I was moderating a round table discussion last week on the topic of workplace diversity and the Net Generation. The official topic description was “Maximizing the Potential of All: Creating an Inclusive and Diverse Work Environment” and some of the key questions that arose were:

• How does the Net Generation perceive diversity compared to other generations?
• Is the evolving model of diversity one that values diversity of thought and experience, versus race, sex, sexual orientation, national background, socioeconomic background, etc?
• Does greater diversity greater to more innovation?
• How can leaders unleash the diversity of opinions and ideas within their companies?
• What tools/technologies are important for promoting diversity?

I’ve been mulling over this for a few days now and talking about it with my co-workers the preliminary conclusions I’ve come to are as follows:

As far as enterprises are concerned, diversity of thought and experience is probably most important because it provides different perspectives and new ideas, and should lead to greater innovation. My hypothesis is that this is the type of diversity that most Net Geners perceive as most important, both among their peers in the workplace and among leadership.

Diversity of thought and experience is most likely achieved by hiring people that fit traditional notions of diversity (race, creed, sex, education, age, economic status, etc.) but is also a factor of travel experience, social groups, interests and hobbies, and ultimately personality. (Note, hiring the right mix might mean incorporating some of the tips outlined in the post “No pictures? No videos?!? Wow – your CV is SO 1.0.”) Since companies generally can’t just go out and hire people to fill the diversity quotient, there should also be some ongoing internal processes for encouraging employees to seek new experiences and broaden their thinking.

“Maximizing the potential of all” is just as much about having the right mix of people as it about making sure the right management infrastructure and culture is in place to encourage dissent and promote a variety of opinions. Having the most diverse group in the world means nothing if they are managed by an overbearing boss or a draconian set of corporate rules and predefined parameters.

Achieving diversity might mean defying traditional education/career path assumptions. The centuries old model of hiring graduates from predefined talent pools may limit true diversity. Since I’m an analyst, I’ll use my own industry as an example. Analyst firms typically hire exclusively from business schools; however, the result can sometimes be a somewhat homogeneous army of ROI-minded, spreadsheet-crunching, PowerPoint-creating MBAs that want to approach every problem with a two-by-two matrix. What’s to say that a grad with a background in journalism, library sciences, mathematics, or communications wouldn’t make a good analyst? I’ve worked with some great analysts that came from each of these disciplines.

Thoughts?