“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.” – Malcolm Forbes, Publisher
The United States population is approximately 317 million persons and growing. The world population is approximately 7.2 Billion persons and exponentially growing (check out the population clock at http://www.census.gov/popclock/)! Both numbers are incomprehensible in their magnitude but imagine this, let’s assume it takes about one second to say each number on the average. Although this is not a perfect science, since the bigger the number the longer it would take to say it e.g., 1 million is easier to say than one million three hundred seventeen thousand, two hundred forty six. But for the sake of argument we allow one second for each number. That’s a million seconds or 16,667 minutes equaling 278 hours or 12 total days! Similarly, 1 billion seconds is approximately 11,574 days! For a person that lives 80 years (or 29,200 days) it would take them 40% of their life to count to a billion out loud (and that would be without stopping to breathe, eat, etc.)
With numbers that big, wouldn’t it be foolish to make general assumptions about individuals or groups of persons? Yet, that is exactly what we do when attempt to fit everyone into nice tight little packages for the sake of expediency, efficiency, standardization or the like. How we attempt to build these “generic individuals” is by a concerted and continuous effort of assimilation, deliberate and instinctual ostracism (selection) and socialization of the spirit. Luckily, we are mostly and relatively born physically the same so medicine can work within general parameters and expectations. However, the psyche is a totally different matter altogether. Regardless if you are a Freudian or Jungian the understanding of who we are or will become will be attributed to environmental influences or genetic disposition. As a rule, individuals are unique in how they perceive. With this in mind let us then investigate how we can best produce solicitation documents that cross the diversity chasms established by the sheer number of persons we must address and their tendencies to create their own perceptions.
When developing solicitation documents we tend to rely on proven methods. “What has worked before will certainly work again,” is the procurement professional’s mantra. However, with changing demographics and the infusion of 140 character communications and the instantaneous gratification generation, do we truly believe that the audience we spoke to 20 plus years ago (when some of us started on this procurement trek or prepared the boilerplate we use) is the same audience we are speaking to today? How many of us have gone into pre-solicitation conferences and asked, “Any question on the bid documents?” only to receive blank stares; probably most of us have! Does this mean that we have a room of illiterate persons? Maybe! Most likely though, these folks would rather listen (ala-television) than read countless pages of dull, unimaginative, repetitive, and risk transferring language.
Okay, so we have identified perception and interpretation problems and analyzed their apparent reasons. So what you say! We have successfully navigated all those millions of so-called unique persons and have our three responses. Job well done! Fait accompli! Pat yourself on the back Mr. or Ms. Professional Procurement Person; but consider this, how many potential bidders did you disenfranchise by avoiding innovative ways of communicating to them. What is wrong with expanding our audience? Isn’t that one of the unstated goals; to expand the vendor base? Within that expansion we know that not everyone interprets data the same way. Is it our mission then to cater to every permutation of character, understanding and knowledge? Certainly not but, we can recognize trends within our sphere of influence and move to address them in a proactive manner. As an example, here in Atlanta we have fast growing Hispanic, Southeast Asian, Indian, Arabic and Asian communities. We must move forward to understand the manner in which information is interpreted, how social norms and customs affect bid responses, how business models can be tweaked and create new management objectives for the solicitation processes, encouragement of participation and initial as well as ongoing communication outreach.
It has been documented that people fear losing their identity when they have to address diversity in the realm they inhabit. There is an unspoken fear that by allowing diversity somehow we lose control of our uniqueness. In reality however, I find this to be the complete opposite. By embracing the millions of persons we will never meet, we are enhancing the respect, admiration and tolerance of thousands which we do directly affect. This influence which we can impart through our focused actions will yield amazing growth results possibly even beyond the ability of us to comprehend the final number affected. This is exactly where we as procurement professionals should be! Excitingly, we should embrace our ability to reach beyond the standard expectations to levels of uniqueness not ever imagined. This is important because the world, our world, is getting smaller in “virtual proximity and concept” but larger in the reality of tangible and everyday diversity. We can start by promoting a stated desire to embrace diversity in how we present procurement opportunities. This should lead to greater levels of understanding of the benefits we receive from expanding the base. A proven method when we Understand and accept that civilization only evolves through the sharing of ideas which will only happen when we are better able to communicate.
In closing I leave you with this, Marco Polo was said to have brought back from ancient China wonders such as pasta and fireworks and, if it wasn’t for the Spanish Conquistadors the world may never have embraced café or potatoes. Where would we be without our spaghetti, 4th of July fireworks, java and spuds! Let’s start with that compelling thought and move toward embracing more diversity rather than living within generalizations and obligations to the status quo. After all, it will be for all the populations' benefit….
Rey Palma
Atlanta, 11/21/13