BostonBlog

Welcome to the BostonBlog. Sometimes it's nice to know a little bit about the conference speakers to help decide which sessions to attend. Here's the first of many posts highlighting conference speakers -- in this case, Claire Rains, who'll be presenting on Monday from 3-4 on generations and diversity, how to design offerings that appeal to each generation; talk to members about subjects that connect to their value systems; target generations in your marketing; and retain today’s members.

Here's what this author of Generations at Work and the The Art of Connecting has to say about diversity:

"When it comes to diversity, our nation and most of its businesses have historically operated on the melting pot theory. It was great for forming a country, but it’s time for a new metaphor. After all, when you melt everything down, it gets mixed together and it into a mass of gray sludge. The different groups lose their uniqueness. Everything becomes uniform and we lose that variety of perspectives. Potential goes untapped.

I think it works better to think of corporate diversity as a stir-fry where the cook adds a variety of things—genders, generations, ethnicities. Each retains its uniqueness and contributes flavor to the whole dish. Something wonderful is created that is far tastier, more nutritious, and more interesting than any one part. To lose even one ingredient would diminish the texture and taste."
Diversity & Generations, by Claire Raines, 2002

With all these food metaphors, I'm getting hungry and so I'm off to lunch! Find out more about Claire at her website. Several of her books are available on Amazon.