Diversity Is Also a Way of Thinking
Possibilities .... Source: Hubblesite.org
In Micheal Lewis’ new book “The Big Short”, which is in part about the creation of “Credit Default Swaps” and other Wall Street financial instruments that contributed to the current “World” financial breakdown, there is a quote he uses from Tolstoy which addresses something we talk a lot about in our workshops and trainings.
“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already.
But the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already without a shadow of doubt what is laid before him.” Leo Tolstoy
When we are not open to there being an alternative point of view other then the one we are already committed to believing, we then lack the capacity to truly understand what is in front of us. In Lewis’ book the individuals who knew the least and where not fixed in their thinking on how Wall Street (Historically) worked saw clearly the fallacy of what was occurring. It was like seeing the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. On the other hand the experts, which included senior officials at both the S.E.C. and Federal Reserve, when told of what was happening (that the emperor has no clothes) wouldn’t believe what they were told and allowed the deception to continue for another 4 or 5 years.
In a similar way our beliefs about people or their cultures (race, religion, gender etc.) serves to place a curtain around them, relegating them to the limitation in our minds. Diversity as we teach it, is about our expanding our thinking so that it includes possibilities that we would not see otherwise. The appreciation and understanding of Diversity is not a feel good story, rather is about expanding our vocabulary, our listening so that we can be effective in all aspects of lives, so that we don’t take on the simplistic view constructed by our “commitment to being right” about what we think we know.
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