulfill its promise. I like the question, but I fear our attempt at a credible answer is just a little premature. When you look around the major businesses and industries in your community, can you point to a compelling example of an enterprise putting workforce diversity through a fair test?

THE IDEAL

According to my partners and colleagues, I number among the world's premier pragmatic idealists. I specialize in finding the motives and means to make our noblest ideals normal, natural parts of our everyday work. We're a teeny-tiny little boutique marketing firm; we can afford to protect our ideals. In a bigger corporate environment, my pragmatic idealism would require a lot more sweat, tears, and fierce persuasion. I would not, however, abandon my commitment to workforce diversity. I believe a commitment to diversity reasonably includes the expectation of bigger bottom lines. And I set the standard for diversity just as high as idealism can loft it.
In every enterprise, the workforce should become a microcosm of the larger community that supports it.

Here in San Diego, for example, Asians and Pacific Islanders make-up approximately 19% of the population. Not surprisingly, Mexicanos and Latinos comprise slightly more than 40% of our population. Continental and North Africans account for roughly 10% of the citizenry, and people of European descent account for the rest. Women outnumber men by about 3%. Among the college-educated population, women outnumber men by about 8%. The ideal San Diego workforce, therefore, would mirror exactly that distribution of ethnicities, national origins, and

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