October 4, 2016, Rockville, Maryland – The New America Expo organized a press conference to kick off the diversity expo scheduled for October 23, 2106 in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Kick-off event was held at Restaurant La Tasca on Gibbs St in Rockville Maryland and attended by several dignitaries including the State Senator.
America will continue to be a model nation in the world; it has led the humanity in governance, technology, medicine, innovation, science and structuring the society. Now, the time has come to take bold steps in expressing and admiring diversity, let the world emulate us!
Here comes Cristina Frey with the “New American Expo; an informative community fair.” Per the organizations’ website, http://newamericansexpo.com/ “It brings together under one roof more than 90 government agencies, nonprofits and businesses to showcase their services and products to the community, especially to immigrants who want to understand how to better navigate the American society.”
Mark your calendar: Sunday, October 23, 2016 | 12:00 Noon to 6:00 PM
at Silver Spring Civic Building, 1 Veterans Pl, Silver Spring, MD 20910
The event will be posted at www.DMVCalendar.com, a new website to list the public events in DMV area.
My talk was on “What is the big deal about diversity?” Why should we value, and what do we gain from it.” Here is the article and it is availalbe at www.CenterforPluralism.com and www.TheGhousediary.com
What is the big deal about diversity?
By Dr. Mike Ghouse
Each one of us tunes into a radio station called WIFM: “What’s In For Me.” What is the need to have diversity in your organization and how does it benefit you or your organization?
Every organization is made up of people who are loyal and committed to the prosperity and profitability of an organization. While a majority a of the board members, associates and employees stick to the guidelines for a smooth sail, a few don’t and pull down the productivity of entire group.
The old fashioned way was to ‘get rid’ of those who were a drag on the company, However, over the years, we have learned that it is expensive to deal with such issues and not good for the attitudinal health of the business.
Diversity of attitudes, culture, social, racial ethnic and religious is inherent in most organizations. Indeed, if we can learn to respect the otherness of others and accept the uniqueness of each one of us, conflicts fade and solutions emerge. I believe knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to appreciation of a different point of view, and different way of expressing things. This attitude of inclusion will mitigate if not remove the conflicts within and nurtures the goodwill.
This week, I read three wonderful articles at Harvard Business Review, namely; ‘Why Diversity Programs Fail’, ‘Designing a Bias-Free Organization’ and ‘We Just Can’t Handle Diversity’.
Let me add another enduring dimension to it, and that is building cohesive work places.
By the end of 2020, there will not be a major city in America, and perhaps in the world, where you will not find people of different faiths, cultures, ethnicities, races, nationalities and social backgrounds working, eating, playing, interacting, marrying, and doing things together.
This is bound to create social and personal conflicts harming the smooth functioning of the corporation. We need to prepare ourselves for those eventualities to prevent possible conflicts, and lay a good foundation for nurturing goodwill and effective functioning of the societies. Exclusive work places will become a thing of the past. If you live amidst others, you must also respect the otherness of others, as you expect them to do the same for you.
You are who you are, and I am who I am. As long as we don’t mess with each other’s space, sustenance and nurturance, and mind our own business, we all will do well.
I will be sharing many examples, and one among them is looking at our own example of cohesive functioning of our body.
Our body is made of billions of cells, forget about it, it is beyond comprehension, let’s focus on a dozen organs –brain, eyes, nose, hearing, chest, lungs, heart, stomach, liver, intestines, kidneys and Anus. All these have to work together, coordinate with each other for cohesive functioning of the human body.
One day a fight broke out between the organs, the Brain said, he is the most important part of the human body, Heart laid down its own legitimate claim to its importance… and at the very end, and the Anus claimed he is the most important organ. All organs laughed and ridiculed him, the Anus was not going to take the abuse and told them boldly – let me show you guys who is important here and shuts down. Have you ever had constipation? Well, the pain spread out to everyone including the brain with headaches, the organs could not take it anymore and said, ok, Sir Anus, AH, you are the most important organ, are you happy? The Anus retorted I don’t need any one to patronize me, just say, I am equally important to human body to function it effectively!
I will be sharing many examples some of them will be live skits to make the point of respecting the diversity. One of them would be the dining example and other one the rest room.
Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker, Interfaith Wedding Officiant, and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, terrorism, human rights, motivation, and foreign policy. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.
Mike has appeared in over 300 TV shows including 100 plus on Sean Hannity and Stuart Varney at Fox News. He has written over 3000 articles, and a third of them on Pluralism and Co-existence. He has done over 700 hours of Talk show radio on understanding the essence of religions and diversity, and conducted many workshops on building cohesive work places and societies. Two books are on the horizon – Standing up for others and a Pluralistic America. All his work is encapsulated in 65 links at www.MikeGhouse.net