Serious Opportunity

Many a workplace diversity program is a hodgepodge of loosely assembled concepts in which broad labels are applied and a clear distinction is not made between equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, and diversity management. Indeed, a surprising number are simply an EEO program with a new name.



Having worked in the area of equal opportunity for lo these many years, I have some suggestions that will easily focus the central strategy of these programs:

1. Emphasize equal opportunity, not equal results. No quotas. No wink-wink, nudge-nudge, preferences. Equal opportunity should always be given and the best person for the job or assignment should always be selected. Let diversity ride in the wake of an effective equal opportunity program.


2. Stopping treating groups as victims. The last time I checked, starting a small business is hard for most people regardless of race, sex, or ethnicity. If your firm wants to help small businesses, by all means do so, only give your help on the basis of need, not race, national origin or sex.


3. Recognize complexity. Who speaks for the "Black community?" I doubt if it's Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell but neither is it Jesse Jackson nor Al Sharpton. Why? Because references to various "communities" are so general as to be meaningless. There is a rich diversity (nice term) within these "communities" that should be acknowledged.


4. Have policies and practices that you can shout from the roof tops. If you aren't proud of a particular practice, why are you doing it?


5. Beware of hustlers and zealots. Admirable causes often attract charlatans and fanatics. It is disturbing how much publicity they garner. To paraphrase a line from a old spiritual, "Not everybody talking about heaven is going there."


6. Have a serious program. If you are committed to equal opportunity, put a substantive program in place, one with competent managers and clout. Don't have a paper program administered by a powerless office run by marginal performers.


7. Let the program seek the eradication of illegal discrimination and not the elimination of white guilt. The latter ensures a superficial, feel-good, program that is more designed to produce alibis than to provide opportunity. The former will open doors to a wide range of talent that any organization needs.