by Mauro Segura
Businesses have a lot of difficulty talking about diversity. Especially when it comes to speaking to their clients, business partners, and collaborators. It seems that the “diversity speech” is present in theory, but not so much in practice.
Generally speaking, businesses have made progress when it comes to establishing women’s equality in the workforce. However there’s been much less progress regarding race and those with disabilities. And there’s been even less progress when it comes to LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) employees.
My own perspective is that the LGBT question isn’t talked about in most workplaces. I feel that the theme is often debated behind closed doors, but an open dialogue or discussion within businesses is lacking. It just isn’t being talked about in a transparent way.
Businesses still haven’t understood that younger generations face these issues, with much more ease and openness than previous generations. Therefore this is a great opportunity for businesses to start the dialogue with their younger employees. Taboos, prejudices, and traditional paradigms are constantly being broken down today, through TV, the Internet, and through people’s everyday lives. Popular movements like “Gay Pride” also speak loudly about these issues and their important place in today’s society.
However, LGBT issues probably get the least attention in the workplace. Business try to be politically correct, but actually end up being passive and incoherent, towards a movement that is happening in our society right now.
At a company like IBM, diversity is in our DNA. We take this question very seriously, though we are obviously conscious of the fact that there’s still a very long way to go. We’ve developed a series of activities that stimulate an open discussion, encouraging people to speak more and more openly.
A few weeks ago, we conducted an internal meeting, in which we distributed a LGBT folder titled “Closing the Doors to Prejudice.” In this folder we defined the concept of diversity, stated the company’s views, and clearly defined the terms that people constantly misuse.
I was especially happy as we wrote that the goal of the diversity group was to establish, an open and accepting environment, and to evolve to the point where we don’t need a “diversity group” anymore. This can only happen when diversity becomes everybody’s problem, thus translating into a more evolved, conscious, and humane society.
This folder was distributed to employees in between several activities, including round tables, lectures, and of course in between lots, and lots, and lots, of open discussion.
In conclusion, the first step to demystifying LGBT issues is to talk about them, in an active, natural, and transparent manner.
