As leaders, How Can We Create Unity in a Divided Company and World?
The article “The Top 10 Most Important Current Global Issues” by The Borgen Project highlights critical reasons why simple answers are elusive in today’s world. These include complex challenges like climate change, pollution, violence, security and well-being, lack of education, unemployment, government corruption, malnourishment and hunger, substance abuse, and terrorism.
Each issue is multifaceted and interconnected, requiring nuanced and comprehensive approaches rather than simple solutions. Addressing them involves global cooperation and a deep understanding of the underlying causes and potential impacts. Leaders must be concerned with these global issues and deal with internal problems stemming from fear, anger, lack of trust, and communication issues.
Creating unity in a divisive organization, especially for leaders, involves several key strategies:
Promote Open Dialogue: Encourage open, respectful communication. Create platforms where different groups can share their perspectives and listen to each other. This is one of the most difficult in today’s environment because many have become dogmatic based on biased data, false information, and selfishness. Many leaders have taken to hiding or ignoring the issues, hoping they will disappear. However, that is not the case. Sticking your head in the sand only makes you butt the target.
Focus on Common Goals: Identify and emphasize common objectives that transcend differences. Creating a solid vision and purpose for the team that everyone has had a hand in developing can help unite people towards a shared drive. Unfortunately, this requires that everyone be willing to compromise rather than hold out for their point of view, which adds complexity to the process. Persistence is the primary tool that is necessary to come to the table.
Cultivate Empathy: Encourage understanding and empathy for different viewpoints and experiences. Having a sense of shared humanity within any organization creates a better culture and ability to reach outside the organization. This is vital for internal and external sustainability.
Lead by Example: Leaders should model the behavior they wish to see. This includes showing respect, patience, and willingness to understand others. In 50 years of management experience, I have seen this as one of the primary faults leaders may have. It ranges from looking the other way when shortcuts are taken to having extramarital affairs when they promote a family environment at work. This is coupled with the current divide between senior leaders and rank-and-file workers’ salaries. While I have worked for many great leaders over the years, their wages seem extensive since they would not exist if the people under them did not provide the momentum for delivering goods, services, and customer service. Addressing this issue is part of leading by example.
Educate and Inform: Combat misinformation and promote education on critical issues. Informed staff and citizens are more likely to engage constructively. Too often, the first thing to get cut in the company budget is training, which makes sense because so much of that training is lip service or just plain useless. Creating a well-managed education program tied to career management training could benefit companies immensely.
Build Bridges, Not Walls: Actively work to bridge divides, whether ideological, cultural, or socioeconomic. The organization must be open, transparent, and well-managed to be successful today. Having specialty divisions within the company does not mean that they should be in a silo or isolated from everyone else. Leaders must communicate, encourage, and justify the big-picture approach to begin tearing down walls.
Celebrate Diversity: Recognize and value diversity’s strength in communities and organizations. With the current immigration crisis in the US today, there is an intense backlash coming from ultra-conservatives. Texas, for example, is, in essence, trafficking migrants around the US to spread the impact of that immigration. Most studies I have seen over the years support diversity being the bedrock of innovation, growth, and trust. This country is a melting pot of immigrants, which many are looking to ignore and becoming isolationist. Yes, some voluntary isolation takes place when new immigrants come to the US, but it is driven more by familiarity rather than force. Celebrating diversity takes empathy, trust, and much hard work on both sides, whether within a country or a company.
Inclusive Decision Making: Ensure different voices are heard and considered in decision-making processes. This is critical in any situation because the process becomes dictatorial without it. Statistical sampling can work. However, if the queries are biased, misdirected, or poorly planned, they destroy the concept and, ultimately, the company.
Address Root Causes of Division: Work towards addressing the underlying issues that lead to division, such as inequality, injustice, or lack of opportunity. This statement is easy to say, write, and explain; however, living it is a whole different thing. As mentioned above, root causes can be multifaceted and interconnected, so trying to ferret out the actual root cause may be difficult, unpleasant, painful, and likely embarrassing. Ultimately, it is worth the struggle and anguish if you want the company to be sustainable.
Collaborate with Other Leaders: Working with other leaders and influencers to promote unity on a larger scale can be a significant advantage when dealing with divisiveness. However, collaboration inside and outside the company requires a lot of empathy, trust, and transparency while protecting proprietary processes and formulas. It is a balancing act and contrary to much press today indicating that it is draining companies and employees because this situation occurs due to poor management and structure.
These strategies require ongoing commitment and effort but can create a more unified, peaceful company culture, community, nation, and world. As leaders, stakeholders, collaborators, and partners, we must understand that these problems will not fix themselves.
Unless everyone is willing to work for improvement rather than fight to stay isolated, ignorant, or selfish, then we will fail, and the problems will continue to escalate and eventually take a toll that none of us want to imagine about the future.
