The Hindu Business Line : Can birds of different feathers flock together?

Taking flight: Since organisations bring together a motley bunch of employees with diverse talents, they should focus on integration to succeed as a team.

Ganesh Chella

If this organisation has to grow, the old-timers must change their mindset.” “These new hires are so mercenary in their attitude.” “Why are we hiring these high-priced engineers from premier institutions? They are using us as a training ground.”

All of us are familiar with these voices of struggle within organisations. So, can birds of different feathers really flock together? Can such diverse groups within organisations learn to respect one another and work together?

In my opinion, organisations incur an enormous economic and human cost because of their inability to help people recognise, respect and work with diverse talent.

Organisations old and new have one common need — the need for talent. They are looking for talent in every nook and cranny of the labour market. What they finally put together is a motley group; a group of people brought together from different sources with the fond hope that they will all flock together towards the common goal of the organisation. Alas, that is not to be.

The delightful fable (which is also a video) A Peacock in the Land of Penguins by B.J. Gallagher Hateley and Warren H. Schmidt most truly describes what I am trying to say. Through the engaging story of Perry the Peacock and other exotic birds who struggle to be themselves in the conformity-minded Land of Penguins, the book brings home the message about the problems of respecting the diversity of talent.

What then are these problems really? I see the problems of talent diversity taking several forms:

Diversity of educational qualifications is one such area. Organisations have MBAs and non-MBAs, engineer MBAs and pure engineers, engineers and MBAs from Tier-I institutions, Tier-II and Tier III institutions, diploma holders, ITIs, graduates, people who have passed class XII and so on. The list is very long!

What really causes the problem is not the fact that we hire from diverse sources. Obviously we must. The problem is that we keep reminding them and others that they have come from different sources, in a very dysfunctional way. As Alison Wolf author of Does Education Matter? said: “We are creating societies in which the sheep and the goat are marked for life in their teens.”

Organisations complicate the situation by creating separate pay structures and progression charts for each educational source instead of quickly integrating them, beyond a point, onto a common platform. As a result, many individuals live their professional lives with an inferior identity and deep regret.

Diversity of tenure is the second source of concern. The issues of tenure-led diversity are even more debilitating.

Organisations have old-timers and new-comers, those who have grown from within and those that have come from outside. Newer organisations also have the ‘original founding team’ and ‘others’.

Employees with significant tenure view the new breed as rolling stones that gather no moss. They see them as opportunistic people who run away in the face of adversity. They are most peeved about the growing disparity in pay between them and those who have come from outside.

Employees who enjoy moving on and experiencing new organisational settings are proud of the fresh perspectives they bring, their apolitical and professional orientation and, most importantly, the fact that rolling stones seldom gather the avoidable moss!

The new-comers complain about the inability of the old-timers to think afresh and embrace change freely, while the old-timers talk about all the turbulent changes inflicted upon them by their footloose colleagues. Founding teams lament the lack of ownership in the next generation and the next generation talks about the original coterie and its non-inclusive ways.

Diversity of age is the third source of concern. “I sent this mail to my senior colleague. Instead of replying, he prints it out and writes, “let us discuss” on it and sends it back to me through the messenger,” says this restless young employee.

“The poor quality of workmanship, the lack of attention to detail and depth is annoying,” laments this older employee about his younger colleagues. The inability of the older employees to adapt to technology and display speed irritates young employees. The lack of rigour and the mindless pursuit of speed among younger employees irritates older employees.

Is there something organisations must and can do? Clearly, the inability to address issues of talent diversity will only lead to serious wastage of talent. Organisations must do something about it.

First and foremost, organisations must believe that talent is universal and is not resident in a chosen few. Organisations that believe in this will certainly not add to the confusion. One approach is to bring in diverse talent. The other is to put talent into discreet boxes and not let them integrate. HR policies must promote integration.

Organisations must talk about their talent diversity quite openly and consistently. Every induction programme and every leadership development programme should dedicate one session to the subject of talent diversity. The effort should be to sensitise employees to the issue and to reinforce the organisation’s commitment to pursue the philosophy of talent being universal.

Most importantly, organisations must also make conscious efforts to support certain groups of employees by giving them access to all opportunities within the organisation. They should take affirmative action to help all groups of employees to grow and prosper. So-called talented people cannot become a social class of their own.

It is apt to remember the beautiful words of Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest proponents of real freedom, in the poem ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’: “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls… into that heaven of freedom, my Father, Let my country awake.”

(The writer is the founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR Consulting firm. He is also the co-founder of the Executive & Business Coaching Foundation India Ltd. He can be reached at ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

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