Customer Reviews

Building a House for Diversity: A Fable About a Giraffe & an Elephant Offers New Strategies for Today's Workforce

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Using a short fable as metaphor and a springboard, shows how managing diversity relies upon building skills and changing mindsets. Most of the book presents case studies of how people who face diversity challenges on the job address them. Closing chapters provide some general guidelines for individuals and organizations for achieving diversity maturity-knowledge about and comfort with the dynamics of diversity-and diversity effectiveness-the ability to deal with people distinctly diverse from you. An interesting work that is nearly on a par with the author's most outstanding contribution, "Beyond Race and Gender." Reviewed by Yvette Borcia, co-founder, Stern & Associates, co-author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

Cheers to Dr. Thomas for providing a book that is one of the first -- in my opinion -- to present a clear picture of the need to address workforce, workplace and marketplace diversity. I came away understanding that to address one or two of these components without addressing the third is like commissioning a two to three mile dig, when all the geological reports tell you that oil is six miles down. Half and quarter steps will not lead to success. In the most simple straight-forward way, starting with a powerful parable, Dr. Thomas drives home the point that for true strategic benefits organizations need to make a balance commitment to the all three components.

Another great take-away from this book is Dr. Thomas's model for identifying and differentiating between business requirements and preferences.

All in all this is an extremely powerful book that should be in every manager's library. Thank you Dr. Thomas.

Joe Santana
Co-author of Manage I.T.

I anxiously looked forward to reading this book. Given the titles of Thomas's previous books, Redefining Diversity and Beyond Race and Gender, and the title of this one I expected more than passing reference to the disability community. I was disappointed.

We are told (p.84) that "I'm becoming more aware of sexual preference and physical ability diversity as well." Although I'm not one to get hung up on word choice, others are, and those locutions aren't popular in gay, lesbian, or disability-preference communities. In the latter are millions of people with ADHD and psychiatric disabilities, and for these millions to be excluded from a "house for diversity" would make it a "house divided against itself."

A tipoff for readers is the Personal Diversity Maturity Index. The reader is asked "What is the most important reason to respond to diversity?" The preferred answer has nothing to do with justice and social change, or even with building a house that will include your neighbors, your parents, your kids, and possibly you. It's "The diversity-mature manager recognizes that diversity is good for business."

I think this is an enjoyment book for the whole family. It arrived in a decent time to my location in the Netherlands.

Good concept to open the discussion of diversity. Elephant/giraffe and sports analogy was helpful in getting people to talk about the issues.

I have used this as a supplement to a textbook in a class on industrial organization psychology. Just about every student finds it helpful and sees it as a fresh perspective on diversity. It sets a tone for thoughtful discussions on diversity through the semester.