Why must we Embrace Diversity?

Diversity is about empowering people. It makes an organisation effective by capitalising on all the strengths of each employee. It is not Employment Equity Opportunities or Affirmative Action. These are laws and policies. While on the other hand, diversity is trying to understand, valuing and using differences in every person.

Simply enforcing government regulations will not get you to be the best. To obtain that competitive edge you need to create work teams by using the full potential of every individual. Teams are much more than a group. A group is a collection of individuals where each person is working towards his or her own goal, while a team is a collection of individuals working towards a common team goal or vision. This helps to create a synergy effect within teams: where one plus one equals more than two. An individual, acting alone, can accomplish much; but a group of people acting together in a unified force can accomplish great wonders. This is because team members understand each other and support each other. Their main goal is to see the team accomplish its mission. Personal agendas do not get in the way of team agendas. Personal agendas are a huge waste upon an organisation’s resources because they do not support its goals. By using the synergy effect of teams, you create a competitive advantage over other organisations that are using people acting alone. You are getting more for your efforts!

If team members do not accept others for what they are, they will not be able to use the abilities of others to fill in their weak areas. Hence, the team effort will fail. Their only goal becomes the ones on their personal agendas … to make them as an individual look good while ignoring the needs of the team and the organisation.

Embracing diversity is the first item for a leader to consider in building effective teams. Every team building theory states that to build a great team, there must be a diverse group of people on the team, that is, you must avoid only choosing people who are just like you.

Diversity is what builds a team … a team will not be built if every member of the team does not embrace diversity.