We could substitute –

·Men don’t mind ·Asian Americans don’t mind ·Short people don’t mind ·Presbyterians don’t mind ·People who haven’t finished college don’t mind ·Southerners don’t mind ·Rich people don’t mind ·Irish people don’t mind ·Hearing-impaired people don’t mind

Generalities like this simply don’t work.

In “Beyond Race and Gender,” author R. Roosevelt Thomas defines managing diversity as “a comprehensive managerial process for developing an environment that works for all employees.”

And “all” employees are individuals, so there you have it.

There remains need for a common language, and given extreme diversity these days, Emotional Intelligence is an excellent tool. I have trained coaches from all over world in EQ, and concepts are understood by all. In fact there’s interest in EQ all over world.

Emotional Intelligence competencies include flexibility, intuition (good for reading nonverbal communication), resilience, interpersonal skills, communication and empathy. They are based on understanding one’s own emotions and those of others, and managing your own and those of others for best outcome. People from all cultures have same emotions and want to be treated with respect. Emotional Intelligence can bring common language and culture that is missing.

©Susan Dunn, MA, Emotional Intelligence Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . I coach individuals in emotional intelligence, and offer EQ programs and cultures for businesses. Internet courses and ebooks available ( http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html ) for a total program of personal and professional development. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE ezine.

Always debrief by asking what happened. Inquire how they felt about having their ideas agreed with and expanded? Where they stopped themselves? This post-discussion can help everyone learn about how they collaborate with each other.

Improvisation also requires taking risks, which in turn requires tolerance for making mistakes. When you can embrace failure, you can open door for better innovation. For example, you wouldn't want your airline pilot improvising on takeoff, but you might want airline to innovate and improvise in other areas, such as ticketing or baggage handling. Even zero-tolerance environments require skills of improvisation in crisis, as demonstrated by Apollo 13 mission when team of astronauts and ground crew had to come up with an innovative solution to filter carbon dioxide out of their space module.

The lesson here is, you'll never have all information you need to feel totally confident. You just need to leap ahead with information you do have and trust you'll handle things as you encounter them.

A number of years ago after I had started learning how to improvise better, I was selling radio advertising. I was making a big sales pitch to a retailer on how we could help his business attract new customers. He didn't like my sales pitch and asked me: "What else have you got?"

At that point, I stepped into unknown and started to improvise other solutions with him. After about 30 minutes, we had created a new, more exciting ad campaign for his establishment. As a result, I got even a bigger sale.

Had I argued with him, I'm sure I would have left with nothing, but by improvising in that situation, I realized there were more ideas to explore. Eventually I found one he liked and bought.

Another improvisational exercise, called "Freeze Tag," demonstrates challenges associated with changing situations.

Two people begin to play out a scene. When one observer sees an opportunity to step in, he or she calls "freeze" and replaces a player by assuming his or her physical position. The new player restarts action, taking scene in an entirely new direction. Individuals must be open to opportunities in situation and what they can offer to advance scene forward. When a new person enters, person remaining must be ready to support new direction.

Finally, remember that life is like improv. It's a performance; make it a performance that you're proud to participate in. Be willing to take more risks, accept and advance others' ideas, and trust you'll know what to do. The magic of improv is it nurtures us as creative, connected human beings -- not because it increases your profits.

Copyright In Moment Productions, Inc. 2004 www.inthemoment.biz