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One morning, in the office corridor, my Boss and I were talking about a recently concluded event when one of my team members happened to pass by. She had contributed to the success of the said event and it was only natural that I invited her to join the conversation and praised her work. The Boss was expectedly complimentary of her efforts too, and I bowed out of the conversation a satisfied man.

“That was embarrassing,” my team member remarked as we walked back towards our bay. At first I thought I hadn’t heard her correctly. But when, upon my request, she repeated her words, I realized that she was utterly serious. It didn’t make any sense to me though. Why would someone ever find appreciation of any sort embarrassing? Now, aren’t acknowledgement and recognition the hallmarks of our work lives?

It took me a while to arrive at the explanation for her perplexing behavior. And the answer that emerged was simple – we were two different individuals who looked at things very differently. The things that motivated her were not the same ones that kept me going, and I was guilty of succumbing to the most natural of all biases, the assumption that everyone looks at the world from the same perspective as me.

This incident proved to be an invaluable lesson in understanding and appreciating diversity for me. I realized that unlike the picture that several published reports on the subject paint, diversity isn’t just about a mix of gender or ethnicities. It is something far deeper and precious, something that we experience on an everyday basis but don’t necessarily appreciate.

True diversity is about people with varying values, different beliefs and diverse personalities, who might look at issues facing them in myriad different ways, coming together. And it is in this diversity that the seeds of innovation, out-of-the-box ideation, and a team’s overall success reside.

Our biases prevent us from acknowledging this difference in people, often leading us to surround ourselves with our own clones. Figuratively of course! We take the convenient route of working with people who think and act just as we do, for they prove simpler for us to comprehend. We subconsciously avoid taking on the additional task of understanding people who are different, whereby obstructing the true spirit of diversity.

It is only when we understand and appreciate diversity in its most basal form that we equip ourselves to reap benefits from the multiplicity of thoughts, opinions and ideas that it brings.

Picture a diverse team as a group of friends sharing a box of assorted donuts. Only, each one likes a specific flavor in the box that no one else wants. Makes life simple, doesn’t it?

Similarly, in a truly diverse group, there will be people who bring missing pieces of the jigsaw to the table – pieces that others might have missed – to complete the larger picture. Only, the leader needs to have the patience, maturity and understanding to hear and appreciate their viewpoints, whether they happen to be in conformance with his own or not.

First published in Suburb Magazine, December 2019 Issue!