by Philip Lop

Created on: November 30, 2010

Somehow, somewhere along the way, ‘diversity’ has become a dirty word. It has become associated with organizations obsessed with filling quotas of employees, all driven solely by a recruitment policy that is weighed down by positive discrimination. Somehow, businesses have started to believe that diversity means that everything has to be the same. They’ve forced in bizarre processes, working practices and protocols just to try and give the impression that they are ‘diverse’. In short, diversity has started to become the exact opposite of what it is supposed to be.

Diversity isn’t an issue of race, religion, sexual orientation or age. Diversity isn’t about constantly monitoring those you employ and what you employ them to do, simply to keep inspectors off your back. To find the definition of diversity, you need really look no further than a dictionary. www.dictionary.com defines diversity as ‘the state of being diverse’. So what does that mean in the workplace?

It means celebrating difference

Diversity allows employees, managers, customers and suppliers to celebrate differences. It means that a business recognizes and values the differences that come from our beliefs, our gender, our age and our sexuality. It means that we understand that the best ideas come from a pool of knowledge and experience. One man’s definition of right doesn’t make it absolute but by opening our minds to what he says, we create enthusiasm, innovation and respect.

It means accepting that everybody has a voice you want to hear

If we want our businesses to grow and thrive, we have to be adaptive to change. We have to understand what it is that our customers want and we have to exceed their expectations. Our customers are truly diverse. We could sell our product to every age group, race, religion, sexuality and gender in the world but we can’t anticipate his or her needs properly unless our workforce shares the same diversity. Ask a man what a woman most wants for her birthday and you probably won’t get the right answer. Ask a Christian to define the most important times of the year and you run the risk of ignoring your Muslim, Jewish and Hindu customers. One viewpoint isn’t always enough.

It means that you nurture the right environment for growth

Some business leaders believe that you can artificially create a state of diversity. They believe that if they recruit to quotas from every demographic, then their

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