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You know you have a diverse organization when you have a balanced workforce which is reflective of the talent from the various interest groups in your community/state, or client base.  You know you have a diverse organization when your diverse talent is represented at all levels of the organization.

How do you know you do not have a diverse organization?  If the next time you are making an important decision, you look around, and everyone looks like you, you are doing it wrong.  And, if the next time you are making an important decision, you look around, and everyone does not look like you, but everyone thinks like you, you are really doing it wrong!

You know you have a diverse organization when a critical mass of your talent pool in your workplace appreciates or understands that diversity, like quality, is not a destination but a journey.

A diverse organization does not play games by which to sidetrack efforts to recruit, train and promote talented people from under-represented groups.  For example, pre-selecting candidates for jobs, announcing that positions are opened, wasting resources in order to be in legal compliance, giving the impression that an honest effort was made to find the best candidate when in reality the job specs were written for the person who had been pre-selected.

It's an old trick.  Put your preferred candidate on a fast track, invest in his or her exposure, give the person plum assignments, put them in an acting capacity in the job before it is announced as available, and you wind up with whom you want.  It's a game which time and again yields predictable results.  The goal is to manage the process by which people get to the top.  Wiring the job may even favor a female or minority person -- the outcome is the same.  Such practices work against structural changes in the organization.  A truly diverse organization rejects those kinds of games.

A diverse organization is careful not to provide a forum for external or internal consultants who behave as interest group advocates in the name of diversity.  Care must be taken to bring voices of reason and healing to discuss such volatile issues as injuries of groups which have suffered oppression and the benefits which others have gained as a result of discrimination.  Here, you must choose carefully as an organizational leader. Unfortunately, some diversity consultants engage in verbal mugging rather than constructive surgery. While both processes might be painful, one rejects and alienates while the other respects and heals.

Organizations which embrace diversity are careful to distinguish between a flavor of the month type of event, which creates a level of good will, provides exotic glimpses into peoples' cultural symbols, enhances the appreciation for dance and food, with perhaps a new colorful poster thrown in as a souvenir; yet lacks the power and legitimacy of a business-driven initiative.

The organization that is truly committed to diversity is conscious to distinguish between floppy-disc diversity events and those which become part of the hard drive.  When the most senior members of the organization are willing, in fact eager, to participate in brainstorming sessions to study and discuss the impact of demographic changes and to introduce ideas for reform, that is a powerful indication that your organization is really headed in the right direction.

The words and deeds of senior stakeholders regarding diversity practices must be consistent in the organization. What is important to them will cascade down throughout the organization and send a message that diversity is a very important priority in the workplace. When top management agrees to the disciplined participation in training which is necessary as an urgent mission/business imperative, the possibilities become limitless as to what that organization can do.

Top executives often feel trapped.  They attend diversity events but remain aloof.  They don't want to give legitimacy to the occasion or appear to sanction what is about to be said.  Yet, they feel that they must show support for their staff who are charged with organizing such events.  So they show up, but remain more of a hostage than a willing participant.  This saps the legitimacy of diversity initiatives.

While CEO's have every right to be apprehensive about things they do not fully understand, they also have a responsibility to become informed about what constitutes good diversity initiatives.  It could mean holding a closed meeting with trusted colleagues in order to participate in a forum facilitated by a diversity consultant whose reputation is grounded in inclusivity.

The CEO might also network with corporate peers who have benchmarked diversity practices in their organizations.  Books can be read and discussed to gleam what might work in particular organizational settings.  By taking steps to discover the promise of diversity, senior leadership can launch their organizations in the right direction.

The most senior executives in an organization must demonstrate their full commitment to diversity initiatives to assure success.  They should welcome a curriculum which makes the business case for diversity in view of demographic trends.  They must not reject all diversity initiatives on the grounds of poor presentations by some consultants.  Leadership must search for those consultants with sound business reasoning for diversity initiatives.  They must find people who are respectful of every interest group in the workplace.  Once the bottom line concerns are identified for their organization and a course of action is determined, a high powered motivational session to launch the organization's diversity initiative is in order.  Buy in by the top level decision makers and an unveiling of the plan to all employees, to obtain their commitment as well, is not only desirable but essential.

Further steps in organizing collaborative efforts at identifying and removing barriers which frustrate progress towards building a balanced work force will of necessity follow.  Every division, department, and work unit will participate in developing quality relationships across interest group lines in order to get the job done.  Leadership sets the tone.  Work force diversity initiatives are evaluated and adjustments made when needed.  Every stakeholder wins.  This is what a diverse organization is all about.

Dr. Samuel Betances is a Senior Consultant with Souder, Betances and Associates, Inc., 5448 N. Kimball Ave., Chicago, IL 60625.  E-mail: info@ betances.com or visit his web site www.betances.com. He is author of "Ten Steps to the Head of the Class: A Challenge to Students," and was recently the guest speaker at MCDC's workshop "Chicanos and Latinos in the American Workplace."

October 2005, News Brief of the MultiCultural Development Center.