How do you define diversity?

I love watching TedTalks. In 15 to 20 minutes I get to hear someone's experience, opinion, or knowledge on various topics. Often it makes me, as a former professor used to say, think harder.

Recently, I did a search on YouTube for “TedTalks and Diversity”. The search results surprised me. Of the top ten listings, eight of them were for racial diversity. I'm not sure why I was surprised, when I speak with others about diversity that is the first definition their mind goes to. Typically, in my sphere of influence it is usually the differences between Black and White. Maybe I need to change my sphere or maybe this is how narrowly people define diversity. Even Miriam-Webster does it. Here is the first definition listing for Diversity:

“the condition of having or being composed of differing elements: variety; especially: the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization."

In reality, diversity is a very broad topic covering differences in age, ability, culture, sexual, sexuality, gender , religious and the list can go on and on. For those of you who are stuck in the middle of my list wondering why I repeated sex, sexuality, and gender, each of those categories are separate and distinct; but, that is a topic for another day.

For just a moment, lets see how other news sources define diversity. A search on USAToday's  website does better than YouTube; three of the top ten diversity articles are race related. The Washington Post had the same results – three out of the top ten articles centered on race. Both of these established news agencies had a result of 30% for racial diversity. I expected to see maybe one hit on racial diversity and nine hits on all the other types of diversity. Only  CNN's website gave me that type of diverse listing; zero out of the top ten diversity articles centered on race.

Granted, YouTube and these three news giants are not the end all be all of literacy nor are they an authority on diversity in the United States. Yet, they do play a large role in how we see the nation and the world around us. Having an article search on the word diversity turn up so many articles of racial diversity and little to none centering on other types of diversity is a little disconcerting.

When we speak of diversity and how diversity can make an organization, a family, a nation stronger, we need to really look at all of diversity. There have been many examples of how to look at diversity; some say it is a lettuce salad with multiple types of salad and accompaniments all put together in one dish, others see it as a melting pot. I correlate diversity to a piece of Oriented Strand Board or more commonly known as OSB Board. Have you ever seen OSB? It is made up of little pieces of wood glued together in different angles; it literally looks like someone laid out a layer of wood chips and poured glue over them so that they stayed in place. Multiple layers of this glued-together-wood-chip substance are put together to make one board. It is almost indestructible and damage proof.  

In my mind, that is how diversity is. When people open themselves up enough to work together, get to know each other, and trust each other the group can become almost indestructible. The glue that ties us together is the respect we have for each other and the common narrative we have. That narrative may be the simple fact that we are all human and need love, acceptance, and nourishment. Once a group develops trust the ongoing dialogue can create even more common narratives such as social and belief networks and systems. Through the common narratives society as a whole becomes more supportive and in turn families become stronger, children have higher educational and social achievements, and communities become more inclusive.

I have a challenge for each of you. Look at your sphere of influence and ask yourself how diverse it is. Do you need to broaden your wings a little bit? Do you need to include others who are different from you? For those of you who already have a diverse sphere of influence, do you know what your common narrative is? Have you asked those in your network what they believe that narrative is and do you agree?

It will be interesting to hear what your answers are.