Diversity is not a person

So this month I had a penny drop moment. A bad penny...

I was in a discussion with someone who was putting a senior team together, who told me ‘There will be one diverse member’. And I could feel and hear this penny drop in my brain with a clang:

Most people don’t actually understand what diversity is.

The whole point about diversity is that it is not a person. Or even a few people. No individual or group of individuals bring diversity. If one person in a group is seen as diverse from the rest of the group, by definition that means that the group in totality is not diverse: it is a dominant culture with one member that is different.

Diversity is what we have when we have a group of people who are different from each other, with no dominant group or culture. It is a wondrous thing that brings diversity of input, breadth & completeness of discussion, better decisions, better strategies & results. None of which we get from a group with a dominant culture which has one member from outside that culture who finds it impossible to be heard.

So please can we stop thinking about diverse individuals and start thinking about diverse teams. One brings us diversity, the other does not.