As I'm walking to the stage, what do you see?
By show of hands,
How many of you think that I am an Asian female?
Awesome. You all got that part right! (laughter from the audience)
How many of you think I'm good at maths?
Yes, I have always been at the top of my maths class.
How many of you think I'm a great driver?
Loving the crowd tonight already! Thank you for being so supportive. I tend to agree with you. But if you ask my partner Kieran, he would say "there's room for improvement". (laughter)
But there is more to it.
I am also a motorcycle enthusiast.
I live on a farm in rural Victoria.
And my career aspiration is to use technology to boost productivity and change the definition of workdays from 5 to 3.
(the audience cheered and applauded)
You wouldn't know all of these from my looks.
There are two types of diversity. An obvious one. And a subtle one. The one that you can tell from their looks and the one you can't.
The one that fits into our biases and stereotypes and the one that doesn't. The one that is seen and the one that is not.
The obvious diversity
A few years back, I started my career in the wealth management industry.
At a team building event, our team of 36 people were asked to play a game called "House of Cards". We were divided into a few groups to build a house as tall as possible out of the poker cards.
While all the groups were busy thinking about how to balance the cards, I paused and asked a question.
"Can we change the form of the cards?"
The host pondered and replied he wouldn't say no to that.
So, I tore two cards half way in the middle and joined them together to make a cross, then put a card flat on top to build my first layer and then added another layer and another layer. In the end, our group used all the cards available to us and won the competition.
There. That is the obvious diversity.
When I, the only Asian female junior in the room, asked a question that was considered seriously.
What happened? I felt my different thinking was accepted. My creativity was respected. I was allowed to be true and authentic around my colleagues.
Isn't that a wonderful feeling?
If you bring the obvious diversity into your organisations and your teams, not only recruit but also promote people from diverse backgrounds, you will capture the innovation and create a sense of belonging via diversity.
The subtle diversity
And then there is the subtle diversity. The ones that you don't notice, the ones that you don't see through a diversity lens.
I was born in Wuhan. A beautiful inland city in Southern China that most people had never heard of before Covid.
I lived there for 17 years until I chose to go to a university 1,000 km north from my home. The same distance from Sydney to Melbourne.
Running away from my strict Asian parents. Well, they didn't know that part. (chuckles from the audience)
My university organised dorms on campus so I got to live with 3 other girls at a similar age. They all came from northern China.
As a southern girl, I like to open windows to keep the air flowing. In my home town, if you don't do that, you will be sure to find mould underneath your bed and growing in the wardrobe. So I kept doing this for a whole winter until one morning, one of my room mates came up to me, very angry, and blamed me for making everyone sick as I kept the windows open.
I was shocked. I couldn't believe she misinterpreted my intention and thought so badly of me. I thought I was doing everyone a favour!
This is just one example where I was blinded by my assumptions. I had assumed that everyone was the same. Because we looked similar. We were at the same age. We even went to the same university. So, we must all like having the windows open.
What I forgot is that the winter in Northern China, unlike my home town, is very dry and much much colder. It never occurred to me to discuss our differences. Let alone to accommodate them.
The window to build relationships was closed.
There. That's the subtle diversity.
Whether you notice it or not, it's there. But if you do, if you stop assuming and seek to understand, the opportunity window to build stronger relationships is open for you.
What diversity really means
I really like the Paragon definition about diversity — Diversity of thought and lived experience.
No two people are exactly the same. Diversity is broad.
It may be our race, it can be our gender, it could be our age. But it can also be the minimal characteristics that differentiates us from one another. Like two solutions to the same problem. Like I prefer to keep the windows open but you prefer otherwise.
It simply means "being different".
I am sure we all know that diversity is a good thing. But what makes it so hard for us to capture the benefit of it?
Because we treat it like a problem. It is such an uncomfortable topic that we often avoid.
When we meet someone new, we tend to look for what we have in common. Did we go to the same school? Do we play the same sport?
Diversity is never the ice breaker.
Here is what I encourage you to do
Next time when you meet someone, new or old, instead of looking for commonalities, I want you to embrace the differences. Better yet, to celebrate it.
To look for and talk about what makes you unique and different from each other. Ask them about their life, their story, the lived experience and thoughts that you perhaps can learn from.
Let diversity be the ice breaker.
If you do that, to see others for who they are not what they are; if you create that kind of environment where being different is to be celebrated in your organisations, your industry, and your family — you will find the value of diversity is there, for you to capture.
Thank you.
(prolonged applause)