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The "numbers" were achieved. The
workshops attended. Most people in your organization have
gotten their "isms" under control. But here you
are again, recycling yet another round of costly diversity
programs -- and still unable to overcome the problems
and reap the benefits of your diverse workforce.
That's because most organizations, despite
good intentions and hard work, are stuck in their diversity
efforts, says R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., a leading diversity
expert who has continually raised the bar on how we think
and act on a complex array of diversity issues. In our communities
as well as in our workplaces, a feeling of frustration has
emerged as the promise of the Civil Rights Movement and
affirmative action has become overly politicized and polarizing.
But managing diversity is not a core challenge that organizations
and society have confronted since the founding of America,
"an experiment in diversity."
Building on the Promise of Diversity
is Thomas's impassioned wake-up call to bring diversity
management to a wholly new level -- beyond finger-pointing
and well-meaning "initiatives" and toward the
shared goal of building robust organizations and thriving
communities. This original, thoughtful, yet action-oriented
book will help leaders in any setting -- business, religious,
educational, governmental, community groups, and more --
break out of the status quo and reinvigorate the can-do
spirit of making things better.
The book includes a deeply felt analysis
of the sometimes tangled intersections between diversity
management and the Civil Rights Movement and affirmative
action agenda ... a personal narrative that charts Thomas's
own evolution in diversity thinking ... and a roadmap for
mastering the powerful craft of Strategic Diversity Management™,
a structured process that helps you:
- Realize why multiple activities and good
intentions are not enough for achieving sustainable progress.
- Recast the meaning of diversity as more
than just race and gender, but as any set of differences,
similarities, and tensions -- such as workplace functions,
product lines, acquisitions and mergers, customers and
markets, blended families, community diversity, and more.
- Accept that a realistic goal is not to
eliminate diversity tension but to use it as a catalyst
to address key issues.
- Recognize diversity mixtures, analyze
them accurately, and make quality decisions in the midst
of differences, similarities, and tensions.
- Build an essential set of diversity skills
and develop your "diversity maturity" -- the
wisdom, judgment, and experience to use those skills effectively.
- Reflect on the ways you might be "diversity
challenged" yourself.
Diversity is the reality of America today.
Whether you let diversity be a drain on your organization
or a dynamic contributor to your mission, vision, and strategy
is both a choice and a challenge. Building on the Promise
of Diversity gives you the insights and skills you need
to navigate through simmering tensions -- and find creative
solutions for achieving cohesiveness, connectedness, and
common goals.
R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., is one of the
world's leading experts on diversity management and has
been called "one of the most effective consultants
in the United States" by The Wall Street Journal.
Dr. Thomas is CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training,
Inc., and founder of The American Institute for Managing
Diversity, both based in Atlanta. A Fellow of the prestigious
National Academy of Human Resources, he is also the recipient
of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)
Award for Distinguished Contribution to Human Resource Development
and the Bennett College Trailblazer in Diversity Award.
He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Society
for Human Resource Management (SHRM). His books include
Beyond Race and Gender and Building a House for
Diversity. Dr. Thomas lives in Decatur, Georgia, and
can be contacted through his website, www.rthomasconsulting.com.
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