The demographic makeup of society in general has changed dramatically in the last 25 years, and it will continue to change. The demographic of many professionals, however, has not kept pace and that of professional leaders even less so.
Living and working in our world and especially in our professions will require each of us to become increasingly aware of not only the challenges, but even better, the opportunities presented to us by the cultural changes occurring both around and among us. Both our professional societies in general and all of the various sections thereof should wholeheartedly embrace the concept of our growing cultural diversity.
We need to:
- Increase our awareness of the various dimensions of diversity.
- Examine our own cultural identity and how that identity affects our relationships with others.
- Become more aware of our own attitudes, perceptions, and feelings about various aspects of diversity.
- Commit to increasing our understanding of diversity issues.
- Make it important to ourselves and others to mentor and sponsor those in underrepresented groups so they can fully participate throughout all of our professional workspace.
My problem in taking the last of these steps is that from merely reading the of membership lists of the various professional organizations I have joined and seeing the same few hundred people with whom I regularly interact, I cannot see what opportunities exist to mentor and sponsor younger (I’m in my 60th year walking God’s great earth) people who might want to be so mentored and sponsored by me.
Therefore, to help me help others, please, respond off the list to me at KenBesser@LifeCycleLaw.com and tell me, if you feel underrepresented, who you are and how can I help you. Or, if you know someone else who is underrepresented, who they are and how do you think I can help them.
In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your workweek and then go have a meaningful day of rest with people you hold most dear.
By the way, using my CASE (Copy And Steal Everything) research and writing method, today I ran across a great Overview of Diversity Awareness first written by some Penn State people on 2001 and updated in 2015. It is some of the best and most easy to read discussion diversity I have ever read. There’s the link to it.