THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIVERSITY: A NEW DEFINITION

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By Bryant Rollins and Shirley Stetson, MountainTop Institute

An increasing number of private corporations and nonprofit organizations around the country, and here in Jacksonville, have realized the importance of diversity initiatives in achieving bottom line objectives. This shift has occurred because of a redefinition of “diversity,” as well as the development of inclusive strategies designed to impact and engage an entire workforce.

In the world of nonprofits, these diversity initiatives, when properly conceived and implemented, have two primary benefits:

1. They reduce barriers to trust, communication and collaboration among employees and increase productivity, performance, morale, and buy-in to the agency’s mission and vision.
2. They raise staff competence and ability to serve an increasingly diverse society, community and client base.

The hospice community across Florida will gather at a three-day conference in May to address these issues. The conference, sponsored by Florida Hospices and Palliative Care, will be held in Orlando May 8-10. The “FHPC Access Initiative Diversity Summit: A Plan for Growth: Investing in Access” will bring together executives and senior leaders from hospice agencies across the state.

The conference will be facilitated by the two of us, and Dr. Carlos Gomez, MD, PhD, Associate Director, Institute for Education & Leadership and Fellowship Director, Capital Hospice in Falls Church, VA.

The New Generation of Initiatives

In the past, diversity initiatives have been thought of as focusing primarily on African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and women and concerning issues of sexual identity, and physical and mental abilities. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act and other civil rights legislation of the 1960s led to a new approach in equity in American institutions. Affirmative Action programs were created as a proactive strategy, often mandated by federal, state, and local government.

Certain mandated programs remain, but more often these days, private companies and nonprofit agencies devise strategies called “Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives,” which strive to engage an entire workforce in support of the initiative. This engagement provides a way for, quite literally, every employee to feel included. Therefore, this new definition includes differences of personality, work style, age, religion, values, psychological type (as in the Myers-Briggs typology), job function and all of the other human differences found among people in the workplace. By broadening the definition and creating a totally inclusive process the overall effort to create an equitable work environment is greatly strengthened.

As this opening-up occurs, we find the focus on traditional workplace discrimination actually strengthens --- so the issues faced by people of color, women, people with disabilities and those of gay and lesbian individuals become more clearly focused.

The traditional Affirmative Action approach has given way to a new generation of strategies which combine awareness and skills around cultural competency with organizational effectiveness strategies designed to support the organization’s basic mission.

Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion initiatives are now seen as a competitive advantage as they involve a capacity to understand and reach an increasingly diverse marketplace or community, and a capacity to build high performance teams that are more productive and more creative internally.

The business case for diversity and inclusion is also based on dramatic changes in the marketplace. According to U.S. Census data, the combined buying power of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans currently totals more than $1.4 trillion, an increase of 40 percent since 2002.

Two leaders working in this new definition are here in Jacksonville. Last year, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida and CSX were both recognized by Diversity, Inc., a national publication that surveys major corporations each year, as being among the best in the country for the scope, quality, and effectiveness of their initiatives. In addition, local companies such as Wachovia Bank, Aetna, Prudential, Convergys, Johnson & Johnson and others have longstanding programs focused on diversity and inclusion. In the nonprofit sector, United Way of Northeast Florida, Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Clara White Mission are among the organizations taking the lead.

In the new millennium, many companies sense the new challenge is to capture the hearts and the minds of people. Creating an inclusive workplace, where all employees are valued for their differing attributes and qualities, has the potential of further opening the environments for the special gifts of women, people of color, and others who have been excluded in the past.

MountainTop Institute a new resource in Florida

Bryant Rollins - President & CEO, MountainTop Institute

Bryant is a former Editor with the New York Times and columnist with The Boston Globe, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He worked as a Program Administrator for the Ford Foundation, and administered a major journalism-training program for minority journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Bryant began consulting and training on issues of race relations and diversity & inclusion during the Civil Rights Movement in Boston, New York and Mississippi. He has more than 30 years experience as a consultant with Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, federal, state and local government, foundations, community organizations and the media. He is the author of one novel, co-author of an autobiography with entertainer Cab Calloway, and author of numerous articles on race and human differences. He has worked in domestic and international environments. He has been a member of the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences since 1968. He lives in Jacksonville, FL.

Shirley Stetson, M.Ed.-- Vice President for Organization Development, MountainTop Institute

Shirley has 20 years as a manager in the former Bell System where she spent five years in diversity consulting, organizational development and management training. She established her own organizational development business and has trained diversity trainers both nationally and internationally. She has consulted with Fortune 500 firms, governmental agencies, community organizations and colleges and universities. She has focused much of her recent work on issues of women as leaders in corporate and community organizations, nationally and internationally. Shirley is a member of the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Sciences and of the Women’s Leadership Collaborative. She holds at M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts in management development and organizational effectiveness, and a B.A. in psychology from Colby College in Maine. Shirley lives in Jacksonville, FL.

Bryant and Shirley have consulted and trained in many organizations in the health care arena, including the staffs of Montefiore Hospital in the South Bronx and Harlem Hospital. They are lead consultants in diversity training and consulting with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida.

MountainTop Institute has been headquartered in Jacksonville, FL since 1999. MountainTop works with all types of groups and organizations to develop the deep appreciation of diversity contributions each individual group member brings.

The MountainTop Mission is to help people, communities and organizations successfully engage human differences through research, development, teaching, and direct services.

Dedicated to making a historic difference, Rollins and Stetson and the staff at MountainTop, a teaching and research clinic for the engagement of human differences, consulting, both strategic and tactical; executive coaching; performance team building; creative dialogue; experiential learning opportunities; and intensive residential retreats, to list a few.

Since beginning its work in Jacksonville, the institute has worked with many client groups and organizations and has been making its presence and mission known in arenas both public and private.

MountainTop Institute can be reached at 904-224-7052 or on the web at www.mountaintopinstitute.org.