More Creativity Through Diversity

            Trying to solve a problem? Look at it from fresh angles. The Far Side
comic above shows how diversity in your team can broaden problem solving and creative work. This works for new approaches in marketing or any creative pursuit connecting with an audience. Writing for Forbes Community Voice, Nysha King recommends tapping online resources (King, 2019) to discover the life experience of your audience. This move doesn’t exactly bring diversity into your creative team, but it brings in diverse ideas and is step one in diversity marketing.

            While addressing a Power of Women luncheon, Tina Fey, former head comedy writer on Saturday Night Live, explained that in comedy writing rooms “women are treated like expensive cappuccino machines. Where it’s like, ‘We have one. Why would we have two?!’ That’s too much pressure on that one person – to carry that, to be the African-American writer, the female writer. It’s always about changing the chemistry of the room. The more diverse the room is, it automatically becomes better,” (Chuba, 2018). Later, in an interview with David Letterman on his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Fey expands on the issue, citing a time when another  writer, Paula Pell, had an idea for a Kotex classic commercial parody and the pitch died in the room with not enough laughs voting for it. The room did not understand the gag. Fey stood up for it, it got made, and it was a success. Fey realized she needed a second laugher to vote for the idea. I would take it even further, creatively it would be great to have even more laughers with that shared experience to debate or take the idea further. This leads us to the old concern that more diversity will sow more divisiveness and slow down decision making for a team.

          As a leader, if you are getting: “Yes!” “Perfect!” “100%” be wary. Your homogeneous but cohesive creative team may have consensus clearing the way to success and acclaim, but could just as easily be headed for mediocrity or public embarrassment. Diverse views and dissenting opinions expose your creative team to better choices, better results, and possible greatness. King, writing for Forbes Community Voice, states that a creative team can miss that their PR or marketing ideas are offensive due to their lack of diversity (King, 2019). This is the problem of many yeses leading to one big, public, “Oh, no they did not.” King recommends hiring people with diverse backgrounds and to find them by investing in programs that enhance inclusion. “This can take people out of their comfort zones and help your organization avoid a loss of respect in the marketplace,” (King, 2019). Instilling diversity programs is the duty of management, those in the position of power.

         In her autobiography, Becoming, Michelle Obama describes several times in her childhood when representation would have helped her feel more confident that her dreams were achievable. Visualizing and internalizing your own success may seem simple, but it takes work and input from community. Consequently, for White House events, she made it a point to bring in school children from the surrounding public schools of D.C. and not just from the elite private schools that the White House staffers and her own kids attended (Obama, 2018). Her actions reminded me of a powerful U.S. archival photo, showing the power of inspiration from childhood experience. Below is future president William Jefferson Clinton meeting sitting president John Fitzgerald Kennedy, when Clinton was a Boys Nation senator in 1963 (“World History Project”).

Though his own presidency interrupted the recent U.S. presidential dynasty of the Bush family, Clinton did not come from a U.S. power family where political careers are expected. Clinton cites this early access to Kennedy as inspiration to dream big. These are examples from public service, but they show how vital it is to inspire those from diverse backgrounds to aspire to reach new levels . When staffing an organization keep in mind that access and representation do not happen magically. Action must be taken to build future diversity.

Diversity Don’ts & Handy DOs

• Don’t skip market research. Do tap into your audience’s experiences expressed online.
• Don’t keep tokens the minority. Do hire many tokens for your creative team so they have the space and support to disagree and transcend token-hood.
• Don’t be lulled by your agreeable homogeneous team. Do trust a diverse team to be on the look-out for pitfalls, missed opportunities, and areas for growth.
• Don’t keep access points closed off. Do inspire others through representation from diverse backgrounds.

References

Chuba, K. (2018, April 13). Tina Fey wants to make sure she’s not the    only woman in a writers’ room. Retrieved from  https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/tina-fey-power-of-women-speech-female-writers-1202751728/#!

King, N. (2019, Feb. 15). Making the case for diversity in marketing and PR. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/02/15/making-the-case-for-diversity-in-marketing-and-pr/#793ff392424d

Larson, G. (publication date unknown). Far Side comic strip.

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, Season 1 Tina Fey, available on Netflix.

Obama, M. (2018). Becoming. New York, NY: Crown.

World History Project (web publication date unknown). Bill Clinton meets president John F. Kennedy 1963, July 24. Retrieved from  https://worldhistoryproject.org/1963/7/24/bill-clinton-meets-president-john-f-kennedy