Courage in Diversity
I was contemplating about a conversation about courageous behaviour with a friend. He was relating to me, that courageous behaviour can be blocked within an organization, if there is a lack of diversity in the leadership specifically in roles. Imagine an organization solely by accountants, engineers, lawyers or even pilots. The risk appetite of these respective professionals are vastly different. In fact, the definition of courage by each of these profession would be a stark in contrast.
Engineer : I have courage only because I have designed this to have 3 times safety factor.
Accountant/Financier : I have courage only because the balance sheet is good.
Pilot : I have courage only because all safety issues have been addressed prior.
Will an organization filled with only engineers make poor decisions affecting profitability?
Will an organization filled with only pilots at the top dampen the courage of the engineers?
Will an organization filled with accountants risk design decisions over financial results?
Let’s not get started if there is a lack of diversity in gender or even race.
But we all know the importance of courage — we have confirmed that courage will drive innovation. It’s because with courage will we be able to ask, configure, challenge and fly. And if innovation is lacking in an organization, that organization is in status quo. If the leadership is unable to go beyond their risk appetite, what will that mean down the ladder?
Although this is a private exchange between me and a friend, it bothers me because I know diversity can be engineered by first being inclusive. We protect the serenity of the status quo and we feel we are wise not to question the difference between acceptance and change when in fact to progress is to always question and to be able to do this is to have independence of mind.
If we only — fly with birds of a feather, swim with the same fish in the same pond; we will never realize our true potential. 3 critical things to adopt to do this :
- Extend the invitation to sit at the table to all— ever heard of the navy that does not employ a certain race just because the navy ships do not serve a food type that does not cater to the race’s religious requirement? Isn’t it better if everybody has the opportunity to contribute to nation-building, religious preference aside?
- Be a safe place to express disgruntments and differing opinions. To do this in a group, there must be at least 3 person of the same background. One risks to be insincere or fall into the trap of tokenism if there is only one hire to tick the box.
- Make room for differences — there shouldn’t be an only way to get to a destination. Quite contrarily, when you are together with a diverse set of people, the elephant in the room is actually how similar we all are and how we all want to arrive at the same objective of our organization.
Just as our individual skills matter, it is only one skill but if we work with others — that’s multiple skillsets and courageous behaviours guaranteed.
The engineering profession needs courage. If you are an engineer, do you feel safe to be brave in your organization? Write to me in the comments.
