Difference Is Power

Lou Gerstner began the first meeting of task-force chairs. He spoke for 20 minutes about what he wanted, reinforcing his commitment to Team IBM. He said that he didn't want anyone to create divisiveness. Then he left. When I was sure that he was gone, I said, "Look, you're all here because I handpicked you. And you all know I fought for this, so I don't want any misunderstandings. I want to remind you of something. Many of you have bitched to me privately, saying such things as 'I'm a woman, and I had to go through this,' or 'I'm black, and I have to live with this.' Well, now you've been given a license to help us all understand those issues. And if nothing else, be motivated by what you've encountered during your career that you didn't think was fair. Make this a better place for the kids who will be your predecessors, so that maybe they won't encounter those same problems."

How have you encouraged people to represent their constituencies without turning IBM into a collection of special-interest groups?

We've taken steps to minimize that possibility. We continue to talk about the concept of Team IBM, and, once a month, I lead a meeting of all task-force chairs, during which I ask, "What are you working on? What are your issues?" I say, "Look, I want these meetings to be substantive. I want everyone to know what everyone else is working on. Because we need to be going forward as Team IBM, not as the black group, not as women, and not as gays and lesbians. We need to be going forward as a team with recommendations that will make this a better company. So think about what we can do to make IBM a better place for your constituency -- and a better place for all people."

Because these executives were senior people in the company, they had enormous credibility. I knew that they weren't going to drive this project off a cliff. But at the first meeting, the chair of the white-male task force made a telling comment: He said that his group's members had concluded that their primary objective was to make sure that the other seven groups didn't see them as the problem. He made the comment humorously, so everybody laughed. But we also saw the value of his comment, and we knew that the guy who spoke was very thoughtful. He also said, "We recognize the issues here, and we want to be part of the solution. And part of our vision of the solution is that there will be more people who don't look like us in senior-management positions." That provided a foundation for enormous thought -- and enormous cooperation.

What have these groups accomplished?

We scheduled their preliminary presentations for December 1, the anniversary of Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat on a bus. The groups each came back with two or three things that they thought were important for the company to address. Consistent throughout was a focus on the talent pipeline, employee development, and making sure that we had good, detailed recruiting strategies in place. That our development programs and our mentoring programs were at work. That we were sending crisp, clear messages to people about how they are valued. That we were sending clear messages to men that work-life is an issue for everyone, not just for women.

The white-male group presented a wonderful agenda. First, its leader said, if we are serious about diversity, then we need to take more ownership of it -- ownership at the senior levels of the business. Second, if we are serious about the universal pertinence of work-life issues, then we need to start having discussions that address everyone, instead of just women. Third, if we are serious about diversity, then we ought to address the subject on a nationwide basis, not just within IBM.

One presentation that I was particularly eager to hear (to find out how it would be received) was the one from the gay and lesbian group, because I knew that its members' most important issue involved domestic-partner benefits. I thought it would be a benchmark discussion because some of the other constituencies had difficulty with those issues. But nothing exploded.

You were expecting more controversy?

When IBM was thinking about offering domestic-partner benefits, I was the one who led a discussion among senior management. Some employees worried that such a benefit would bring in more AIDS cases, which would drive up the cost of our premiums. So we had an outside firm examine our insurance expenses. And that company discovered that the cost of treating a catastrophic illness, such as cancer, or of dealing with a serious accident is typically higher than the cost of treating someone with AIDS. We pointed out that what increases medical costs most at IBM is childbirth.

We also pointed out that the group with the most education, the highest computer-literacy rate, and the largest disposable income, as a whole, is the gay community. So do we want to ignore that kind of a market? The diversity game is played from the neck up, which means that you have to use your brain.