“I dreamed a dream”

Last week I attended an event on diversity organised by the Corporate Research Forum. It discussed current research and thinking about the issue and presented a number of case studies from corporate bodies who had made a commitment to embrace and encourage a more diverse workforce.

It was interesting to note that the progress of women in management was still considered to be a greater issue than addressing ethnic or religious diversity. Discussions took place about the role of sponsors in pushing women forward, the importance of leadership in driving acceptance of women at senior level – but at the end of the day it is still felt that men are better at self-promoting themselves, better at spotting those that might help them progress and yes, better at the after-hours, informal discussions where often decisions are made.

But what surprised me the most was a discussion I had with one of the conference leaders. I expressed the opinion that surely a generation hence we would not be facing the same issue, that our children are more open to change and more accepting of diversity.

But she said that diversity would always be on the agenda and that despite social attitudes changing, that we will always ‘go’ for people like ourselves because we are more comfortable recruiting in our own likeness. And so she felt that this ‘unconscious bias’ would mean that we will always need to address workplace behaviours. The other point she made is that addressing diversity is not just a matter of attending a two day course but needs us all to fundamentally and personally address our attitude and approach.

This was reinforced later that afternoon when one of the presenters simply showed the video of Susan Boyle at Britain’s Got Talent, as a way of demonstrating how we all are guilty of unconscious bias. Apart from the fact that I love the Les Miserables song ‘I dreamed a dream’ that she sang, the footage was a very strong reminder that we were all guilty of making a very quick judgment about Susan Boyle based on her looks and behaviour .

And this is the point, how do corporate organisations encourage us to think carefully about our instinctive and very human judgments so that we attract talent that might not fit our immediate perception of our need but which would contribute to a more varied and diverse talent pool. As Amanda Holden said “that is a real wake-up call!”.