A case against Discrimination

Problem: We're all discriminated.  Discrimination is everywhere and everyone is vulnerable to it.

from Clker

My inspiration: I've attended many conferences about promoting women in medicine. A statement made by a female cardiologist stuck with me a long time and has been the seed for this blog. She said, and I paraphrase, "by excluding women, you've excluded 50% of the pool of intelligence."  This was a light bulb moment for me. Really, the same is true for any sort of discrimination we impose on others or are imposed by others.  In contrast, this same reasoning is true for why crowd sourcing works. The ultimate example, of course, is Wikipedia. When we solicit from all individuals, the final product we get is far superior than anything else available.

Case example:  We all can get frustrated at individuals who bother us for various reasons but my friend Hilton Oyamaguchi reminded me that every individual has unique strengths. The best leaders and managers have diverse teams and harness strengths in each of the team members. To avoid the possibly of letting our frustration lead to discrimination towards specific individuals, maybe the key is to understand people, their strengths and limitations. Then, change our strategy and devote our time and resources to areas that will produce results. By resisting our temptations to discriminate, maybe we're all better served. Then, we'll be able to work with the best minds and we'll live in a better world.

Limitation:
It's very hard to change our feelings and our habits. But, maybe the first step is to be open to it?