The power of difference

HRNZ sat down over Zoom with Simon Fanshawe OBE, co-founder of Stonewall, a UK charity that transformed the face of gay rights, and author of the book The Power of Difference. In his book, Simon discusses how we can be brave and he addresses the fundamental idea that humans are all different. 

Simon’s career has spanned broadcasting, journalism, and training and advocacy for equality and diversity. A regular on various BBC radio and TV programmes, Simon now focuses his time on working with organisations to create diversity solutions through his consultancy, Diversity By Design. 

HRNZ: What led you to write a book and consult with companies about diversity? 

Simon: I think I’ve always been an advocate. When I first went to university, I thought it’d be great to be a lawyer. I realised that I’m interested in hearing about different cases and finding some kind of common cause. I went on to be a comedian, and I thought maybe I could be an advocate for social change there. But that was ridiculous; I mean, the old joke is that if the cabaret had been a bit better in Berlin in the 1930s, the Second World War wouldn’t have started! Comics don’t have the power, but we have been able to set the narrative, and so I’ve always had a career to do with social change. 

HRNZ: Do you think diversity is in crisis right now? 

Simon: I believe that diversity is about difference. The current crisis is that diversity, certainly in the UK, has become a set of rules and prohibitions, which actually makes diversity a tool of conformity. In other words, it’s precisely not about difference. So if we’re really going to pursue diversity, what we have to recognise is that there is diversity both with people belonging to different groups (eg, Māori and non-Māori, men and women etc) but also there is difference between individuals within each one of these groups. Just because they’re defined by groups in relation to a particular part of their life, that doesn’t represent the whole of their life. One of the current dangers is that companies have ingested this idea of diversity being described just in terms of groups and not recognising individuals. And also the need to focus separately on solving the deficits and realising the dividends – which is how you combine people’s differences to create better results. 

HRNZ: What do organisations need to firstly look at with diversity? 

Simon: I think one of the difficult things organisations need to decide about is whether they will be activists in this context of diversity. And that’s an open decision. I think one of the problems for diversity at the moment is that it’s bleeding over into the area where there’s a kind of insistence that companies need to be activists. But if companies decide to be an activist, then they need to have made that decision as a company. In other words, can you take your staff and your leadership with you? My question would be how much was the conversation inside the company, and how full was that conversation? And how much is this decision about a political or societal gesture, or how much is it just about a marketing endeavour? 

For example, Nike has a marketing advantage in taking a strong position on diversity. [They used an image of American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling in its 30th-anniversary marketing campaign for its iconic “Just Do It” slogan.] High-profile sportspeople in their market are ‘taking the knee’ (a symbolic gesture against racism and police brutality against black Americans), so it makes sense that they made that decision. But I suspect that they felt it was the correct positioning for their brand and that there was less thorough conversation within the organisation before making the decision. 

To continue reading this article, and discover more articles related to this topic, check out the latest issue of our magazine. The theme for the Winter 2023 issue of Human Resources is Diversity: let’s make more progress. Access it online: https://issuu.com/hrnz.magazine/docs/2023_hrnz_winter_magazine_issuu