1) The author initially thought she would be comfortable discussing diversity and inclusion as a recruiter and manager who has focused on these topics for years, but working with her diverse team provided unexpected lessons. 2) The team experienced conflict from their differing views but were able to compromise and create a project they were all happy with by learning to negotiate, listen to each other, and agree to disagree at times. 3) The author learned that even Christians can discriminate and that diversity and inclusion requires constantly paying attention to less obvious biases, as her views on acceptance were challenged by some classmates' narrow-minded comments.

1. Sandra Olivarez
Identifying Diversity of Thought
Diversity in Organizations
October 20, 2014
Identifying Diversity of Thought
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts
form one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12) This bible
verse was one of those I revisited frequently throughout this project.
The picture below, found on www.picstopin.com, is the background for
a diversity and respect of thought belief orientation. In many ways
this could be considered the inclusion tree of life. Beautiful.
Introduction
As a recruiter and
manager in an
extremely large
organization who has
been focused on
different aspects of
diversity and inclusion
for years, I felt that I
would be fairly
comfortable discussing
this topic in class. What
I learned as our project
began to take shape
surprised me. I began
to realize that my
personal contributions
to this team were to be
very important. Our
team dynamic is
somewhat unique as we
have commonalities, but also very different beliefs and life
experiences. What surprised me the most though, was the conflict we
experienced initially as we came together with very different points of

2. view. We also experienced our fair share of conflict, which I will admit
was unexpected. Nonetheless, we were able to come together and
settle on an outcome for our project, which I believe we are all happy
with, and support. I am amazed at the key learning’s I have had in
working with this specific team. I have learned so much about each of
my teammates belief systems and what drives each of us individually.
I have purposely left out the names of my teammates as to not
negatively label either of them for what may simply be differing
beliefs. This was an eye opening experience for me.
Personal Contribution
Initially, I assumed that my personal contributions would be centered
more so around particular technical skillsets I have acquired in
organization and with PowerPoint. I presumed that my work
experience as a manager and also a recruiter in the human resource
field would be an advantage too. Surprisingly, although those skillsets
did heavily contribute to the structure and mechanics of our project,
they were not the most important impactful. My ability to get along
with almost anyone and embrace our differences really made an
impact, but something more was needed here. I found myself faced
with hearing comments about certain types of people that did not sit
well with my heart.
I have had the blessing of being exposed to and living amongst many
different cultures and lifestyles in my years as a military dependent. I
am also a member of a church that is very loving and accepting of all
God’s children. We believe that all means ALL! As I found myself
sitting and listening to crude comments being made about sexual
orientation, I felt disgusted and disappointed. How could people I have
grown to know and love over the past year really feel this way? Then it
started to settle in, how painful it must be for those that I know who
would be hurt to hear these words being said about them by people
who do not know anything about them as individuals. I realized that
as a Christian put into this position, it is my responsibility to speak up
for love and acceptance. When questioned about how I could think it
was ok to love and accept, I would respond with how could I not?
Remember… in all things, love. When I think about how Jesus loved
everyone, and included all walks of life, I feel empowered to also stand
up and speak of the same love. Maybe this is my real, meaningful
contribution to this inclusion project, to offer another Christian

3. perspective, that maybe, just maybe one individual might be
enlightened or feel the urge to open their hearts and minds to
acceptance.
Team Dynamic
Our team dynamic is unique. The three of us are obviously all
students attending John Brown University working towards a degree in
Organizational Management. We all have careers. We are all parents.
We are also all Christians, and our faith is an important part of our
lives. Our differences are vast though. Each of us is in different
stages of our careers, working for uniquely sized organizations. We
differ in age. We have had very different life experiences and thus
process things quite uniquely. The other two members of my group
are introverts in most situations and do not often speak up in a
conversation unless asked a question directly. I, myself, tend to be
more of an extrovert and speak my mind freely – maybe sometimes
too freely. I like to challenge things that do not seem to be as they
should.
In our first initial group meeting, we dug into the project outline and
decided fairly quickly that ‘Work and Family’ was a topic we all felt
comfortable with. We decided that we should attack this project by
delegating tasks to those with strengths noticed from previous
presentation experiences. I noted that one of my teammates was very
thorough at researching and she agreed that the first sections would
be a great fit. A third teammate pointed out that since I am in human
resources and am somewhat familiar with the legislation that
surrounds our topic, that may be a good fit for me, I agreed. I told
him that he has done a really fantastic job in past presentations with
presenting a rollout plan and he said that was what he was thinking he
would like to do. Splitting up the main points seemed to go rather
smoothly. I was asked by both teammates to handle pulling together
our PowerPoint presentation, which I had planned to volunteer for
anyway. We all agreed that in the next week we should read the
material in our textbook on the subject we selected. We were well on
our way.
Conflict and Resolution
We had more conflict then I imagined we would encounter going into

4. this project. I personally had a family member who had to undergo
three major surgeries in less than a week. I ended up flying out of
state to assist in the recovery. During that same week, we had a
death in our family. I was not only out of town, but clearly having a
hard time focusing on all that was on my plate.
We were forced to utilize technology as a means to connect a few
times while working on this project. We tried Skype, texting, email,
and conference calls. This is something I do every single day in my
own work environment, as all of my business partners are scattered
across the country, but this was all new to my teammates. We
encountered some major communication barriers in trying to
communicate and listen. Apparently I am not the best communicator
when I am stressed and tired, but then again, who is.
I found it becoming increasingly challenging to relay my ideas for our
project to my teammates who are not as submerged in telecommuting
as I am in my role at work. I quickly realized that we all have very
different communication styles. This is also something that I
sometimes encounter in my line of work. Occasionally at work I will
run into that one individual who just can’t seem to say what needs to
be said in an email and has to call or try to meet me in person. In our
experience, part of the time I was out of state, so meeting face-to-face
would not have been an option. We encountered systems being down,
as our school server would not allow us access our email accounts. It
all boiled down to trusting that we could trust each other and push
through the turmoil to deliver a quality presentation.
One of my teammates did a great job of listening to what the other
two of us had to say and relaying what he heard in a way that was
delicate enough to not ruffle any feathers. We found ways to work
together and word portions of our presentation that were sensitive to
all of our ideas and beliefs, yet still inclusive. We had to learn to
compromise for the greater good.
Key Learning
I will be the first to admit that I did not think I had much to learn
about diversity and inclusion when this class commenced. I thought
our project would go quite smoothly. I mean, how could it not? That
was when I realized that by being paired up with individuals whose

5. beliefs, viewpoints and personalities were least alike, WE had become
the real lesson. Not all people, Christians included, are as open-
minded or accepting as I wish we all would be. I have learned that
even Christians can discriminate. Even though I have been in class
with my cohort all year long, I have learned more about the core
beliefs of these individuals within the confines of this class in the last
five weeks than I ever could have imagined. I have always thought of
diversity and inclusion as a way to bring us all together and celebrate
our differences by accepting the beauty in those differences. I was
taken aback to hear some of the very narrow-minded comments made
by a few of my classmates that I had previously viewed as being fairly
open-minded and accepting.
I had to learn to negotiate when I needed to speak up and voice my
opinion and views, but also when I needed to sit back and listen. Part
of the learning curve for working in diverse groups after all is
conveying when someone says something that is or borders being
offensive. It is basically an ongoing learning process. I had to take a
step back and learn how to discuss sensitive topics in a way that did
not make my more conservative teammates feel that I may be
pushing my own views or judging them. In some cases we had to
learn to agree to disagree.
Conclusion
Diversity and Inclusion is not a one-time check the box kind of activity.
It is rather an all day, every day way of living. As we become more
comfortable with diversity and inclusion, our focus evolves and shifts
from the obvious to the less obvious. Although I felt my exposure in
most of my life experiences had qualified me to be fairly confident in
the diversity and inclusion arena, I have learned that it is something
we need to always pay attention to. Surprisingly, I learned quite a bit
about myself. I also spent some time acquiring knowledge of how to
deal with individuals who may not be as comfortable with certain areas
of diversity. I realize now that my personal contributions to this team
were important, but equally as much were the contributions of my
team. Our team dynamic in the end was strengthened by our diversity
of thought. In the end, we were able to collaborate and pull together
an inclusion initiative project that I believe we are all proud of and
would support in real life. I am truly amazed at the key learning I
have experienced in working with this specific diverse team.