Episode 672: Being Intentional about Diversity / 第672集:專注於多樣性
第672集:專注於多樣性
Print This EpisodeSynopsis
本週的節目是基於Misner博士與Brian Hilliard《Networking Like a Pro》的合著者）共同撰寫的一篇博客文章。隨著世界上發生的所有事情，他們認為是時候來談談分散你的商業網絡的重要性了。對我們來說，這意味著讓你的BNI分會多樣化。
根據麥肯錫（McKinsey）的2015年“為什麼多元化很重要”報告，種族和族裔多元化程度較高的公司實際上比其行業的國家中位數收益高出35％。 維持多樣化的網絡是一件好事
您如何使您的網絡多樣化？
Brian和Ivan提出了七種使你的商業網絡和BNI分會多樣化的方法。這些並不是唯一可行的方法。
- 認識到多樣性是一個過程，而不是一個程序。你必須每天都致力於此。
- 看看你手機和社交媒體上的聯繫人，看看他們有多多樣化。
- 考慮為那些讓你接觸到與你不同的人的組織做志願者。
- 強調與看起來不像您的人交談。
- 邀請不同種族的人參加你的網絡小組。
- 無論您在組織中的任何地方，都應使此計劃自上而下。
- 將多樣性硬編碼融入您的業務結構中
Episode 672: Being Intentional about Diversity
Synopsis
This week’s episode is based on a blog post that Dr. Misner wrote with Brian Hilliard, co-author of Networking Like a Pro. With everything that’s been going on in the world, they thought it was time to talk about the importance of diversifying your business network. For us, that means diversifying your BNI chapter.
According to McKinsey’s 2015 “Why Diversity Matters” report, companies with high racial and ethnic diversity are actually 35% more likely to perform above their industry’s national median return. Maintaining a diverse network is just good business.
How do you diversify your network?
Brian and Ivan came up with seven ways of diversifying your business network and your BNI chapter. These are not the only possible ways.
- Recognize that diversity is a process, not a program. You have to commit to it daily.
- Look at your contacts on your phone and social media to see how diverse they are.
- Consider volunteering for organizations which put you in contact with people who are different than you.
- Make a point of talking to people who don’t look like you.
- Invite different people of different ethnicities to your networking group.
- Make this a top down initiative, wherever you are in the organization.
- Hard code diversity into the fabric of your business
Read Being Intentional About Diversity by Brian Hilliard and Ivan Misner on IvanMisner.com.
If you’re a BNI member and you have a positive suggestion to help increase diversity in BNI chapters, please share it in the comments.
Complete Transcript of Episode 672
Priscilla
Hello, everybody and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you today?
Ivan
I’m doing fantastic, Priscilla, and I have a really important topic to talk about. And that’s about being very intentional about diversity. Recently, Brian Hilliard, my co-author on the book we did, Networking Like a Pro, he and I wrote an important article on diversity in your network. And I’d like to share that content on this podcast. And I’ll include a link to the article and to my blog as well. So you can have the article piece in addition to this podcast.
Priscilla
Okay, great.
Ivan
What we said in the piece was that with everything going on in the world today, we thought it would be a good time to take a step back and talk about diversity and more specifically, about diversifying your business network or for us, diversifying your BNI chapter. Developing a truly diverse network is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do. Because let’s be honest, different people bring different things to the table in terms of who they are, and how they might be able to refer other people to your business.
Now, like we said in our book Networking Like a Pro, networks are by nature clumpy. (That’s the technical term.) Cluster-like. People, you know, have a tendency to congregate and surround themselves with people that are similar to them are similar to us, whether by race, gender, religion, professional status.
Unfortunately, this approach to networking has unintended consequences, namely that we tend to form these clusters. And this is why it’s so incredibly important to be intentional about the way we develop our personal network. A diverse personal network enables you to increase the possibility including connectors to your network. These are people who cross over in some way between two or more groups of people. The best way to increase the number of possible connections in your network is to intentionally develop a diverse network that has connections to other clusters of individuals.
Now if you go with the premise that relationships are the currency of today’s modern business, then it stands to reason that having an ethnically diverse network comprised of people who look different than you, actually is the next logical step when it comes to building a thriving referral based business. But for a lot of people, especially those in the majority, whatever that is, in whatever country you’re in, the question becomes, how?
In other words, how can I diversify my network and get to know more business people in other ethnic communities or other age ranges, you know, people that are different than me? And that’s a great question, one that at first glance seems to be pretty daunting, at the least.
But as with most seemingly complicated questions, the answer is, I think, and Brian believes, quite simple. Be more intentional about what you do. In other words, as a member of any ethnic group, the tendency is to spend time around more people like yourself, so whatever ethnicity I am, I’m more likely to have friends and business contacts of that ethnicity. And while that’s understandable, we feel, Brian and I, that entrepreneurs who diversify their networks based on ethnicity, gender, and a host of other factors are actually better positioned to be more successful.
As a matter of fact, McKinsey and Company did a report just a few years ago. It’s called Diversity Matters, which determined that companies having a high racial and ethnic diversity are actually 35% more likely to perform above their industry’s national median return. That’s an impressive number. And it’s one of the reasons why it’s good business as well as being the right thing.
So the question then becomes what can we do to branch out and overcome the gravitational pull that we all feel towards spending time around people who are kind of like us? How can we instead become more intentional in our actions when it comes to actually meeting and engaging others in different communities? And that’s another great question. And we have some thoughts. And these thoughts aren’t meant to be the only ideas there are. And if you are a member of BNI and you’re listening or reading the podcast transcript, and you have a positive suggestion to help increase diversity in the groups, please share it here. We’re looking for positive ideas, always. And so please share it here.
But I’m going to share with everyone here today, seven different thoughts that we talked about, Brian and I in our article, on how to actually create a more diverse BNI Chapter, a more diverse network.
Number 1. Recognize that diversity is a process, not a program. In other words, diversifying your network has to be something you want to do and commit to do, to be doing, daily. You have to do this on a daily basis. It needs to become part of your core beliefs that you’re going to be intentional about meeting and engaging people who don’t look like you. Anything less than that is almost guaranteed to eventually fail.
Number 2. Looking at your phone and business contacts on social media, do they all look the same in terms of ethnicity, age, education, gender? If so, then you’ve got to keep listening because we have some ideas that might help you with this. As I said earlier, diversity is a process, not just a program, and it has to be an ongoing process. So look at your contacts to see how diverse they are.
Number 3. Consider volunteering for certain organizations, which put you in contact with people who are different than you. This could be as simple as volunteering as a coach for a local sports team, scheduling some time to visit an inner-city school during, maybe, a career day. What a great project that would be for Business Voices, a BNI career day in an inner-city school. It could be sitting on a local community service board. I’m very active on the Austin Boys and Girls Club as a board member. Just take it upon yourself to broaden the scope of contacts that you have with various ethnicities.
Number 4. And this one came from Brian. Make it a point to talk to people who don’t look like you. This is one that Brian personally started doing two years ago and I love it. So as an African American man in his 40s, who grew up in the north, but lives in the south, he actively takes it upon himself to talk to any person who doesn’t look like him.
He says, this is him talking, he says, “I just make it a point while passing them at the grocery store, walking to my car in the parking lot, picking up some Chinese food, and I say Hey, how’s it going?” Depending on the situation, sometimes that leads to more conversation. Sometimes it doesn’t. But it gets everyone out of their comfort zone for just a short bit engaging new folks. I really like this about Brian and I can definitely tell you that he walks the talk in doing this, I’ve seen it.
Number 5. Invite different people of different ethnicities to your networking group. If you’re in a BNI chapter, this is a perfect opportunity for you to engage others and invite them to your group. For example, maybe you’re out networking and you see a person of color and you decide to implement the previous point about talking to people that you are nearby. Then great, during that conversation you let them know about your group and ask them if they’d like to come, tell them you would love to have them come to the group. And that’s it. It’s super easy to do, but you have to be intentional about it. You have to look for people, you have to observe people, and you have to be intentional about making that ask.
Number 6. Make this a top down initiative, wherever you are in the organization. For those of you who have employees in your business, this is a crucial point. If you’re not the boss, but you’re a manager of some kind, that you have people beneath you, you know, take it from the top down at wherever you are in the organization. If you want to have diversity in your organization, and be more successful as a business because of it, then you absolutely have to take the lead in making diversity a thing in your group, and this applies to the BNI chapter.
The chapter Leadership Team has to make it a thing, it has to be something that’s discussed, and is a goal and objective. And it means it’s something that people value when you’re talking about it, something that people do, and it’s something that you as a leader set an example on a regular basis for other people to emulate.
And Number 7. Hard code diversity into the fabric of your business. Similar to the previous leadership point, if you’re going to be serious about diversity in your business, put it in your public material, address it when you’re talking to your team or employees, make it a part of the DNA of the organizational culture. So that people are crystal clear on how you feel about it, and how it plays out in your company. Put it in other forms of communication, just like this podcast, for example. Put it out there publicly, so the world knows, your clients know, your associates know, your employees know, where you stand and how you address this issue.
It’s important to note that there is a subtle but crucial difference between inclusivity and diversity. And most people don’t talk about this. Brian and I had a long conversation as we wrote about this and we thought it had to be included. Your group, your BNI chapter, may feel like it is very inclusive. But when you look at it from the outside, does it truly look diverse? If not, you need to be more intentional about being inclusive to create diversity.
Diversity is a fact. Inclusiveness is a choice. I want to repeat that. Diversity is a fact. Inclusiveness is a choice. Intentionally acting in an inclusive manner is what creates diversity. So, look, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not there yet. Maybe you haven’t done these things as well as you could have. But today is the day to start. It’s never too late to do the right thing. And that’s my message for today, Priscilla.
Priscilla
That’s very good, Ivan. I really like that.
Ivan
Thank you. I appreciate it. I think it’s really important. And I want to reiterate for those of you listening, if you have a positive contribution to the question, how do you in fact, be more intentional? I would love to have those positive contributions here. I read every post that gets put up, so thank you very much, Priscilla. That’s it.
Priscilla
That’s great. Okay, well, thank you so much, Dr. Misner.
The sponsor for this podcast is Ivan’s Inner Circle. Go check out the great content available at www.Ivansinnercircle.com. Ivan has assembled a variety of interesting topics for you to learn about and participate in. So thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.
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