One of the great promises of the internet is the ability to expose people to unique and divergent points of view that they may not otherwise experience through their normal social network and typical interactions. While this promise has been fulfilled for many internet users, a competing pattern has emerged: one of balkanization. Balkanization is a shorthand way to describe a number of interrelated phenomenon: the tendency for people to associate with those who are "like" them (homophily), the "power law" rule through which a relatively few number of sites become dominant, and the ability for people to customize their web experience through choice. Together, these technologies, rules, and behavior tendencies result in people visiting sites that reinforce their own worldview — effectively creating a very personalized and narrow web experience from a much wider, more diverse whole.
Filter Bubbles
With the advent of web 3.0 technologies, particularly the personalization of search results based on profiling and search history, balkanization has been given a significant technological assist. A recent book and related TED talk (embedded below) titled "The Filter Bubble" by Eli Pariser highlight the key issues in this regard. If you don’t have time to view the embedded video below, a summary of key points follows:
Video Summary
- Personalized search results reflect the algorithms’ perceptions of your interests
- Personalized search is not limited to browsers; it now includes Twitter, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo News, news sites, etc…
- Human information gatekeepers have been replaced by algorithmic gatekeepers
- While it’s important that we see what we want to see; it’s more important that we see what we *need* to see; ie diversity of viewpoints, information that is relevant to the public good and to the public life
While the Filter Bubble is a key challenge on its own, it’s actually a force multiplier of the previously noted factors related to balkanization. The stronger one’s own personal search tendency and web tendencies, the greater the reinforcing effect by the personal search algorithms, resulting in ever narrower the results.
The Demise of Google Translate
It’s tempting to dismiss the "personalized" web as a unique and very specific challenge of modern life; however, the implications and related issues are much broader. Last week, for example, Google decided to deprecate it’s Translate API because it found itself in a technological echo chamber. One of the basic tenets of Google Translate is that it would improve by capturing and comparing vast amounts of translated material on the web. In theory, the sheer volume of content would enable Google Translate to improve over time. This assumed however, that all translations are good ones. The reality is that many content producers use the Google Translate API to translate content without ever running it through a human quality review. The result was a technological echo chamber where instead of improving through the best efforts of diverse translators, Google Translate consumed an ever more homogenous diet of its own translations resulting in a stagnation of improvement.
The Importance of Diversity
The common thread in these technological and sociological challenges is the lack of diversity. As technology gets increasingly good at delivering what we want, we have to more consciously seek out what we need – diversity of perspective and new ideas. The same holds true for many practices within Talent Management. Diversity isn’t just a buzz word or a legal requirement; it’s a key business enabler with well-researched impacts on innovation, creativity, and productivity. To see real value in diversity though, we need to move beyond "legally required" diversity to a broader and more nuanced view that includes diversity in perspective, experiences, competencies, personality traits, cultural background, etc. In fact, a meta-analysis of diversity studies found that bio-demographic diversity (gender, race, and observable differences) had no impact on productivity or creativity while a greater diversity of personal and work-related attributes did have a statistically relevant impact. Along similar lines, a study from July of this year found a link between creativity and multi-cultural learning experiences.
As we push more and more functions through the line of business, however, this becomes a bit tricky. We are increasingly subject to the judgment of managers and executives, many of whom have not been educated about the importance of diversity in general, let alone more subtle aspects of diversity. As HR professionals, of course, part of our mandate is to address the obvious diversity measures such as race and gender. But it’s equally important that we educate the line of business about diversity in all of it’s manifestations across various talent management functions.
Diversity Across Talent Management Pillars
In recruiting, diversity means hiring to complement existing skills, competencies, perspectives, attitudes, experiences, and personality strengths and weaknesses. A required prerequisite of course is that the lines of business deeply understand these attributes in the team they already have. Another prerequisite is the need to have a clear picture of what a "perfect" mix of these attributes would look like for their team. With a clear vision of success and a clear understanding of their existing team, hiring becomes more of a Moneyball-style exercise where the line of business is hiring to round out high performing teams by acquiring missing talent, skills, experiences, etc.
In performance management, diversity means gathering multiple perspectives in performance reviews and goal planning exercises. If too much of the work is being reviewed and managed by a single manager, the team is limited by the perspective and experiences of a single individual. Gathering multiple points of view during the review and goal planning process provides an opportunity to tap into the collective experiences and expertise of the team, while reducing the impact of individual bias and related personality conflicts. It also enables teams to broaden their vision and depth of their planning activities. A critical enabler of diversity at this level is the ability for the manager to collect feedback on employees on an on-going basis from anyone the employee has worked with (e.g., 360-degree feedback programs), and for the manager to have on-going dialog with team members about individual goals and objectives in response to changing conditions and evolving business needs.
In succession planning, diversity is about maintaining a balance between individual team needs and the overall mix of leadership and key talent in the organization. This is an area where HR and line of business need to be in constant communication and where the broader HR perspective across the organization can be particularly valuable. The "perfect" successor for a given role on a given team may not be the "perfect" choice in terms of organizational balance and diversity. This is another reason why talent pools are much more effective than pipelines. With deep and broad talent pools for given roles, it’s possible to balance organizational diversity needs without sacrificing talent depth and quality.
In learning management, diversity manifests through informal and social learning practices where divergent perspectives, new ideas, and new best practices emerge from the team, and where opposing opinions and viewpoints in collaborative environments produce new insights and improved workflows. Given this, learning diversity is largely a manifestation of hiring diversity; to fully realize the benefits from the interplay of diverse perspectives and experiences, you have to start with diverse perspectives and experiences. With that foundation in place, a second foundational element is culture – does your culture support the free expression of diverse ideas and challenging ideas in a public setting such as discussion forums, blogs, etc.? And a third aspect is for learning professionals to ask themselves a hard question: are you prepared to shift some of your focus away from developing and delivering formal training, and towards enabling and facilitating greater (and now technology-enabled) informal and social learning in the organization? As an HR and Talent professional, you can in these many ways support learning diversity that produces divergent viewpoints, particularly at the level of individual line managers who are often at the front-line of new ideas and suggestions.
Surmmary
In a world of increasing personalization and "me" focus both sociologically and technologically, the importance of diversity is growing. Far from a limited employment mandate related to race and gender, diversity provides the foundation for innovation, creativity, and improved productivity throughout the organization. HR and talent professionals can support diversity directly through the thoughtful implementation of legally mandated policies and indirectly through education, support, and enablement of the line of business leaders. While a significant aspect of this indirect support includes awareness-building and cultural work, implementing a pervasive talent management technology infrastructure is a critical success driver as well. Without the necessary technology underpinnings and holistic talent practices they enable, business leaders lack the necessary awareness to make strategic decisions regarding diversity.
