#36 Diversity as an Onion🧅

Humans are complex beings made of not only bits of their family tree, but the communities they live in, the cultures they’re immersed in, the people the meet, and the media they’re exposed to.

This is the last post on diversity for now. We covered Bias in HR and the SEEDs model in the last two editions. This post will cover how diversity is much more than just visible characteristics such as race, gender, and age. While these characteristics are important, diversity is way more complex and multi-dimensional (like life, really). In fact, I like to think of diversity like an onion, with many, many unique layers that each contribute to an individual's unique identity and experiences.

Humans are complex being and are made of not only bits of their family tree, but the communities they live in, the cultures they’re immersed in, the people the meet, the media they’re exposed to and more, here are some layers to get you thinking:

• Demographic characteristics: At the outermost layer of the onion, demographic characteristics refer to the visible traits that we often think of when we think of diversity. These can include things like race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical ability. These characteristics are often pretty easy to identify and can have a significant impact on an individual's experiences and opportunities. When we think of diversity, we often think just of these. But people are made of so much more.

• Personal experiences: As we move toward the heart of the onion, we find the layer of personal experiences. These include things like upbringing, education, career experiences, and personal interests. These experiences shape an individual's perspective and can impact how they approach and view the world. We begin to understand these of friends and colleagues the longer we know them, but they don’t just exist when you find out about them, they’re always their and colour people’s view of the world. Just like yours.

• Beliefs and values: The layer of beliefs and values represents the core of the onion. These are the deeply held beliefs and values that shape an individual's worldview and guide their actions and decisions. Beliefs and values can be influenced by a variety of factors, including religion, culture, and personal experiences. These can also change over time as peoples’ understanding of the world grows and matures, as they experience more, err, experiences and learn more about the beliefs and values of others.

• Intersectionality: The final and most important and overlooked layer of the onion represents intersectionality. This refers to the ways in which different aspects of an individual's identity intersect and interact. For example, a person's race, gender, and socioeconomic status can all intersect and influence their experiences and opportunities. Their personal experiences, beliefs and values and demographics all combine to create a unique and wonderful human. Like everyone has a unique fingerprint, everyone has a unique onion inside of them. Except this one doesn’t smell and can’t be used to make soup.

Understanding that diversity is like an onion in this way is important for several reasons:

• It helps to broaden our understanding of diversity: By recognizing that diversity goes beyond visible characteristics, we can better understand and appreciate the complexities of an individual's identity and experiences and oh boy are people complex.

• It helps to create more inclusive environments: By considering the many layers of diversity, we can create environments that are more inclusive and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. We won’t just provide for visible diversity, but all types.

• It helps to improve communication and collaboration: By understanding the different perspectives and experiences of others, we can communicate and collaborate more effectively and build stronger relationships. Connections and bonds will be formed through a shared examination of our differences and similarties.

• It helps to foster creativity and innovation: By bringing together people with a variety of backgrounds and experiences, we can foster creativity and innovation and come up with new and innovative solutions to problems. A bunch of clones in a room will just come up with similar ideas.

Diversity is much more complex and multi-dimensional than we often realize. By understanding diversity as an onion and recognizing the many layers that contribute to an individual's unique identity and experiences, we can create more inclusive environments and foster creativity and innovation.

It’s a cliché, but remember - everyone is fighting a battle you can’t see. Sometimes they’re battling their onion.