Targets and quotas have a place

I agree that arguments along the lines of you have to be an “X in order to understand an X” are unhelpful. The economic benefits of diversity don’t come simply from having differences in the room. It’s what you do with the differences that matter – “if you are X you need to be able to understand the perspectives of Y, Z, A and B, and vice versa”.

Targets and quotas do have a place, in that they drive a focus on outcomes. That shouldn’t be derided as ticking a box, as some do. It’s both a starting place and a finishing line. In between, the hard work of creating a safe environment for difference, enabling the appreciation of different perspectives, and then using the collective intelligence of the group to perform and innovate, is the hard, and still undervalued, work.

My comments on article by David Landsman, Executive Director at Tata Limited and Chairman Tata Europe Network Forum ‘Diversity: Numbers are only the start’.

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