“We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion.”
— Max de Pree
Diversity comes in many shapes and forms: it could be a diversity of tangible or abstract qualities, such as of height, weight, ethnicity, race and abstract characteristics, such as of thought and perspective. Diversity is somewhat difficult to define and nurture, but easy to feel and recognize. Malcolm Forbes defines diversity well: “the art of thinking independently together.” Diversity signals a symbiosis of thought – the coming together of different minds that, though harboring entirely contrasting backgrounds and experiences, are great and thus think alike. If not, they think differently, which could lead to new resources and opportunities for growth. In other words, diversity is healthy.
The diversity of all types must be appreciated and embraced; it will be uncomfortable for some but the accommodation and inclusion of diversity are worthwhile for all of us. I’ve lived in various diverse environments in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the US my entire life and thus identify with diversity on a hugely personal scale. Diversity teaches us that conflict, disagreement, and unique perspectives should be appreciated for their merits since they can foster new ideas and features that could strengthen success, whether that be a grade for your group presentation, a group project, or an assignment you’re completing at work. It’s a common assumption that the people we meet share the same perspective as us; at Cal, it’s good to know that most students are aware of the diversity of thought from their peers, but it’s still something that most of the non-UC Berkeley population isn’t familiar with.
Just because we all have the same set of eyes as visual organs don’t mean that we see and process everything the same way. We filter everything that we observe through our unique mindsets, formed by our own life experiences, our work, our values, our cultures, our opinions and biases, and our own individual knowledge bases. We both may see 20/20 but our brains process everything on a completely different set of film material – which is a beautiful quality to realize. Diversity helps to provide different viewpoints and outlooks on issues that help us gain a fuller and more complete view of the world around us, one equipped with unique insight and information coming from a diverse array of mindsets and intellectual sources. In this sense, diversity of thought and perspective should be embraced, instead of shunned; shying away from what makes us feel not in our comfort zone (read: uncomfortable) shouldn’t be the practice. As students of the world’s number one public university – as students of a leading institution of higher education – the promotion of diversity of perspective should be our best practice for life, and although Berkeley does a great job at accomplishing this goal, diversity should be a trait we strive to include even after our four (three or five; diversity of graduation!) years here are over.
The diversity of perspectives could help us achieve our own goals as well as the goals of others better through a variety of viewpoints that enable the professional growth of others, provide some freedom to us by allowing everyone to become “part-leader,” and create new solutions to existing problems. A diversity of perspectives can create new solutions through the gap of information between what we know and what others know. When working in groups, we hopefully know and see an entire vision of what we wish to achieve from start to finish, but others who share our goal may not have such a firm big picture in their own minds yet; this is advantageous because they can then provide various perspectives on the nitty-gritty nuances of our vision and perhaps provide better ways to fulfill our desired tasks or deliverables more efficiently than we otherwise would have brainstormed due to the big picture clouding our own thoughts in our minds. A lack of a vision on our colleagues’ part may work to our favor by allowing them to suggest methods for achieving the vision that we – the dreamers – already mentally possess. In order to elicit these suggestions and ideas for new solutions, however, we must all make a sincere effort to create an open and supportive workforce environment, one that encourages engaging conversations that are organically commenced and continued spontaneously. I like to think of this as an extension of the golden rule we’ve all learned in kindergarten at some point: be nice and cultivate a culture of sweetness. That way, everyone will feel safe to contribute whenever they feel the need to.
Additionally, diversity of perspectives provides us with an opportunity to grow our skills and knowledge base in unprecedented ways: we all have experienced real-life examples of this before, at some point or another in college. I liken this thought to the concept of having a DBI (Designated, Better Individual) around us (similar to DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend, sans the horribly offensive meaning) who will most likely not be the go-to expert for every single aspect of something we need help on but may happen to be the jack of the trade we’re currently dealing with. We may know all there is to know about accounting and financial principles, or the latest fashion trends and workout tips, but may have to delegate any CS61A problem sets or calculus questions to the experts over in Soda Hall. Being well-versed in only some parts of a certain area is often favored because it means that others’ skill sets could be noticed and utilized to fulfill the objective in question, but of course, more erudition never hurts! As iron sharpens iron, one friend sharpens another and skills spill over from one person’s arsenal to other. Connections are enriched. Other team members we join forces within classes – and in life – function as useful assets whose intellectual knowledge could be ‘hired’ and shared as expertise for specific aspects in our life. However, it must be stressed once more: we must take special care to encourage a culture of open communication in all the milieus we encounter and work in to spark others to reach out and offer their expertise in the first place. Deliberate efforts must be made to include other individuals’ diverse thoughts, opinions, and skill-sets, either through formal requests that stress a ‘free for all’ buffet of judgment-free discussion or informal interactions that let others know that their opinions – no matter how divergent – are welcome.
We collegiettes don’t need to be the end-all, be-all means of information – we don’t need to feel pressured to be the ones who will always have the answer to have a final say in decisions and group discussions. Often times, we may not have the decision ready at the moment and will need to gather feedback from others – our family, our friends, ourselves when we’re in a better mood and mindset – in order to reach a conclusion. Taking advantage of the diversity of perspectives, thoughts, and viewpoints means that we can then adopt a more holistic, whole view of entire decisions or scenarios and thus take more variables into account that otherwise would not have been considered, had feedback from our diversity players not been gathered.
We should learn to set our egos aside at all times to objectively consider all received feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism to effectively tackle the project objective. We don’t have to be the Google or Google Analytics of our work and projects; instead, they could be the sponges that take in all available information, organize and process the information, and collectively use that information to produce the desired end deliverable (s) using a well-constructed, multidimensional approach. A diversity of ideas and perspectives must be appreciated and listened to in order to gain benefit towards completing our objectives, our wants, and our goals – both personal and professional – on-schedule, on-budget, and up to par with our expectations as well as those we strive to impress.
After all, ladies, “a lot of different flowers make a bouquet” (Muslim Origin).