A diverse workplace is an important aspect of every company. A variety of viewpoints, ideas, and backgrounds is essential for understanding how others think and more importantly, how your customers might think. Why then, does CEO Joelle Emerson find a problem with diversity? Emerson is the brains behind Paradigm, a consulting startup that’s helped companies like Airbnb and Pinterest, and she says that the problem with diversity comes from the idea that diversity means “lowering the bar.” Read on to see what Emerson means and why it’s an important issue in startups:
What Does Diversity Mean?
The first problem is that companies have too broad of a definition of what “diversity” means, Emerson says in her interview with Tech Crunch. Often companies can’t articulate diversity “in a way that allows them to design a strategy.” What exactly is the culture your company is trying to build? It’s more than having diverse ideas. It’s about an integrated community of thinkers representing a diverse population.
Diversity Does Not Mean Compromising Integrity
This was Emerson’s biggest point in her talk with Tech Crunch: do not compromise your values just to incorporate a diversity standard. This is where Emerson says companies often “lower the bar” just to fill a particular quota. “That is an inherently racist and sexist thing to believe,” Emerson spits out. “You’re saying that people from those backgrounds are less good.”
Her solution? Why designate a bar to begin with? “Until companies can really tell what their bar is, I think talking about lowering it or raising it is a weird conversation to be having,” Emerson says.
How Should Companies Think About Diversity?
Instead of considering diversity as an obligation that could lower the quality of your company, diversity should be considered an opportunity to find employees that can bring a fresh, new idea or perspective.
Says Jesse Martinez, co-founder of Spark America: “Our world is not homogeneous, so why should startups and the services that are being created be so vanilla? We need to be open to different cultures, perspectives, voices, and opinions so that we may better serve the needs of the multicultural communities of America.”
And William Wulf, from the National Academy of Engineering, adds: “Without diversity, the life experiences we bring to any problem are limited. As a consequence, we may not find the best solution.”
In short: diversity needs to be thought of in terms of innovation and problem solution, and not of “lowering the bar” and meeting a quota. It’s time for more startups to embrace this idea and create companies that reflect our world as is.
