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Diversity isn’t only about race and gender, it flows into thought, personal practice model, goals, fears, world view, experiences and feelings towards those experiences. Conversely; age, education, mental health, physical ability and disability, socio-economic status and religion/non religion are all things we experience outside of the purview of race and gender; we share them all together.
These dynamics, beyond race and gender, that make us diverse can also be the foundation of what makes us similar with more introspection over time, especially if we have safe spaces to discuss our differences in hopes of finding a common thread between each other as human beings. The ways in which we deal with adversity and the experiences we go through to overcome it, are all dynamics we can have in common regardless of more optically diverse facets such as race and gender expression. Finding commonalities within what makes us different is the staple of communication in safe spaces at the workplace. In other words, universality, what makes us all human.
The ways in which we deal with adversity and the experiences we go through to overcome it, are all dynamics we can have in common regardless of more optically diverse facets such as race and gender expression.
Establishing comradery through effective communication in a safe space can lead to increased creativity, heightened workplace happiness and problem solving skills within teams. It’s imperative to nurture safe spaces in any environment. Feeling comfortable about discussing our diverse thoughts, world views, disagreements, goals, hopes and also fears in a conducive environment can help alleviate group think. The effects of safe spaces can travel top to bottom and vice versa, therefore creating an open line of communication and visibility interdepartmentally.
With so much focus on what makes us different, it can be refreshing and also necessary to remind ourselves of what makes us all similar as well. Let us be mindful to not let the pendulum sway too far one way or the other. We all feel pain, happiness, anxiety, hope, sorrow, love and excitement on a daily basis. It’s critical to ensure that we feel safe to express those feelings when appropriate at the workplace. One of our goals at C+R is to establish and nurture these safe spaces. Take some time this week to reach out to your peers at work and check in with them, regardless of their background, as an olive branch to remind them that although we’re all very diverse in many different ways; we’re all human at our core.
I’ll leave you with two articles that discuss the many dynamics of diversity that go beyond race and gender. This Archway article discusses the many other facets of diversity and inclusion. The second article, by Kiran Shankar, dives into how hyper diversity focus can lead to increased bias, specifically when not nurtured in a safe space or ignored altogether. It also discusses the importance of merging diversity and universality. Within these collectives, it’s possible to find similarities between us all. It can also help us better analyze our biases between each other to help overcome them.
“True inclusion lies at the intersection of diversity and universality.”
