Someone Like Me
Most people I talk with would agree that it’s human nature to be drawn to someone like yourself.
Simply walk past the American Girl store on Michigan Avenue to see little girls stream out carrying dolls that mimic their hair, skin and eye color dressed in identical outfits.
When I worked at JPMorgan Chase, I recall hearing our CEO Jamie Dimon, acknowledge this idea with his trademark candor and then segue into the topic of attracting a diverse workforce and customer base.
Pat Harris, Global Chief Diversity officer at McDonald’s, documents her company’s diversity path in her book, None of Us is as Good as All of Us.
Harris writes of McDonald’s early expansion in the 1960s, “We needed to change the complexion of our company to survive in a society that was dramatically changing all around us. If we were to continue to grow and expand, we needed to recognize the new realities of the world in which we operated and change our approach.”
So how do we change our approach when our default is programmed to gravitate toward someone like us?
I was reminded of the answer just yesterday in a follow-up training session with a group who had recently taken KMA’s web-based diversity series:
What you do is change the definition of “like.” Read more »