From the Board Room to the Beer Summit and Beyond - Diversity Management Pioneer, Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. Offers Commentary and a Broad Framework to Address Any Diversity Mixture, in Any Setting, and in Any Geographic Location in His Latest Book

ATLANTA, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- In the midst of current news stories like the firing of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Shirley Sherrod, the recently enacted Arizona immigration law, and the one-year anniversary of the famous "Beer Summit" at the White House, Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., one of the pre-eminent authorities on diversity in the United States, delivers a perspective in his seventh and latest book that can be applied to those "hot button" situations to help people make quality decisions in the midst of any set of differences and similarities and related tensions and complexities. In Thomas's book, World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach, he takes a universal look at diversity management and how it applies to companies, organizations, communities, and even families. With demographic shifts and globalization transforming the nature of relationships, interactions, and decision making, excellence in diversity management is more important than ever.

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Thomas positions World Class Diversity Management (WCDM) as parallel to the notion of World Class Manufacturing. He contends that World Class Manufacturing contributed to the development and advancement of the manufacturing discipline, and improved financial success for companies. He holds out hope that a similar thrust with respect to diversity management could generate corresponding results.

"The current tendency is to see 'domestic' and 'global' efforts as being separate and distinct," said Thomas. "I contend that there is a universal lens we can look through to make quality decisions. I define World Class Diversity Management as the capability to make quality decisions in the midst of any diversity mixture, in any diversity setting, and in any geographical location. WCDM is a universal diversity management capability."

For example, in an excerpt from World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach, Thomas explores more than the racial tension involved with the arrest of African-American Harvard professor, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by Cambridge, MA police sergeant James Crowley last July, but also the multitude of complexities and non-racial tensions in the situation that could have been handled differently.

BOOK EXCERPT REGARDING HENRY LOUIS GATES' ARREST BY A CAMBRIDGE POLICE OFFICER IN JULY 2009

"A key aid in handling 'eggshell' situations is to know yourself. A good practice is to monitor your response to determine if you are over-or-under reacting. Another good practice is to check the lens you are using to view the situation. Are you seeing it as one of race relations, of class relations, or as diversity, to name a few possibilities?

As I was writing this chapter, an African-American male professor experienced an encounter with a local, White male policeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Professor and his African-American car driver had difficulty opening the front door to his home. A neighbor saw the two Black males struggling with the door and called the police to report a burglary in progress.

By the time the policeman arrived, the two men had gained entry into the Professor's home.  The policeman entered the house and asked for identification. From this point, scenarios differ.

The Professor contended that the policeman was rude and disrespectful, while the policeman argued that the Professor was rude and disorderly. The policeman arrested the Professor, who was subsequently released after disorderly conduct charges were dropped. The incident received national visibility and various citations as a case of racial profiling; the Professor demanded an apology, which the policeman refused to give, and the President of the United States invited the two for a beer.

It didn't have to happen that way. If both had realized that they were in an eggshell situation of the first magnitude, they could have dialed their behavior down to avoid provoking the other and walked away from the encounter. That is, they might have chosen to be politically correct.

They also could have checked the lens through which they were seeing their situation. If they were using a race relations lens, as apparently they were, the Professor possibly saw in front of him a White policeman reflecting all he had learned and heard about improper police behavior toward African-Americans  The policeman possibly saw the stereotype of an uppity African-American man refusing to accept the legitimate authority of a White male. This was probably the most volatile of possibilities.

A city/university lens would have suggested to both men that racial dynamics were not necessarily the issue.  Instead the encounter could be seen as reflecting the traditional tensions between the city and the University. Here, the Professor might have viewed the policeman as the personification of an unreasonable city government, while the policeman might have seen the Professor as representative of the high brow academic circle. This scenario likely would have been less volatile than that of the racial dynamics lens.

Another lens possibility would be that of class relations. Here, each man would have seen the other as reflecting a particular class of society, and that would have been the crux of their conflict.  Indeed, for the policeman and Professor, this too might have been an intense situation.

Whatever the lens they were using, mutual self awareness and the ability to step back and use multiple lenses could have helped to ratchet down a tense situation. Overreacting or under-reacting can be dangerous in eggshell situations."  

Co-published by Berrett-Koehler and ASAE (American Society of Association Executives) & The Center For Association Leadership, World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach (288 pages) is available in hardcover for $32.95 (ISBN 978-1-60509-450-2), or as a PDF e-book for $23.07 (ISBN 978-1-60509-451-9) by going to www.bkconnection.com, www.Amazon.com, or www.rthomasconsulting.com.

ABOUT DR. R. ROOSEVELT THOMAS, JR.

Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. is Chairman and CEO of Roosevelt Thomas Consulting & Training (RTCT) and Founder and Senior Research Fellow of the American Institute for Managing Diversity (AIMD). Recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top ten consultants in the country and cited by Human Resource Executive magazine as one of HR's Most Influential People, he is a sought-after speaker, media resource, and author of seven books, including his most recent one: World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach, a book that explores a broad framework for achieving a world class diversity management capability in the midst of any diversity mixture, in any diversity setting, and in any geographical location. The other published books he's authored include Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Work Force by Managing Diversity; Differences Do Make a Difference; Redefining Diversity; Building a House for Diversity: How a Fable About a Giraffe and Elephant Offers New Strategies for Today's Workforce; Giraffe & Elephant: A Diversity Fable; and, Building on the Promise of Diversity.

For more than 25 years, Dr. Thomas has been at the forefront of developing and implementing innovative concepts and strategies for maximizing organizational and individual potential through Diversity Management. Renowned as a subject matter expert, Dr. Thomas' revolutionary framework for addressing diversity issues is called the Strategic Diversity Management Process™. He has used this process to provide strategic coaching to a multitude of Fortune 500 corporate executives, non-profit associations, government entities, professional firms, and academic institutions to name a few.

He holds a D.B.A. in Organizational Behavior from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration and an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Administration. He also served as Secretary of the College at Morehouse College, Dean at the Graduate School of Business Administration at Atlanta University and as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Business School.

Contact: Betsy Helgager Hughes at BLH Consulting, Inc., +1-404-688-0415, [email protected].

SOURCE Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.