CHAPTER 6

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Amplifying the Three Gs

The need for innovation to grow, compete, and transform has never been greater—and we believe diversity is essential to driving this innovation.

JULIE SWEET, CEO, ACCENTURE NORTH AMERICA

DEI is the X factor. By inviting multiple perspectives, diversity, equity, and inclusion reveal the vantage points of a wide range of people. Those diverse perspectives, which will undoubtedly be different from yours, will allow you to view your idea differently, anew. Your idea can be dramatically improved by thinking about it in a new way.

Taking multiple perspectives—that is, looking at a goal, a gap, a gain, a partially realized idea, or a fully fledged idea from viewpoints different from your own—helps you perceive multiple scenarios, multiple gaps, and potentially multiple gains, ultimately resulting in better ideas that appeal to more people in more meaningful ways.

We each have our own perspective, our own view of the world shaped by our experiences, our communities, families, and education. This personal perspective is the lens through which we see the world and ourselves in it. Multiple perspective taking allows you to mentally walk in others’ shoes, to look at a situation, an idea, a life lived, or an event from the viewpoints of people who are different from you, who have had different experiences. That shift in perspective adds a fuller dimension to the Three Gs.

By considering things you didn’t think to consider before, you will assuredly find ideas of greater value to individuals, culture, and society. Fresh perspectives also lead to additional questions. By asking more questions of diverse people, you keep widening your scope and the impact of your idea. Here are three questions to ask: What goal can I set to have the best possible gain for the most possible people? Is there a gap I hadn’t considered before I took multiple perspectives? Is there a gain that is more equitable?

DEI also combats groupthink—that is, the conformity that happens when similar people, who might be unfamiliar with outside perspectives, work in a group. A team or a community of similar people tend to think similarly and might not bring anything dissenting or challenging to a discussion. If you view the Three Gs from other perspectives, you will begin to see how age, gender identity, neurodivergence, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, or community characteristics might affect and ultimately amplify your concept. Not only will you get unfamiliar perspectives from a diverse group, but you likely will get different problem-solving input as well. When you augment the Three Gs with DEI, you will find valuable insights into other people that will lead you to more ideas, better ideas, more significant ideas.

In the introduction, I told you about Matt Hite, Ken Jones, and other devoted people who brought the Microsoft Xbox Adaptive Controller to market. Microsoft’s project teams took multiple perspectives. They partnered with experts—accessibility advocates and gamers with disabilities as well as nonprofit organizations that work with gamers living with disabilities, such as the AbleGamers Charity, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, SpecialEffect, and Warfighter Engaged, and many other accessibility community members. DEI amplified this worthwhile idea, turning it into a momentous idea.

Without DEI, you see life through a regular camera lens. DEI presents a way to see life through a wide-angle lens that produces panoramic images to create a more expansive perspective. When you embrace DEI, you put yourself in the path of amplified worthwhile ideas.

When you form a goal, try swapping out the audience for that of another country, community, race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or expression, age, sexual orientation, or religious group or for people living with disabilities to see if it is equitable.

When you fill a gap, is a group or community missing? Are there other groups for whom you could fill gaps? If you expand your sights, all sorts of gaps might become apparent. If you’re not looking at the Three Gs from all these different perspectives, you’re limiting possible outcomes and potentially fuller ideas.

When you determine a gain, for an idea to win, does someone have to lose? If it’s a gain for more communities, then it’s a bigger gain. Equity should always be the standard.

If we search for gaps that offer gains to achieve equity, we can form useful goals and generate ideas that are worthwhile. And if we could ensure our ideas improve equity, that would be worthwhile indeed. Ros Atkins did just that. DEI supercharged Atkins’s goal. He tackled a thorny gap: the underrepresentation of women in the media—an issue most men in the news media wouldn’t touch.

After thinking about the issue of equality for a long time, Ros Atkins of the BBC explained, “I became focused on three goals. I wanted: better data on the representation of women in our journalism and content; to explore the impact of embedding representation in our daily editorial and production thinking and processes; and to prove that fair representation is not only a goal to aspire to but one that can be achieved consistently.”¹

To work toward attaining all three goals, Atkins and the BBC adopted a new approach to content production and culture change, now known as 50:50. “At the heart of the idea is that if we monitor ourselves, we can generate data for our organizations, while simultaneously influencing our own motivation, awareness and performance. The data would be the engine of change,” said Atkins.²

The gap is the underrepresentation of women in the media worldwide. Just as a lack of ethnic and racial diversity gives an unbalanced picture of society, an underrepresentation of women perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes.

When Atkins first introduced his equity initiative, he faced a lot of questions from colleagues, such as, Is this a quota? His response was that 50:50 is simple, voluntary, and designed to measure the elements of their work that the team themselves control.

Anyone can advance DEI, even if they belong to a dominant group. Atkins is a white man from the BBC news division and not a DEI expert, as Aneeta Rattan, Siri Chilazi, Oriane Georgeac, and Iris Bohnet noted in an article in the Harvard Business Review.³

What’s the gain? About creating real cultural change in an organization and the 50:50 project, Nina Goswami, BBC’s creative diversity lead, wrote,

More than 100 organizations across 26 countries have pledged to use the data tool to improve the representation in their content. This change is happening across media, PR and communications, academia, legal and corporate companies.

Finally, we believed that the 50:50 methodology could benefit other areas of representation. To this end, we translated the 50:50 core principles to monitor disability and ethnicity. . . . We will also support any partners who wish to [implement] 50:50 beyond gender in their organizations. We want to see diverse voices enriching media content across the world.⁴

It’s highly likely you’ve encountered Luis von Ahn’s produced ideas. Von Ahn is the inventor of reCAPTCHA and the co-inventor of CAPTCHA. Growing up in Guatemala helped form von Ahn’s mission to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, amplifying his most recent goal—to give everyone access to a private language tutor experience through technology. Von Ahn’s is a fascinating case that makes clear why observing a gap, realizing a gain, and setting a goal through the lens of DEI yields an exceptionally worthwhile idea.

When he was in the computer science Ph.D. program at Carnegie Mellon University, von Ahn studied under Manuel Blum, recipient of the 1995 Turing Award. With Blum, von Ahn developed a visual recognition test to prevent bots from spamming websites, a string of squiggly letters that humans can identify but computers can’t. They called it the Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, or CAPTCHA. “We knew it was going to be useful, but there were many uses we hadn’t thought of,” said von Ahn.⁵ Most major websites use CAPTCHA.

In his doctoral thesis, von Ahn introduced the idea of human computation, the concept that laid the groundwork for several of his future innovations, including CAPTCHA (his collaboration with Blum), reCAPTCHA, and Games with a Purpose. With reCAPTCHA, von Ahn’s idea was filling a gap and proving its gain. “ReCAPTCHA has facilitated the digitization of about two million books per year from the Google Books project, and more than 13 million articles in the New York Times archives dating back to 1851. This has helped make historical works previously confined to specific physical library locations widely available online, opening up possibilities for research and ensuring long-term digital access to a wide range of people,” according to the Lemelson-MIT case study website.⁶

After selling reCAPTCHA to Google, von Ahn shifted his goal. He cofounded Duolingo, a platform bringing free and accessible language learning to everyone, helping to remove obstacles to social mobility across the globe. His new goal was to “fight socioeconomic disparities by breaking down barriers to education.”⁷

Clearly there was a gap and a gain, but why this goal?

When von Ahn was growing up in Guatemala, he saw how poverty bars access to high-quality education. Wealthy families in Guatemala can pay for a quality education, whereas very poor families may not even be able to afford to give their children the opportunity to learn to read and write. A lack of a quality education is a perpetuating factor in inequality in any country. For many in Guatemala, though learning English could offer transformative career opportunities, language instruction is out of reach.

When von Ahn wanted to apply for college in the United States, he had to take an English certification test, but all the seats for the test in Guatemala City were filled. To take the test, he had to fly to El Salvador at a cost of $1,200—clearly an amount many people would not be able to afford. You can see why he, as someone who understood inequality from the inside, formed his goal as he did. DEI amplified his goal.

Von Ahn received the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2018 for his groundbreaking inventions, commitment to youth mentorship, and dedication to improving the world through technological invention.⁸

And, yes, his worthwhile ideas have come full circle—Duolingo does use the reCAPTCHA he designed.

A goal can’t get much grander than “reinventing the wheel.” At the Viva Technology Pitch in Paris, Andrea Mocellin said his goal was to do just that. After speaking with Paralympic athletes, Mocellin, a Ferrari designer, viewed his goal through a DEI lens, which supercharged his thinking. The Paralympic athletes told him that if he were to reinvent the wheels of a wheelchair, that would improve their lives. He listened. He realized the gap and the gain. DEI is the X factor once again.

Mocellin reset his goal to design a compact wheelchair with modular folding wheels, which would fill an urgent gap. For people using wheelchairs, a compact foldable wheelchair would be a huge gain.

When wheelchair users fly, they must give up their wheelchairs at the gate. One disability rights activist likens it to watching someone take away her legs. At times, airlines mishandle wheelchairs, leaving them damaged and forcing people to live with broken mobility aids. U.S. senator Tammy Duckworth told USA Today that most people do not grasp how damaged or lost wheelchairs adversely affect wheelchair users.⁹

“These medical devices are essentially a part of a disabled person’s body,” Duckworth said. “Imagine if in a single year (that many) people had their legs broken by an airline as a result of flying. The effect is the same.”¹⁰

Enter Mocellin, whose original goal of reinventing the wheel was grand. He modified his goal: Redesign the wheels on a wheelchair to make the chair more travel-friendly, compact, and portable yet safe and sturdy. When you fold the Revolve Air wheelchair, it takes up 60 percent less space than a standard folding wheelchair. This allows Revolve Air to fit the standard cabin baggage compartment dimensions universally used by airlines. Mocellin’s design offers many gains. Users no longer need to check their wheelchairs, where they are at risk from airline handlers, or seek airport assistance. That gives wheelchair users traveling equity and access. The chair also fits easily into a smaller car’s trunk, opening up more taxi and travel options.

“With a simple action you can open and close the wheel making it practical and convenient for every user,” explains Mocellin. “Its portability is guaranteed with two handles that lock and unlock the wheel when unfolded, giving a second life to the wheel and the demands and constraints of present life.”¹¹

“The idea is to invent, design and manufacture a new way to move for global travelers. The vision [is] to rethink personal transportation from the wheel up to the smallest details,” Mocellin told Newz Hook.¹² Revolve’s airless tire, with its modular structure, also can be used on other vehicles, such as bicycles, land drones, and carts.

Patience is key. Mocellin developed hundreds of 3D models and prototypes to find the most efficient folding mechanism. Revolve Air’s wheels also are puncture-proof. The gap Mocellin filled is clear. And because Mocellin is an excellent industrial designer, the chair is aesthetically pleasing as well.

And guess what? As it turns out, Mocellin did reinvent the wheel. Revolve Air uses modular, foldable, hexagonally structured wheels!

DEI and Creativity

Whether you’re an individual or part of a team, an organization, or a company, diversity, equity, and inclusion matter. Research shows exposure to multiple cultures in and of itself can enhance creativity.¹³

Social psychologist Adam Galinsky, the Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics at the Columbia Business School, has conducted extensive research supporting the claim that diversity yields creativity and innovative thinking. In one study, Galinsky and his colleagues found that people who have deep relationships with someone from another country become more creative and score higher on routine creativity tests.¹⁴ In a field study, Galinsky and his colleagues studied esteemed fashion designers from major fashion houses who had immersed themselves in different cultures. They found the time spent in a different culture “predicted their entire fashion line creativity.”¹⁵

In 1998 the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad, an ensemble of diverse musicians. Silkroad is “a model for cultural collaboration—for the exchange of ideas, tradition, and innovation across borders.”¹⁶

In Ma’s speech “Art for Life’s Sake,” he used a biology metaphor to make an important point about diversity, which he called “the edge effect.” Ma gave an illuminating example of creativity from ecology. At the point of intersection, where two ecosystems meet, such as the forest and the savannah, is the site of “edge effect.” “In that transition zone, because of the influence the two ecological communities have on each other, you find the greatest diversity of life, as well as the greatest number of new life forms.”¹⁷

Ma explained: “The edge effect is where those of varied backgrounds come together in a zone of transition; a region of less structure, more diversity and more possibility. The edge is a time and place of transformation and movement.”¹⁸

You’ve just seen how individuals who thought about inclusion and equity formed their worthwhile ideas, setting goals, finding gaps, and seeing gains. Research shows that diversity within corporations and organizations promotes creativity.¹⁹ The most common assumption is that simply bringing people of different backgrounds and cultures to the table enhances a group’s creativity. Some research, however, says that it goes beyond that: in a diverse group, people anticipate differences of opinion or differing perspectives or beliefs and work harder to prepare their research and rationales, which enhances discussions overall.²⁰

DEI in Teams and Companies

We have seen how looking at the Three Gs from others’ perspectives will amplify your thinking by revealing issues and points you might not have considered. Research points to perspective taking as an important mechanism to unlock diversity’s potential for team creativity.²¹

There is also a business case to be made for diversity and inclusion. Companies that are more diverse than their peers are more likely to outperform on profitability. And, according to a recent report from McKinsey, the greater the diversity, the higher the likelihood of outperforming their peers:

Companies with more than 30 percent women executives were more likely to outperform companies where this percentage ranged from 10 to 30. . . . A substantial differential likelihood of outperformance—48 percent—separates the most from the least gender-diverse companies.

In the case of ethnic and cultural diversity, our business-case findings are equally compelling. . . . As we have previously found, the likelihood of outperformance continues to be higher for diversity in ethnicity than for gender.²²

To build high-performance teams, “look for ‘cognitive’ diversity, which is mixing people together with different thinking styles, habits and perspectives,” advises research firm Gartner. The firm goes on to advise “Diversity is the first and easier step, but inclusion is the key to leveraging diversity.”²³

There are ways to go about working on diverse teams to amplify the Three Gs. When seeking ideas that are worthwhile and not just profitable, we must initiate dialogue and not debate. This demands more than simply assembling a diverse group. “Companies will not reap benefits from diversity unless they build a culture that insists on equality.”²⁴ Once again, a way to do that is to understand others’ perspectives and other points of view. When I interviewed Donald R. Marks, associate professor of psychology at Kean University, he told me about the work of Lisa Schirch and David Campt, who published a book that he highly recommends to everyone, especially people in leadership positions—The Little Book of Dialogue for Difficult Subjects.

Marks explained,

The framework draws crucial distinctions between “debate” and “dialogue.” As the authors note, debate is conducted with winning in mind, even if that means discrediting the views of others. The aim of dialogue, by contrast, is understanding another’s perspective. When one listens to another person in the context of debate, one does so to find holes or flaws in the counterargument. In dialogue one listens to understand how other people have arrived at their perspectives and beliefs. . . . Dialogue favors trust and collaboration as participants share their views and work toward shared understanding.²⁵

I asked Rich Tu, group creative director at JKR, “What are five essential questions about power, identity, intersectionality, appropriation, dehumanization, and systemic racism that business people should ask when critiquing and judging strategies or creative ideas?” Tu responded with the following:

1.During this process, was there an opportunity for everyone to contribute?

2.For this solution to win, does someone have to lose?

3.Is this community telling their story?

4.Would I be proud to take a snapshot of this “table” I’ve set?

5.Most importantly, Who are we missing?²⁶

Responsibility and Allyship

If you elect to tell someone else’s story, you have a responsibility to be an ally.

In his animated film Flee, director and writer Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells the story of his close friend, Amin (whom he’s known since high school in Denmark), who fled Kabul as a child with his family during the 1980s to seek asylum in Scandinavia. (Amin is not Rasmussen’s friend’s real name. Rasmussen elected to keep his friend’s identity hidden.) As a director, Rasmussen behaves as an ally and employs the medium of animation to creatively tell another person’s story in a responsible yet authentic manner. Animation allows an artist to remove us one step from reality yet convey a narrative we can relate to.

Rasmussen had set a goal of telling Amin’s story when the two men were in their twenties, and he waited for Amin to be ready to tell it. Rasmussen wanted to tell his friend’s personal story, but when the 2015 migrant crisis erupted in Europe, both filmmaker and subject felt the story had to reflect this new reality.

“I felt the need to give the refugees we saw on the highways in Denmark and the rest of Europe a human face . . . and show that being a refugee is not an identity. It’s a life circumstance,” Rasmussen said.²⁷

When we employ the Three Gs for art, whether visual arts, literature, music, drama, poetry, or any unconventional art form, it is often more challenging to point out the gap but easier to point out the gain because people inevitably respond, and the work resonates. In the case of Flee, Kim Skotte, the film editor for the Danish newspaper Politiken, sums it up: “For Danes now it’s becoming the kind of film that you have to see if you want to know what’s going on. That’s very, very different from being oh, another heavy documentary about refugees.”²⁸

In his acceptance speech for the 2021 Nordic Council Film Prize, a prestigious annual award given by the region’s parliamentary body, the director implied his goal, gap, and gain. “When we talk about refugees today, it soon becomes a discussion about who is for and against refugees,” he said. “But I hope Flee will remind people how important it is that we continue to turn to each other.”²⁹

“Where Are You Really From?” and Other Microaggressions

Throughout my career, I have heard an occasional person ask another, “Can I touch your hair?” or “Where are you really from?” By looking through the DEI lens, ad agency Droga5 created a campaign that supercharges the Three Gs.

How many times must Asian Americans respond to the question, “Where are you really from?” To counter bias, Droga5 created the pro bono “Really From” project, a series of special “travel posters” for the Asian American Federation, a public advocacy group. Each poster spotlights a personal story from community members, including Instagram fashion partnerships director Eva Chen, novelist Kevin Kwan, speed skater Apolo Ohno, and victims of anti-Asian hate crimes such as Noel Quintana. Each subject was illustrated by a different Asian American artist and promotes a city, such as Houston, New York, and San Diego—because that’s where these folks are really from.

As a Filipino American, Droga5 art director Nod Arceo McFall had multiple experiences with racial microaggressions on both U.S. coasts. These encounters led him to the idea for this campaign. McFall told Muse about an exchange with a “Caucasian” nurse in a midtown Manhattan physician’s office. Although McFall told the nurse the name of the city in Washington State where he was raised, she still asked, “But where are you really from?” “The commonality in which AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] folks encounter this question is ubiquitous, and really is a sign that many in the United States still associate Asian Americans as a population to be ‘other-ed.’ It signals to AAPI people that in some ways, we are still not welcome in the country that many of us were born and raised in.”³⁰

Kevin Nadal, professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Andrew Limbong of NPR:

Microaggressions are defined as the everyday, subtle, intentional—and oftentimes unintentional—interactions or behaviors that communicate some sort of bias toward historically marginalized groups. The difference between microaggressions and overt discrimination or macroaggressions, is that people who commit microaggressions might not even be aware of them. . . . Oftentimes, people don’t even realize that they’re doing those sorts of things. And in fact, if you were to stop them and say, “Why did you just move?” They would deny it because they don’t recognize that their behaviors communicate their racial biases.³¹

When I teach, I present DEI as a surefire way to magnify the power of the Three Gs. To fulfill her senior passion project assignment in my design course, Danielle Thomas, now a professional designer, created a short film titled Pretty for a Black Girl. The film deals with microaggressions against Black women today. Kean University aired Thomas’s film during our annual Research Days conference. After the film was shown, dozens of women in the audience rushed up to Thomas to praise her work and say how the film’s message resonated with them. Thomas was talking to them about something they were living. Stereotypes related to race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, or to people living with disabilities, prejudice woven into policies, social injustice, systemic racism, bigoted rhetoric, and conspiracy narratives all likely fuel potential offenders’ acts.

Let’s look at Pretty for a Black Girl through the lens of the Three Gs. Thomas’s goal was to illuminate microaggressions against Black women. There was a gap in film about this subject. The gains are raising awareness, educating potential offenders, and encouraging dialogue.

After completing this chapter, here are your action steps:

Think not only about how diversity, equity, and inclusion amplify the Three Gs, but also about how exclusion and bias amplify social injustice. Answering these questions will set you on the path to ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ask:

•Have I considered the viewpoints of others in determining my goal?

•Have I supercharged the Three Gs by taking multiple perspectives?

•For my idea to succeed, does someone or some group have to lose?

•When working on a diverse team, have I used the Three Gs?

•Is it possible to shift or evolve a goal so that a more diverse group will gain?

•When working on a diverse and inclusive team, have I had a dialogue with my teammates?

•Do I have an opportunity to explore another culture, to learn, and to be immersed in that culture?

•Do I have an opportunity to elevate equity?

How you frame your goal, or reframe it once you’ve set it, can make a world of difference to your progress. Framing and reframing can take lots of forms. For instance, “I want to reinvent the wheel” is by any measure a lofty goal. When Mocellin reframed it as “I want to reinvent a wheel for a foldable wheelchair,” he generated a great idea. Take time to see if you can reframe your goal—or reframe your question. Changing a frame allows you to see the goal from different points of view.

Be receptive to different viewpoints or opinions. Listen and don’t shut down when someone else’s view doesn’t line up with your own. I’m not suggesting you need to listen to misinformation or the ramblings of people who are ignorant; rather, be open to new experiences and to what intelligent people and experts have to say. Engage in dialogue not debate.

Think about being willing to revise your thinking or views. Be open rather than overconfident or stubborn, and separate your specific point of view from your sense of self. Being open to new methods and new experiences (whether it’s a cuisine you’ve never tried or a point of view you’ve never considered) or being curious about a diverse range of others’ views—all set you up for inspiration.

For example, spatial ideas in the woodcut prints by Japanese artists of the ukiyo-e school influenced the work of impressionist Claude Monet. Monet didn’t appropriate; he was open to different ideas about depicting spatial illusion other than the ones conventionally employed in Western European modern art. Listen and engage respectfully.

When you are working toward generating an idea with a group of people, try using “Yes, and . . .” It’s an improv tool that encourages the participants to accept what their partner has said (“Yes,”) and build on it (“and . . .”); it works well to keep a discussion flowing respectfully, without shutting anyone’s suggestions down. “Yes, and . . .” challenges people to move a discussion forward, avoiding negativity and perhaps bias in a corporate setting.

“Seeing Something in a New Way Is Seeing It for the First Time” is a prompt Richard Wilde, professor, creativity expert, creative director, and author, would give to his students in a visual thinking course at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.³² That’s what perspective taking does as well.

NOTES: YOUR IDEAS

To unlock your creative potential, think of ways you could learn about different cultures. I suggest a virtual or actual visit to an art or anthropology museum to see a collection you’ve never seen. For example, the following museums offer virtual visits:

Louvre: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/

Smithsonian: https://www.si.edu/museums

Tokyo National Museum: https://www.tnm.jp/