The Value of Inclusiveness
Randall Boe
This is the fifth of six articles that will be written as a continuation of this valuable column. This year, several leading white male lawyers will express their views on diversity and why they have chosen to work to advance it. They will share their thoughts, mistakes, and experiences with us so that we all grow and learn together. It is our hope that this series of articles will spark a meaningful dialogue and assist our readers with their diversity efforts in order to fully tap the talents and contributions of all employees.
The views expressed are of the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of MCCA®.
Recently, I was quite pleased to accept an award from MCCA® on behalf of the AOL Legal Department for our diversity efforts. Since then, I have been asked a number of times to disclose our "secret recipe." While I am not able to share a 10-step program for achieving diversity, I think we have learned something valuable. The most important thing we did at AOL to further our diversity goals was to simply recognize that inclusiveness is valuable. Not just desirable, not just the "right thing to do," certainly not just a legal obligation to be obeyed, but a valuable commodity in and of itself.
We believe that being diverse makes us a better legal department. AOL's business is international, and we interact on a personal level with tens of millions of consumers. Inclusiveness gives us an advantage in spotting and understanding issues and developing thoughtful and creative approaches. It is a value that makes our work product better and more valuable for our clients. A diverse legal department is a great place to work.
But these beliefs lead to a very important question: Exactly what is diversity? Typically, diversity gets measured by counting heads: how many women, how many men of color, how many Asian/Pacific Islanders, how many African Americans, and so on. I think that is an important measure, but that it fails to completely capture the concept of true inclusiveness. It might be helpful for me to share a little about my background: I am a white man, predominantly of Norwegian extract, approaching my mid-40s. I am married, live in a suburb of Washington, DC, and have two children. I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, a liberal college town in eastern Iowa. I was raised by academics-in a town full of academics-and I was taught about tolerance from a very early age. At school, at church, at home, I learned that tolerance of other people, other cultures, other religions, and other traditions was vitally important. If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I probably would have told you that achieving diversity was a function of promoting tolerance.
But a couple of years of participating in AOL's diversity efforts have led me to a unique conclusion. Diversity is not simply a more aggressive strain of tolerance; it goes well beyond that because diversity is about acceptance and inclusion. While a tolerant person can be comfortable allowing others to live their lives at a respectful distance, a person who values diversity actively embraces differences. A legal department that values inclusiveness must go well beyond permitting differences or not commenting about them. It requires that managers and employees accept, encourage, and promote differences.
Our diversity program at AOL is set up to do just that. We try to be flexible so that people with different circumstances can balance their careers with the rest of their lives, so that they can fulfill family, religious, or cultural obligations. We try to be fair and give people what they need on an individual basis. We try to be honest in our practices, policies, and appraisals. We try to be transparent so that people do not think that hidden agendas or biases are at work in major decisions. And, we embrace differences and encourage people to bring their uniqueness to work. We have also established interest groups so that employees can meet and associate with people who have common backgrounds or experiences.
Finally, we recognize that diversity means valuing the uniqueness of every person-even the middle-aged, white guy from the suburbs is an individual. It is a mistake to assume that inclusiveness is only about color, gender, orientation, or religion. Diversity is about accepting the fact that every person is unique and that those dissimilarities are precious commodities that need to be understood by everyone. A successful corporate diversity program requires tolerance and respect and must have ongoing efforts to be inclusive in hiring and employment practices. But to move from having a corporate diversity program to actually being diverse requires much more. Diversity means understanding that we all have something unique or special about us, and a successful diversity program involves appreciating those differences, promoting those differences, and, ultimately, harnessing those differences and putting them to work.
From the September/October 2006 issue of Diversity & The Bar®