Tomorrow I will attend my first “Diversity Boot Camp.”   I am also slated to speak on the topic at a conference in October, so I am paying closer-than-ever attention to the many ways that the blending of generations, cultures, gender, race, personal preferences, education and unique ideas can positively impact our society. 

If we think locally for a moment, the many ways the members of this group are different from each other is what makes us so great.  Innovation, inspiration, and progress comes not from uniformity but from honoring the value of our differences.  COMPASS 2012 (our company’s leadership-at-all-levels development initiative) kicks off this week; embracing and appreciating participants’ differences is an important part of the personal growth experience.

I invite you to share in this consideration, starting with these quotes:

In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction. -Audre Lorde

We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.  -Jimmy Carter

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. -Charles Evan Hughes

I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap. -Ani DiFranco

 

Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I send to my leadership team. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and, hopefully, motivational. I hope you also find some meaning in them.

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