Of Geese and Gulls

Of Geese and Gulls

I was driving by a well-manicured expanse of lawn covering perhaps six acres. In one spot, about 150 gulls were sitting on the grass in a large cohesive group, conducting a meeting on the drizzly morning. Just a few yards away, about 100 geese were holding court. Apparently, the Avian Aviation Authority had grounded all flights due to weather.

There were no gulls among the geese, no geese among the gulls. Neither ruffled the feathers of the other, but there was no interaction whatsoever. They each stuck to their own kind.

Too often people do the same. We stick with people who look like we do, think like we do, dress like we do, comport themselves like we do. I remember the New Yorker cartoon in which a man behind a desk talks to a job candidate on the other side of the desk who looks exactly like him and says, “I don’t know what it is about you, but I really like you!”

Yet we are sentient creatures, and our DNA does not require that we all look alike and act alike and congregate as one. We have free will, and our futures are mainly in our own hands, our daily behaviors totally within our own purview.

A Fortune 100 client once assured me, while hiring me to look into their diversity practices, that I would wind up using them as a model of diversity and inclusion. Yet when I walked into the massive cafeteria to look around at lunch, I saw all the gulls, geese, blue jays, robins, and sparrows—clustered together in their own groups.

Too many trade and professional associations appear to be birds of a feather—the same people saying the same things in the same way. There are no divergent opinions sought, no provocation, no exploration. I once facilitated a group of high-powered, male, insurance executives from 24 different firms. Every one had on a blue or grey suit, a red or blue tie, and wing-tips; all had hair that was grey, white, and/or balding. The topic was innovation, and why the insurance industry seemed to lag behind.

“Look around,” I advised.

With whom are you hanging out? At meetings, might you as well be peering into a mirror? Does anyone around you provoke, confront, upset, push back, or find irony? Are you walking away energized or merely content, agitated or merely reaffirmed?

My money is with the gulls. The geese fly in formation. The gulls fight for food. To me, all geese look alike. But the gulls have diverse colors and markings if you look closely.

The problem is that I shouldn’t have to look too closely at you to tell you’re your own person.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.