Diversity is more than job hires

Diver­si­ty is much more than sim­ply a ques­tion of fair­ness or appear­ances.

Lack of diver­si­ty both on the board and in staffing rep­re­sents a missed oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring in new think­ing, insights and expe­ri­ence. Lack of diver­si­ty impacts neg­a­tive­ly on deci­sion-mak­ing, ser­vice deliv­ery, cul­ture, finance and pro­mo­tion. Indeed, cul­tur­al­ly homoge­nous organ­i­sa­tions are at a dis­ad­van­tage as they face sig­nif­i­cant blind spots in devel­op­ing their organ­i­sa­tions future strate­gies.

More than recruitment

But a pol­i­cy of diver­si­ty in recruit­ment is alone not enough. It must be accom­pa­nied by inclu­sion and a real com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing a cul­ture that gen­uine­ly wel­comes, val­ues, and lever­ages the advan­tages of diver­si­ty.

All to often the faces are diverse, but the sys­tems, process­es and man­age­ment style remain stub­born­ly Euro­cen­tric and patri­ar­chal in design.

Diversity is demonstrated in partnership

Let me pro­vide some­thing from my own expe­ri­ence. As the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of TEAR Fund NZ I had an ex-offi­cio sta­tus on our board of trustees. In order to increase an inclu­sive par­tic­i­pa­tion we sought and appoint­ed a high­ly respect­ed Maori trustee with huge expe­ri­ence in the com­mu­ni­ty sec­tor.

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Steve Tollestrup

Director at Ploughshare

Ploughshare's Director has worked in community development, local government and corporate management for over thirty years both in New Zealand and throughout the developing world. He brings a wealth of expertise in fundraising, governance, strategic planning, change management, leadership development and coaching, advocacy and public communication.

Lat­est posts by Steve Tollestrup (see all)

• Advo­ca­cy is not an extra add on. — Sep­tem­ber 4, 2019
• Cul­ture is the key to Growth and Devel­op­ment — June 12, 2019
• Pass­ing the Torch — the why and how of term lim­its — March 29, 2019